Free What Are The Benefits And Hazards Of Medical Marijuana Research Paper Example

What are the benefits and hazards of medical marijuana?

The use of cannabis or marijuana for medical purposes causes a great number of controversies in contemporary community. Since ancient times this plant has been praised for its pain-suppressing properties in China, India and Egypt, being still utilized even in contemporary pharmacology. The medications like Dronabinol (Marinol®), Nabilone (Cesamet®), Sativex®, Epidiolex™ are based on cannabinoids (Drugabuse.gov).
However, it is possible to state that marijuana is an extremely dangerous plant as diminishing of harm, caused by its daily use as well as its psychotropic effect on human brain, may result in different problems in the future. That is why, it is considered illegal drug in a number of countries and its use even for medical purposes is restricted.
It is remarkable, that the major part of people supposes that it is either a soft drug unworthy of the attention or a drug we should do away with completely. Nowadays we can see mostly damaging power of marijuana, finding the drug in the pockets of the young people, who serenely revel in the narcotic distortion of reality that this drug causes. However, the history tells that marijuana used to be quite helpful in medicine, as a lot of drugs, in fact. It has been used throughout the world medically, recreationally, and spiritually (Bostwick, 2012).
Apart from the evident positive results in healing nausea, cancer pain and child epilepsy it is perfectly safe to say that this herb has some serious pitfalls as well. One may say that list of its concerns on safety «consists of retrogression of short-term memory, mood effects, changed judgment and decision-making. It is also possible to say in addition to that list it is important to include such post effects as paranoia (or severe anxiety), and even such serious effects as loss of touch with reality or psychosis, in particular resulting in high-dose exposures (Drugabuse.gov).
Furthermore, it is essential to mention that there are substantial risks to become addicted to cannabis. Statistic shows that almost 10% of people who try marijuana become addicted to it, approximately 15% of people who start smoking as the teenagers and almost half of daily consumers.
It is essential to state that in the second half of the 20th century, the popularization smoking this herb started due to the fact that such cultures as Reggie and Hippy appeared. From that time, the usage of marijuana has been quite stable, however, the latest survey by University of Michigan shows us that more than half of high school seniors consume cannabis every day, and less than a half knows the dangers of marijuana usage. (Ns.umich.edu).
This might show that the cases of marijuana abusive usage will rise in the nearest future. It is possible to say that there is another scaring fact is that usage of marijuana could be a beginning of consuming hard drugs which presumably will lead to miserable life. One may say that the majority of people who decided to smoke cannabis are just curious, they want to get some rush of adrenalin or to cure them from the depression, or just not to stand out from the crowd or in order to get some fun. That is why, it is possible to assume that their organisms would quickly get used to the drug and later, it would require higher and bigger portion of the herb to get the same result and keep producing the same effect.
The legislation in different countries of the world gives the drug dealers room for air. Marijuana purchase or possession is most tolerated in Netherlands, where it remains a legal prescription drug since 2003. In Ireland, on the contrary, cannabis is believed not to have any medical benefits and is listed in the Misuse of Drugs Acts of 1977 and 1984.
Australian politicians originally voted to allow doctors to legally prescribe marijuana to the patients with life-long diseases but the legislative action was reversed under pressure, while in Belgium the trials have been recently initiated to research the effectiveness of cannabis for medical purposes, which may soon lead to legalization of small amounts possession.
As for Canada, their citizens cannot be prosecuted for using it for pain relief because the Canada`s Marijuana Medical Access Regulations provide them with the right to do so, at the same time, not specifying any legal way to obtain it (Disabled World).
Marijuana is not a completely harmless herb. It is a very powerful drug with a diversity of post effects. However, despite the harms associated with smoking, the adverse results of the cannabis usage are within the range of effects tolerated for other medications. The deleterious effects to persons from the perspective of possible medical usage of marijuana are not always the same as the damaging physical effects of drug abuse.
With the help of studies purporting to show the harmful action of cannabis, it is important to keep in mind that the vast number of those researches is related to the smoking marijuana, and cannabinoid effects cannot be separated from the effects of inhaling smoke from burning plant material and contaminants.
As it stated before, there are some hazards for the health of a person, who use marijuana, like damage for lungs, even though it is not proven yet, but the process is irritating for lungs, and it’s easy to have cough and problems, like infections and chest colds, increasing of your heart rate, that is why it is possible to catch a heart attack after smoking it, and some different things, like vertigo, red eyes and slowed reaction. Cannabis can relax you and make you happy, but you also risk feeling paranoia, depression and anxiety because of it. The final argument is that marijuana can be addictive.
Almost 10% of people who use marijuana are dependent to it (Marlatt and VandenBos, 1997), this number grows to 17% of those who start using cannabis being teens and to 25-50% if you smoke marijuana daily (Korsmeyer and Kranzler, 2009). There are a little difference in the power of psychoactive effects of marijuana you are able to buy on streets and dispensaries.
So far one can see that the use of medical cannabis has both advantages and disadvantages. The aim of this paper is to show that it should be utilized for medical purposes only to treat heavy diseases and relief patients from pain. Marijuana is as dangerous as morphine or heroin, with the latter being employed in pharmaceutics as well, and needs a proper control. Therefore, it is a task for government, agencies, public organizations along with the education establishments to join their efforts in explaining people the consequences of its abuse and raising a healthy and mind-strong nation.
I have to say, that when the pain is insufferable, marijuana, together with morphine and other analgesic drugs, can become a real relief. But official statistics of medical marijuana users — let’s take Colorado as an example — shows, that the percentage of those, who have cancer in the whole amount of medical marijuana’s users, is about 3% (3,870 from 283,587), and there are 93% of those, who have severe pains and use it (Colorado.gov, 2015).
Despite its illegality, marijuana became famous. Unfortunately, people like its narcotic nature more than the medical advantages. Federal law has also negative attitude to it and limits almost any research. As usual there are different sides of the same coin: you cannot have one without another. The full legalization of marijuana will lead to the impetuous growth of it, but if the government hampers the researches, marijuana may not to show all its properties. I suppose that the positive characteristics of marijuana may help even in the future, because natural medicines are still utilized. All that we need in a situation with a controversial issue is to know the measures and the time.
After all, the mankind settled many questions seemed to be unsolvable. Therefore, I am sure that the number of wrong prescriptions of the medical marijuana is quite high, and it would be more rightly to prescribe it only if a person feels severe pain. Medical cannabis is as harmful as non-medical, and this fact should be kept in minds of doctors, patients and authorities.

Work Cited

Bostwick, J. (2012). Blurred Boundaries: The Therapeutics and Politics of Medical Marijuana. Mayo Clinic Proceedings, 87(2), 172-186. doi:10.1016/j.mayocp.2011.10.003
Drugabuse.gov,. 'Home'. N.p., 2015. Web. 25 Mar. 2015.
Disabled World,. 'Medical Marijuana: Legalities & Health Condition Uses'. N.p., 2015. Web. 25 Mar. 2015.
Korsmeyer, Pamela, and Henry R Kranzler. Encyclopedia Of Drugs, Alcohol & Addictive Behavior. Detroit, Mich.: Macmillan Reference USA, 2009.
Marlatt, G. Alan, and Gary R VandenBos.Addictive Behaviors. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, 1997.
Ns.umich.edu,. 'Use Of Alcohol, Cigarettes, Number Of Illicit Drugs Declines Among U.S. Teens | University Of Michigan News'. N.p., 2014. Web. 25 Mar. 2015.