Should Marijuana be Legalized for Medical Purposes?

Marijuana has been used extensively as a medical remedy for more than five thousand years. In the early 1900s, medical usage of marijuana began to decline with the advent of alternative drugs. Injectable opiates and synthetic drugs such as aspirin and barbiturates began to replace marijuana as the physician's drug of choice in the twentieth-century, as their results proved to be more consistent than the sometimes erratic effects of the hard-to-dose potencies of marijuana (Grinspoon). The Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 made cannabis so expensive to obtain that its usage as a medical remedy in the U.S. came to a halt. Although now illegal in the U.S., marijuana continues to be used …show more content…

Statements issued by these organizations express concern over the harmful effects of the drugs and over the lack of solid research demonstrating that they might do more good than harm" (Claim V). However, in reading the DEA's clam, one must keep in mind that "drugs" (as they use it) includes both marijuana and heroin, and therefore may be partially invalid when applied to the central marijuana debate. By using the word "they", the DEA groups marijuana with more dangerous drugs. It should also be recognized that the DEA has an obvious bias against legalizing drugs; if all drugs were legal, who would continue to pay their salaries? Doctors and the DEA, however, are not the only ones with opinions about marijuana's medical re-legalization. Mike Dooley, a member of the National
Organization to Reform Marijuana Laws (NORML), made news when he recommended that Elvy Musikka, a patient legally supplied with marijuana from the U.S. government, spoke to an "Experimental Living" class at Western Michigan
University: "Elvy Musikkia, a professional speaker, has glaucoma and take marijuana as part of her treatment for the eye disease. Glaucoma patients smoke marijuana cigarettes because it relieves the eye pressure that leads to blindness" (Kemp). However, Dooley supports more than the medical legalization of marijuana. "Dooley says using marijuana for medical purposes is just one use of the plant, but people need to recognize that it