Marijuana For Medicinal Purposes

Title	Marijuana For Medicinal Purposes
# of Words	1392
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	5.57

Marijuana for Medicinal Purposes

Marijuana for Medicinal Purposes

     In 1936 when Marijuana was made illegal it was considered a medicine in
good standing with the American Medical Association. At the time Marijuana could
be found in twenty eight different medical products and countless other consumer
products. On November 5th, 1996 California and Arizona passed propositions
allowing the return of medicinal Marijuana use.
     The campaign in 1936 to make Marijuana an illegal substance was
championed by two large companies, Dupont Chemicals and Hearst Newspapers, that
gained financially by having Marijuana banned.  For Hearst Newspapers it was to
protect the investment that they had just made buying a large amount of paper
trees.   Marijuana can produce about 4 times the amount of paper  per acre than
trees, and twice as many fibers per acre than cotton. (Hempnet 1)  Hearst was
well aware of this and moved to ban Marijuana. Marijuana costs little to grow
and can be made into cloth, canvas, and other high quality textiles.  The use of
Marijuana for textile production would have seriously hurt Dupont who had
invested heavily in both paper production and the use of cotton.  In 1936 Dupont
joined Hearst and using scare tactics and effective lobbying were able to ban
the growth, sale, and use of Marijuana.
     Besides denying the public of the use of Marijuana as a textile, food
source, and alternative energy source, these large companies selfishly robbed
many sick people of a drug that can help them.  Marijuana can be used to combat
glaucoma, epilepsy, Multiple Sclerosis, back pain, asthma, rheumatism, arthritis,
migraines, emphysema, cystic fibrosis, and promotes appetite in some cancer and
AIDS patients. Drugs like morphine, valium, lithium, and codeine are regularly
given to patients and are far more addictive, having many more negative affects
than Marijuana.  Marijuana "has little effect on major physiological functions.
There is no known case of a lethal overdose; on the basis of animal models, the
ratio of lethal to effective dose is estimated at 40,000 to 1." (Bakalar and
Grinspoon 1875)   "Marijuana, like aspirin, a substance known to be unusually
safe and to have enormous potential health benefits. ... In fact in a 1990
survey, 44% of oncologist said they had suggested that a patient smoke marijuana
for relief of nausea induced by chemotherapy." (Bakalar and Grinspoon 1875) And
many times it only takes one or two puffs off a joint to calm the patient and
relieve their nausea and help increase their appetite. (Silverberg 1)
Californian and Arizona voters finally acknowledge the benefits of Marijuana and
acted to change the situation.
     The Federal Drug Enforcement Administration maintains there is no
medical evidence that smoking marijuana has ever helped anyone, but it is
difficult to dismiss the testimony from many seriously ill patients and their
doctors that marijuana can ease pain, reduce the nausea associated with cancer
chemotherapy, stimulate the appetites of AIDS patients who are wasting away, and
lower the pressure within the eyes of glaucoma victims. " The traditional use of
Cannabis as an analgesic, anti-asthmatic, and anti-rheumatic drug is well
established. A British study also suggests that cultivation of Cannabis plants
rich in Cannabidiol (CBD) and other phenolic substances would be useful not only
as fiber producing plants but also for medicinal purposes in the treatment of
certain inflammatory disorders. CBD was found to be more effective than aspirin
as an anti-inflammatory agent."  (Evans 361-371)  The Food and Drug
Administration has approved a synthetic version of THC, a main ingredient of
marijuana, that can help in such cases, but many patients complain that it is a
poor substitute and is much more expensive. The alternative choices to smoking
marijuana, and there are a couple, but mainly  pills are what's   on the market;
they are suppose to have the same therapeutic effects that so many suffering
patients say they feel when they smoke marijuana. The leading capsule  on the
market is Drona...

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