Weed Control? (Legalize Marijuana?)

Weed Control? (Legalize Marijuana?)

Weed Control















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First Period English 10 Honors
August 23, 1998
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English 10 Honors
August 23, 1998


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Marijuana is the focus of more debate today than any other drug.   This conflict has recently intensified due to propositions passed in Arizona and California that allow the medical use of marijuana to treat serious illnesses.   Recent public opinion polls have shown that 70 percent or more of Americans support the legal use of marijuana in the treatment of serious diseases (Brazaitis C1+).   Many people have tried marijuana and found that reduces their ailments without excessive detrimental side-effects.   Therefore, due to its medical uses and limited serious side-effects, marijuana should be legalized for medical use in the United States.
Marijuana has many beneficial medical uses.   Of its many medical applications the most common medical use for marijuana is as an appetite stimulant and as a control for nausea.   The symptoms of chemotherapy are reduced by marijuana.   In fact, Marinol, the commercial name for synthetic THC, was approved to relieve nausea and vomiting in chemotherapy patients.   Also, marijuana proper was proven to be effective in the prevention of nausea for chemotherapy patients.   Fourty-four percent of oncologists suggested the use of marijuana to control nausea for their chemotherapy patients in a 1990 survey (Grinspoon 1875-76).
The antinausea quality of marijuana also aids in the treatment of those with AIDS or HIV.   It helps to alleviate the loss of appetite and vomiting caused by the AIDS wasting syndrome.   Moreover, protease inhibitors, new antiviral
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drugs used in AIDS treatment, cause extreme nausea that marijuana helps to control (Fackelmann 15-18).   ?Thousands of patients with cancer, AIDS, and other diseases report they have obtained striking relief from these devastating...