Benefits of Dea Ending Raid on Medical Marijuana Dispensaries - Research Paper Example

This is because I find it unnecessary:-
 Spending taxpayer's money raiding medical doctors is a dispensary in California.
 Luck of respect for doctors giving marijuana specification as a medicine.
 Government if legally register this dispensary will earn tax revenue from them
 Treatment of nausea, loss of appetite.
 Neurological and movement disorders.
 Appetite stimulation/ Antiseptic (MPP, 2010)

Marijuana has been used for a long period of time for its medicinal value. This is why states like Oregon have legally accepted medical marijuana and issued a license for it. Unfortunately, the federal government still treats it as an illegal substance creating a conflict between state and federal government. Marijuana has been found to be medically useful in the following cases:

1. Addressing symptoms of hepatitis C that can be contracted through blood transfusion.
2. Use to reduce pain for very ill and in pain patients (neuropathic pain)(Rose field, 2011).
Obama in his presidential campaign had pledged to end raids on marijuana dispensaries operating within the law and this was fulfilled in October 2009 when his Administration Department of Justice announced the end of such a raid in the state of OREGON. Fortunately, the use of Marijuana for its medicinal value is supported by two bills. On June 11, 2009, Representative Barney Frank introduced the Medical Marijuana Patient Protection Act (H.R.2835) which would permit medical use of Marijuana in the state that permits its use if recommended by the doctor. Representative Sam Farr on October 27, 2009, introduced a bill that will help Medical Marijuana users to defend themselves before the juries in Federal court by proving marijuana use was medically related. It is called the Truth in Trial Act (H.R.3939), (Eddy, 2010).

Around 27 percent of the states of America which is 14 states have enacted laws to allow the use of cannabis for medical purposes. California falls within the 27% and therefore it doesn’t make sense that they raid doctors who are allowed by law to prescribe Marijuana for the sick. Marijuana Control Legalization and Revenue Act failed to rich the ballot early this year after the $ 3million dollars failed to be raised for the legalization campaign. Sadly this means that:

 20000+ will continue to get jailed for marijuana.
 A diversion program for minors will not be put in place.
 Families will continue to get broken
 Low production will continue due to industrial hemp.
 Millions of dollars in revenues meant for safety and education stay in the hands of the black market.
 Medical cannabis clubs will continue being unnecessarily shut.

For example in Colorado State collected revenue of $2 million dollars from Marijuana recreational sales. Therefore if legalized, regulated, and taxed, Marijuana can bring a lot of income to California through license fees, excise fee tax, special Marijuana sale tax, and other regular state sale taxes. This combined with medical Marijuana taxes; Colorado collected $3.5million by January this year.

Fig 1
Source (http://www.backtaxeshelp.com/tax-blog/tax-opinion/marijuana-legalization-us.html)
A report by Steph Sherer-who is the Executive Director of American for Safe Access (ASA)- reported that Obama’s administration is wasteful in spending, unnecessarily spending $180k per day undermining the Medical Marijuana law. In the same report, it is noted that the Department of Justice had engaged in wasteful spending to thwart the successful implementation of the already passed laws. This large amount of money was spent on follow-up and prosecution of unfortunate patients using Medical Marijuana and their providers even in states that had adopted their own law (Tayler, 2008).

The purpose of this document is to show the congress members how much we are missing and the repercussion of our failure to legalize marijuana use. From the figure above, it’s clear that when cannabis is used right, then the federal government which has spent a lot to hinder the implementation of medical Marijuana use will gain through tax savings. Therefore there cannot be an any better time than now to implement the Medical Marijuana policy (Frezza, 2010).

Unfortunately, the result of the research done by bodies like NIDA and FDA insist Marijuana is a SCHEDULE 1 substance with no medical value and has a high potential of being abused, the fact that it has been used for around 200years and a recent review by IOM supported its use in patients experiencing extreme pain hence acknowledged its medicinal value.DEA should therefore stop undermining the public right and stop frustrating patients innocently looking for better health.
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