Legalization of Marijuana - Essay Example

This is applicable to marijuana too. It is often shunned as an intoxicating drug that people often abuse. However, there is an overshadowed side to this drug, which gives reason for its legalization as a medical substance. If people recognized marijuana for its numerous beneficial uses for patients of glaucoma, cancer, aids, and multiple sclerosis, they would realize that these provide substantial ground for the legalization of marijuana. One use of marijuana, which greatly justifies its use as a medical substance, is its use for glaucoma patients (Klein, pp. 19-27). Glaucoma is a disease in which the patient experiences elevated ‘intraocular’ pressure in the eye, which often causes nerve damage, which slowly blinds the patient.

Marijuana contains an active ingredient, THC, which helps reduce this pressure. This does not mean that marijuana cures the disease, but it helps delay the onset of the worst of its symptoms, which include vision impairment and blindness (Jacob, pp. 75-120). Experts often criticize this use of marijuana, saying that it is not worth the risk of using such an intoxicating and psychoactive substance for glaucoma patients when it does not even cure their condition. . 1-3). The University of California has published several findings about this use for marijuana, which effectively alleviates the extreme pain that these diseases cause a task, which other painkillers are often ineffective at doing (Doheny, pp. 22-30). This is especially relevant for patients suffering from the final stages of cancer, where cure is not possible, and their pain is at its worst.

The only thing that anyone can do for the dying patient at this point is to ease his or her suffering. Given marijuana’s effectiveness in alleviating such pain, the authorities should consider legalizing such a medical use of the substance. The argument of the side effects of marijuana, such as addictiveness or intoxication is irrelevant in this case, since the patient would not be any worse off due to such side effects, given their condition. For other cases, such as patients in pain due to AIDS, spinal cord injuries and multiple sclerosis, the patients are often helpless in pain and thus if marijuana helps alleviate their pain, this greatly outweighs the negative side effects it might have on them (Jacob, pp. 75-120). These reasons provide further ground for the legalization of marijuana despite it negative characteristics.

Another use that justifies the use of marijuana is a slightly less favored one. It springs from a side effect which marijuana has, which is that it increases the appetite of the person who smokes it (Farrow, Rees & Worrington-Roberts, pp. 79:218). This characteristic is, however, a useful find for people suffering from HIV. These patients suffer from extreme weight loss due to their condition, a symptom known as ‘wasting’. This includes a loss of appetite, which is followed by the deterioration of the