...Professor Course no Date Marijuana Medicine The term marijuana refers to the components of the hemp plant cannabis sativa after they dry .The use of the whole unprocessed marijuana plant or its extract is what is called marijuana medicine. According to the U.S Food and Drug Administration, this usage is illegal. The usage of some processed extract is legalized by the federal law. These are Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). It is compound of marijuana that increases desire for food and reduces nausea .It also act as an analgesic and an anti-inflammatory drug. The other one is Cannabichromene (CBC) which has the same function in addition of being an antiepileptic drug(Owen, Sutter, and Albertson, 4 ). Marijuana plant has been used for many years as a herbal medicine .In the ancient world marijuana plant was used to treat different ailment .In china it was used to treat menstrual disorder. In Egypt it was used as an antihelmithic drug .There is clear documentation of its use as a herb drug. The argument in the modern medicine is the balance between the benefits of marijuana and the health risk it has to the user(Owen, Sutter, and Albertson). In America, 23 states and Washington Dc has legalized the usage of smoked marijuana in variety of medical conditions. The federal is still clear, that the use of marijuana is illegal. According to the Director National Institute of Drug Abuse, the call for the legalization and the acceptance of usage of marijuana as a recreational drug is evident...
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...SAPP 407- Pharmacology Fall term junior yr. Term Paper Marijuana – Medicine, Menace, or What? There have been many arguments throughout history about whether marijuana is a source of medicine or whether it’s a gateway drug. This question may never truly be solved but there have been valid arguments for both sides. I would like to delve in on the topic by analyzing what the effects of marijuana are, what the positive and negative aspects of the drug are, and whether or not cannabis should be illegal. The first topic I would like to discuss is what the effects of marijuana are when it is used. The article Marijuana in Medicine: Past, Present and Future in the Western Journal of Medicine wrote about an experiment where marijuana was tested on animals. One reason why they found a lot of variability of reactions among the animals tested was because: “different batches of cannabis derivatives vary greatly in strength” (36). They go on to explain “there is a wide variation among humans in their individual responses to cannabis” (36). This brings light to a very important effect of marijuana, which is that it varies in strength from batch to batch. This is important to know when using the drug because it can affect people very differently based on the strength of the drug. Another effect of marijuana discussed by the Western Journal of Medicine is that cannabis “mildly stimulates, and then sedates the higher centers of the brain” (36). The article continues on to say that...
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...CHILD HAS BEEN ADDICTED USING MARIJUANA? TO MARIJUANA? HOW LONG DOES MARIJUANA STAY IN THE USER’S BODY? CAN MARIJUANA AFFECT MY CHILD'S GRADES? WHAT ARE THE EFFECTS OF MARIJUANA? MARIJUANA: FACTS PARENTS NEED TO KNOW Revised WHAT ABOUT EFFECTS ON M AR IJUANA? PREGNANCY? HOW IS MARIJUANA USED? LOSE THEIR MOTIVATION? HOW CAN I PREVENT MY CHILD FROM GETTING INVOLVED WITH WHAT ARE THE LONG-TERM EFFECTS OF MARIJUANA USE? WHAT DOES MARIJUANA DO TO THE BRAIN? CAN MARIJUANA BE USED AS MEDICINE? ARE THERE TREATMENTS TO HELP MARIJUANA USERS? REACTION? HOW MANY PEOPLE SMOKE MARIJUANA? CAN A USER HAVE A BAD OF OTHER DRUGS? LEAD TO THE USE DOES MARIJUANA AFFECT DRIVING? DO MARIJUANA USERS WHAT ARE THE SHORT-TERM EFFECTS OF MARIJUANA USE? HOW DOES MARIJUANA National Institute on Drug Abuse I National Institutes of Health II A Letter to Parents We at the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) are pleased to offer these two short booklets for parents and children to review the scientific facts about marijuana: (1) Marijuana: Facts Parents Need to Know and (2) Marijuana: Facts for Teens. Although it is best to talk about drugs when children are young—since that is when drug use often begins—it is never too late to start the conversation. Marijuana remains the most abused illegal substance among youth. By the time they graduate high school, about 46 percent of U.S. teens will have tried marijuana at least once in their lifetime. Although use among teens dropped dramatically...
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...legRunning Head: Should marijuana be legalized? Should marijuana be legalized? Should marijuana be legalized? There are various reason why people smoke or have smoked marijuana. The reasons may range from extracurricular drug use medicinal uses and anywhere in between. The positive effects medical research states marijuana can assist with cancer patients and terminally ill individuals, but only for pain reduction and appetite increases. In the case of glaucoma the pressure from the eyeballs are reduced by the blood flow changing with the effects of THC. While there may be some positive effects for use of marijuana, the negative effects outweigh positives effects. It is a known fact that marijuana has more tar in the leaf than tobacco accompanied with the mind altering affects of THC in the blood stream are enough to make anyone want to avoid the life altering risks. Marijuana is also know as a gateway drug. Legalizing marijuana would not be as beneficial as some may believe. For those individuals who may still be undecided on whether to support the legalization of marijuana or not, below are a few key points to aid in their decision making. While some suggest the benefits of marijuana outweigh the negative, not enough research has been conducted to determine this. The immediate and long term effect could be substantially dreadful. Some of the immediate effects of marijuana are hallucinations, paranoia, and psychotic episodes. Also, stimulant psychosis may also...
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...You may know the substance marijuana, but you may not know that marijuana can be mixed in food like cookies and it can be brewed in drinks. (The Harmful Effects of Marijuana - Drug Free World.")In the U.S, over 38% of the Americans have consumed marijuana. Until this day fewer young people have used marijuana than in the 1970s and 80s (In U.S., 38% Have Tried Marijuana, Little Changed Since '80s." ), The way marijuana works is when people smoke marijuana THC rapidly passes from the lungs into the bloodstream which carries chemicals to the brain and to the organs throughout the body.("DrugFacts: Marijuana | National Institute on Drug Abuse ..." ) .The effects for men are it will change the structure of sperm cells, deforming them, even a small...
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...and Marijuana Use Intelligent quotient (IQ) tests are used to tell the level of intelligence of the person by asking mathematical and logic questions (Kowalczyk, 2015). There are different intelligence quotients for different age groups which are comparable throughout the different stages of cognitive maturity. A person within one standard deviation of IQ for their age group is considered to have an average IQ score. Heavy marijuana users experienced a loss of IQ points where lighter marijuana users and non-users gained points in a study done comparing users who smoke more than 5 joints per week compared to rare and non-users (Fried, Watkinson, James and Gray, 2002). Marijuana users generally have lower IQ scores compared to age and sex matched non-users of marijuana, because even though more neural connections and dendritic branching is created in the brain during intoxication, usually marijuana's sedentary effects on the user can cause a similar...
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...Bele E Mrs. Martin 8th Period 22 February 2017 Marijuana Marijuana has multiple negative effects on the human’s brain and body. Marijuana might possibly affect a person’s body and mind any time it gets into their system, even if they only use it occasionally. More than one in three people in America have tried marijuana at some point in their lives, that is more than 3.8% of the planet’s population. Sadly, marijuana is the most commonly used illegal drug. There are many things that come along with smoking marijuana, such as risks, and physical effects, as well as mental effects, and none of them are very pleasant sounding. Marijuana is a combination of shredded leaves, stems, and flower buds of the Cannabis sativa plant. Marijuana can be...
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...What does research demonstrate about the effects of marijuana? The Effects Marijuana Has On an Individual Michael Garcia Motlow State Community College Introduction The use of marijuana is a much debated topic in most states. Marijuana has many effects to the human body that many people could agree on. Some effects may be good and some may be bad. Researches have come up with a conclusion on the effects it has towards the human body. For example, it helps with nausea and vomiting for people who are have chemo therapy. It is hard to determine all of the symptoms for using marijuana, since it is illegal in most states in the United States. In the view of a nursing student, she believes that people don’t have enough proof and facts about what happens to the body once it consumes marijuana. Either way she thinks they are some side effects in consuming marijuana like Hypertension, coughing, fast heart beats, and many more in consuming marijuana like Hypertension, coughing, fast heart beats, and many more. Dr. Michael Schwartz is testing and trying to figure out most of the effects marijuana does to the body. Review of Literature Colorado legalized the use of medical marijuana in the year 2000 (Scriber 1). This allowed people with serious illnesses and that are close to death. The people who have this benefit have to go through a physician approval. In the article Marijuana legalization in Colorado: a nursing student’s perspective, Kelly C. Scriber mentioned that...
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...Should medical marijuana be legalized nationwide? Team A BCOM/275 October 9, 2011 UoP Instructor Should medical marijuana be legalized nationwide? The use of marijuana for the treatment of patients with serious health conditions is currently one of the top contentious debate topics in the United States. Until its prohibition in 1937, marijuana was one the top three most prescribed medicines in the United States. To date, 13 states have statutory laws legalizing medical marijuana; however, it is not legal at the federal level. Several pros and cons exist to support whether medical marijuana should be or not be legalized nationwide. The primary arguments in debating the pros and cons of legalizing medical marijuana nationwide focus primarily on medical benefits, disease prevention, medical risk, substance abuse, and legal issues. Many scientific professionals and patients claim medical marijuana provides some sort of medical benefits. Although it has been a contentious battle between the states and federal governments to legalize or not medical marijuana nationwide, there are three important points to take under consideration; first, marijuana is a potent analgesic in patients with chronic pain. Second, it is a strong anti-emetic for patients receiving cancer chemotherapy treatment. Third and most important, medical marijuana should be legal, so patients do not have to break the law to receive treatment. Across the nation state organizations...
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...of Medical Marijuana Since as early as 2900 BC, marijuana has been previously known as a medicine. It was not until the 1900s when the illegalization of the hemp plant began. Starting in 1911, when Massachusetts became the first state to illegalize marijuana, other states followed between 1915 and 1927. Eventually, a campaign against marijuana ran by Harry J. Anslinger lead to the federal government outlawing marijuana completely. However, the 1990s began a new outlook on medical marijuana when cannabinoid receptors and endocannabinoids were discovered. These discoveries lead to the first state in the United States, California, to legalize medical marijuana for patients with serious illness in 1996. Since then, eighteen other states in the U.S have legalized medical marijuana as well. Individuals all across the U.S. remain skeptical of this drug, and the question remains, do the factors give a reason to legalize it or not? Medical marijuana, a growing controversial topic in the United States, has both advantages and disadvantages concerning its medical use, medical effects, and legalities. Medical marijuana contains tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) which reacts with cannabinoid receptors activating protection of over-activations or over-inhibitions of neurotransmitters. A study in 1999 by The Institute of Medicine found that THC produces dose-related analgesia that out-lasts codeine. In result, medical marijuana has shown to be effective for patients who use it. The uses of medical...
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...Marijuana is a recreational drug that has been around the United States for quite some time now. This drug is popular amongst people of all ages and is often sold illegally to the masses of the people of the United States. As of now, marijuana is illegal in almost every state in the United States. Some states such as Alaska, Colorado, California, and Nevada have taken a proactive step by legalizing marijuana (Goggin). While other states aren’t as proactive and still upholds certain laws that makes marijuana illegal. To some people marijuana should be legalized across the United States. In their opinion, the drug has a positive effect on the life of its users. Some of those positive effects include improved lung health and it can be used to...
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...America perceive marijuana and people who use marijuana as something so horrible because of the way that the government portrays it, but most of those people who think this way fail to know the truth about marijuana. The fact of the matter is that the “dangers” of marijuana are over exaggerated and its classification is way out of proportion. Views about the use of cannabis have evolved over the decades. Cannabis has been around for centuries and legally used and distributed as a natural resource until it began to gain restrictions and regulations in the late 1800s and early 1900s soon leading to the illegalization of it in the 1930s with the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 (Guither). In the eyes of many people, the reasons for the illegalization of growing and distributing the hemp plant are untrue or over exaggerated, and this paper will address why marijuana should be legalized in America. The reasons for why the government should take the action of legalizing the use of marijuana, or cannabis, are endless, but this paper focuses on the facts that cannabis has a multitude of known, positive uses, that legalizing it will take thousands and thousands of good people out of prisons, and that legalizing the use of marijuana could actually have economically positive effects on the country. Marijuana has been around long before it was known as a recreational drug in the early 1900s. The known uses of the hemp plant go back to as early as 7000 B.C. The earliest known uses were to make woven...
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...The Use of Marijuana in Terminally Ill Patients In recent years, the medical field has witnessed major changes in methods of treatment with the most common being complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). CAM refers to treatment methods that do not use conventional medicine. With time, the medical field is increasing research to establish the safety and efficiency of alternative medicine even though knowledge of CAM is still limited. Nonetheless, there is a difference between complementary medicine and alternative medicine. While complementary medicine refers to the conventional use of curative practices and products together with traditional medicine for instance a cancer patient undergoing chemotherapy using marijuana to alleviate the effects of chemotherapy. On the other hand alternative medicine acts as a substitute of conventional therapy for example a cancer patient foregoing therapy and opts for dietary changes. CAM is on the verge of increase with the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) reporting that up to 40% of adults 12% uses some form of CAM (Barnes, Bloom, Nahin, (US) & others, 2008). As opposed to traditional medical treatments that are comprehensively tested and vigilantly regulated professional bodies such as Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the majority CAM therapies have undergone exceptionally modest scientific study if any to assess their safety and effectiveness. One of the most common forms of CAM being used today is...
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...Should Marijuana Be Legalized? In society today, many people look for a feeling of freedom. Many people go on vacation and spend money. The most common escape for people is drugs. Our American society is facing a tremendous drug problem. In order to eradicate the drug problem, a public debate is going on to find some solutions to this drug dilemma. It has become a highly controversial issue whether drugs such as marijuana should be legalized or not. Some people advocate this issue and believe that legalization is the only solution left for the nation while others oppose because it will increase the number of drug users and drug related crimes. Marijuana is a drug that is illegal in the United States. This drug as you know is bad and causes severe side effects to your brain and body. Scientist have found that smoking marijuana can cause you to loose your memory. Marijuana has many psychological and physical effects. People usually smoke marijuana in cigarettes or pipes, but it also can be mixed with food and beverages. Short-term effects of marijuana include both psychological and physical reactions. These reactions usually last for three to five hours after a person has smoked marijuana. The psychological reaction, known as a high consists of changes in the user´s feelings and thoughts. Such changes are caused mainly by THC. The effects of a marijuana high vary from person to person and from one time to another in the same individual. In most cases, the high consists of a...
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...Health Organization. (Medical Marijuana Mall USA, 2013). Medical marijuana is safer than prescription drugs, alcohol, and spice. Marijuana is more beneficial to use than prescription drugs because of the lack of serious side effects. The most common side effects of marijuana are coughing, wheezing, and bronchitis. These side effects are easily taken care of by using a vaporizer or preparing foods with marijuana. Marijuana is less dependable than prescription medication such as pain killers. Prescription medications are now killing more people in the United States than illegal street drugs. Even more importantly the consumption of marijuana cannot result in a fatal overdose. (Medical Marijuana Mall USA, 2013). Someone can’t even take a Tylenol or Aspirin without there being serious side effects to the liver and other organs in the body. Medical marijuana is not lethal, prescription and even non-prescription pills, powders, liquids, and injections are. (Medical Marijuana Project, 2012). A CBS news editorial by Dr. Mitch Earleywine mentions that medical marijuana can be marked cheaper to use than certain prescription drugs. This is especially relevant to patients in chronic pain who do not have medical insurance and need to pay out of pocket to see a doctor for a basic pain killer prescription. While THC, an active ingredient of marijuana, is available and viewed as legal, the FDA approved prescription drug Marinol, medical marijuana is substantially cheaper than...
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