In another case, which involved 40,000 people in the medical marijuana access program and the federal court of Canada, who had certified a class-action lawsuit. This case took place in 2013, when Health Canada sent out envelops to 40,000 people who were part of the Marihuana Medical Access Program, which also had their name on the envelope as well as the program title, before this incident, letters never including the word marijuana in the title. This caused an uproar from the recipients of these letters, claiming that their privacy had been invaded and violated, they had also worried about losing their jobs or become victims of home invasions (CBC News 2015). Although the Office of Privacy Commissioner had ruled that Health Canada had violated …show more content…
The FDA has approved marijuana of having the ability to reduce the symptoms of nausea especially in cancer patients who are undergoing chemotherapy and do not respond to other means of anti-nausea medicines (Gorman 1997). Along with aiding in nausea in patients, it also stimulated an appetite with patients who had AIDS. A key point to medical marijuana is that throughout the history of its use, it has never been documented that there is a lethal overdose effect of it, unlike other traditional medicines and treatments we use today such as chemotherapy. Reports on marijuana use in the 1970’s and 80’s stated that patients who used it had immediate effects of decreased nausea and vomiting from chemotherapy, as well as AIDS patients having increased appetite. Not only did these effects take place with marijuana use, but patients had also reported that their quality of life had also been improved thanks to medical marijuana, that being, they were able to cope better with the situation emotionally. However it is important to note that it is not the THC that researchers found to be providing the benefits but in fact a variety of cannabinoids that has the therapeutic effect (Gorman 1997). For one lady, from California, Angel McClary Raich, using medical marijuana, by smoking, inhaling vapor, using it as oil or adding it to food and eating it, allows her to alleviate chronic pain, gives her an appetite preventing her from becoming emaciated, due to an illness called “wasting syndrome”, which can lead to death (Okie 2005). As we can see the medicinal benefits of marijuana are great, not only does it help people with crippling illnesses feel better and have a better quality of life, by relieving nausea, chronic pain and stimulating appetites but it prolongs lives, in a sense saves lives. This