Each day the medical field is evolving and creating new means of sustaining life by way of medications and treatments to chronically ill patients. Adapting treatments and medications to new medical discoveries is common in medical testing. Many treatments for life-threatening and chronic illnesses have wretched side effects such as nausea, depression, and loss of appetite – these severe side effects are forcing many patients to make the choice to refuse current treatment methods or medications that would otherwise extend or save their lives. Recent discoveries have shown that using marijuana as form of treatment for chronic illnesses such as HIV/AIDs, cancer, fibromyalgia, and multiple sclerosis, has shown to have justifiable healing and sedative reprieve without otherwise having to suffer the nasty side effects that other treatments have to offer. Current legalization forces patients with chronic and life-threatening illness to either suffer horrendous medicinal side effects from treatment and illness, or break the law by self-medicating by way of marijuana. Medical marijuana should be legalized for the chronically ill as an alternative treatment method to painful and horrid side effects of current treatment methods that are in place.

Marijuana originates from the dried parts of the Cannabis Sativa or hemp plant and is known by hundreds of street names such as pot, weed, and grass. The hemp plant has existed for thousands of years with archaeologists discovering hemp fibers that date back as far as 400 BCE (Henningfield, 2008). Marijuana used for recreation is used primary for its hallucinogen effects, whereas used for medicinal purposes it has been known to alleviate nausea, increase appetite, and decrease chronic pain. The effects of marijuana through inhalation or ingestion can be attributed to delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinal, or THC (Henningfield, 2008). The strength of marijuana is determined by the amount of THC that is present in the drug – the more THC the marijuana has, the higher the potency. Once imbibed, THC works by binding onto nerve receptors called cannabanoids that are present in the brain and as a result alter how they work and communicate. The human body already has a normal level of cannabanoids present in the body; the THC in turn binds to those nerves to alter mood and feeling regulators in the body.

Current legislation does not legalize the drug marijuana under the Federal Controlled Substance Act and in fact classifies it as a Schedule 1 drug, indicating that the drug has the chance to be highly abusive and has no medicinal value (Dresser, 2008). In 1996, California became the first state to decriminalize marijuana by passing legal state medical marijuana laws. According to The Political Economy of Medical Marijuana Laws, “since 1996 [sixteen states and the District of Columbia] have passed medical marijuana laws” which legalize the use of marijuana for medical purposes and prevent state law from criminally penalizing patients who possess and grow marijuana as described by their physician. Each state has differing laws which allows each patient to possess or grow varying amounts of marijuana at a specific time. Also, some states require the use of medical identification cards that require that “individuals grow their own marijuana or obtain it from a cooperative that receives its product only from members” (Hall, 2011). Although locally, possessing or growing marijuana for medicinal purposes is legal, federal government does not see this as such and as a result still view marijuana possession as illegal.
Many patients that feel they need marijuana to treat their illness are often kept searching for the drug illegally to self-medicate. Possessing marijuana illegally can cause more harm to ill patients because often times they are not purchasing their drugs legally. When this happens, the buyers are denying the opportunity to take in a clean version of the drug for self-medication. Often times when purchased illegal, users are unaware of pathogens, mold, or mildew that could be present and complicate their illness even further. Illegal street dealers do not cultivate their product under the best conditions and can cause more harm then reprieve. By providing patients the ability to purchase medicinal marijuana, we can also contribute to fewer fatalities each year from deaths that result from complications of smoking illegal marijuana.

Marijuana use was once socially and medically accepted, however now it finds itself illegal. In many locations such as Africa and India, cannabis is legal, commonly used for clothing, religious rituals, and medicinal purposes. Marijuana’s counterpart tobacco is far more harmful and more addictive then anything marijuana could provide. Tobacco use impacts the well being of our entire society by contributing to advancing heart disease and lung cancer from all the harmful carcinogens contained in a cigarette and is responsible for roughly 450,000 deaths per year, (Torabi, 2010). Unlike tobacco, marijuana usage has no direct proof that the effects of smoking the herb are harmful. There is no medical benefit to smoking cigarettes and they are legal, yet there is a clear medical benefit to smoking marijuana and it is illegal. Other examples of legal drugs that are far more harmful if misused are pain killers and alcohol. The abuse of legal painkillers is on the rise with “one in 10 high school seniors [trying] the painkiller Vicodin without a prescription, and 1 in 20 has taken the potent pill OxyContin” (Querna, 2005). This statistic is climbing at an alarming rate and needs to be addressed. Many pain medications are opiod based pills used for chronic and severe pain and have similar effects to that of heroin. The highly addictive potential of these legal drugs used for pain, needs to make way for more suitable and less harmful means of pain management, such as medical marijuana.

Marijuana support across the United States is more supported now then ever before, with support ranging anywhere from 25 to 42 percent of Americans (Nadelmann, 2004). Currently two of every five Americans say “the government should treat marijuana more or less the same way it treats alcohol: It should regulate it, control it, tax it, and only make it illegal for children” (Nadelmann, 2004). Proposing this similar plan to how alcohol sales are already generated, one could infer that the marijuana market could flourish. The statewide anesthetized feeling of marijuana legality should give the government more support that marijuana should be legalized for medicinal purposes.

Marijuana has been used recently for a variety of ailments brought on by treatments of serious and life-threatening illnesses. Often, one of the chief complaints of cancer patients is the severe nausea that is caused with chemotherapy treatments. Chemotherapy treatments can cause a myriad of debilitating side effects such as nausea and vomiting. Marijuana treatments have allowed patients the ability to not vomit uncontrollable, but in fact actually obtain an appetite. The THC actually promotes the cannabanoids in the body to increase ones appetite by suppressing a hunger suppression hormone. As a result of marijuana treatment for cancer, patients are reporting that their treatment is more manageable. The inability to keep food down leads to malnourishment and weight loss, in turn contributing to delaying a potential healing process. Furthermore, glaucoma patient’s chief complaint is the severe pressure and pain attributed to the disease in the eyes. Marijuana usage by glaucoma patients report that the drug relieves the severe pressure caused by the disease on the eyes (Cowley, 1997) . Furthermore, Many HIV/AIDS patients suffer from severe appetite loss and depression during treatment. The inability to eat and severe nausea that is attributed to HIV infection can lead to a more untimely death due to malnourishment. Furthermore, marijuana treatment for psychological disorders affecting mood and depression, have shown to have innate anti-depressants that are generated from the THC and its effects on the body. If the use of marijuana can alleviate these severe symptoms of treatment by allowing the patient to eat food and maintain a better quality of life, why is the government denying these patients the right for their own survival? Marijuana has proven to be an appetite enhancer and has mood altering effects that can help patients manage their illness. By legalizing marijuana for medicinal purposes only, patients who are already suffering from chronic illness or disease can stop suffering from the terrible side effects from current treatment plans that are in place.

Many state leaders and representatives are attempting to thwart the legalization of marijuana because they claim that drugs bring crime and death. Patients are not asking to legalize every drug known to man; patients are just asking to legalize a plant that is native to the earth’s soil. Those suffering from chronic pain and illness just want a chance at a normal life without fear of legal ramifications from alternative medicine choices. By removing the black market of marijuana sales, we can expect to see a decrease in marijuana related crimes. There is also a tremendous amount of non-violent criminals that are currently serving time for marijuana related crimes. By legalizing medicinal marijuana, each state can expect to see a decline in inmate housing each year from marijuana related crimes and as a result, saving the state money each year.

There has been much debate over the legalization of marijuana for medicinal purposes. Terminally ill patients and those suffering from chronic pain, should be allowed the opportunity to partake in a treatment from a less invasive and harmful option that allows the person suffering to experience a means to cope with pain and other ailments without having to worry about the terrible side effects. While there are more severe legal drugs on the market today such as alcohol and painkillers, marijuana remains illegal. The positive outcomes of using marijuana for medical purposes, far outweighs the immediate perceived negatives. The use of marijuana for medical purposes allows suffering patients to manage pain and suffering for their medical condition, that modern medicine and treatment is not currently providing.