Should marijuana be used as a medical option?

Should marijuana be used as a medical option?
Researchers suggest that marijuana’s active components are potentially effective in treating pain, nausea, and vomiting. Anti-emetics are also effective against vomiting and nausea; doctors can also prescribe painkillers to treat pain if necessary. Why should the United States need to legalize marijuana? Chronic use of marijuana can have negative effects. Prolonged use of marijuana can cause lung damage, mental health issues, impair cognitive abilities, there is a high potential for abuse and it is illegal. Medical marijuana should not be used for medical purposes because it does more harm than good.
Any type of smoke, when it is inhaled into the lungs, is unhealthy. Smoke comes from burning gases and materials that travel into the air. They are poisons, toxins or irritants that cause the lungs to become inflamed. (Allina Health, 2012) This damages the airways and stops oxygen from getting into your blood which can cause respiratory failure. Inhaled smoke can also reach and damage other parts of the body like the heart, brain, liver and kidneys. In a 1988 paper, Tashkin and his colleagues report attempted to establish that marijuana smoke produces more toxic chemical release than tobacco smoke.
Marijuana smoking resulted in a tar burden to the respiratory tract that was 3.5 to 4.5 times greater than that produced by tobacco smoking in the same subjects. Furthermore, smoking a single marijuana cigarette caused a fourfold greater increment in carboxyhemoglobin saturation than did smoking a single tobacco cigarette. (Tashkin, 1988)
Some people feel that smoking marijuana provide a rapid onset drug effect, meaning the relief for pain is felt in minutes. Studies have shown that cannabis has rich chemical components like THC the primary psychoactive ingredient of marijuana. This is a cannabinoid. (Family council on drug awareness, 2000) Cannabinoids play a role in the immune system and we have natural compounds in our bodies that control pain, movement and memory but researchers are not sure how to incorporate the cannabinoids into our bodies.
Marijuana is what some people call a gateway drug. All medications after prolonged use may have some sort of side effect but, patients are carefully monitored on most medications by completing blood work. Doctors can safely lower or raise your dose according to the blood work report and what you tell them. If the medication is no longer working a physician can prescribe something a little stronger according to your needs. Prolonged use of any drug can make a person build up a tolerance. Eventually when using marijuana as a medical treatment it will no longer have the same immediate relief affects. What comes after the marijuana crack? If marijuana becomes legalized, eventually someone will create a study that says crack cocaine relieves their pain too. Which it probably does because, it is a way for some to escape reality. If a person is doped up, they can very easily forget about the pain because they are stoned. There is no sure way to measure the dosage of marijuana if it was used for medical purposes, if the first couple of buds don’t relieve the pain, the next step would be to take a few more buds and continue getting wasted. There is no way to determine how much is too much or how much isn’t enough it should not be prescribed by a physician.
Marijuana can create unexpected health issues, it can also create distorted perception, memory and learning problems, loss of coordination, increased heart rates low blood pressure, fear, distrust and panic. Some researchers believe that marijuana reduces the eye pressure with glaucoma, reduces muscle spasms cause by multiple sclerosis, and para and quadriplegia. There are already medications that assist in giving these kinds of patients some sort of relief. The objective is to help these patients get better not help them develop other health issues. Prolonged use of marijuana can lead to long lasting depression, anxiety, affects short term memory, and the skills we need to carry out task from the simplest to the most complex. (Miller, 2012 November) “The single, most consistently reported behavioral effect of cannabinoids in humans is an alteration of memory functioning.” Marijuana can produce paranoia, because it has the ability to change your brains perception of the world. It also has negative effects on the motivation system. Majority of the people who smoke marijuana are self-medicating themselves, but the relief is temporary. (Procon, 2012) Currently there are 18 states that have enacted laws to legalize medical marijuana. Marijuana is already easier to get than cigarettes or alcohol because drug dealers don’t ask for identification. Some people think that taxing the marijuana and regulating it will make it less accessible to children. Regulating it will not stop anything, those who want it will still be able to get it the same way they have been getting it because, approved individuals currently need a card and proof of their condition from their doctor in order to be legally exempt. If the medically useful ingredients were produced in non-smokable form, those who are suffering from AIDS, HIV and any other types of diseases or ailments would most likely benefit from the plant. In smoke form the cons outweigh the benefits. Members who are legally approved to smoke, and their caregivers, have options to cultivate from home. This easily opens the gateway for more criminal activity. Not only do users endanger themselves, but they are endangering the lives of others with their selfishness. American has tried for many years to give children awareness about drugs and their effects. Marijuana is a gateway drug, and in not so many words by trying to pass these laws in the United States they are telling the youth it is okay to get high. Woodstock was a period in the 60’s where rebels used drugs to promote unacceptable lifestyles. In a sense history is repeating itself. Drug users want to pass these medical marijuana laws so they can live their lives without interference from the rest of society. This will develop into an environmental catastrophe. The lists for deaths by drug overdose will increase. Giving people this freedom will leave them searching for other rules to break. The government changing marijuana from an illegal drug to a legal drug can will make people lose respect for the government and its rules, this can result in an American free for all. The bottom line is more research needs to be done. Accurate studies need to be done in order to prove smoking marijuana does a better job than anti-emetics in relieving pain, nausea, and vomiting. The government wants people to stop smoking cigarettes because it damages the lungs, and second hand smoke jeopardizes the lives of others who may have never smoked in their entire life, only to pass a law allowing people to smoke marijuana which has the same effects. It just doesn’t make sense, makes you wonder if a law like this gets passed what the future for children will hold. (Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration, 2009) Statistics show that millions of people in the United States already smoke marijuana illegally. Some people smoke occasionally, some smoke daily and some have tried it at least once. Marijuana is a dangerous chemical and it has not passed scientific investigations like conventional drugs. People who have immune system issues are already at great risk for infections marijuana can only create more complications. If medical marijuana is legalized, the amount of smokers will increase, health cost will increase, and accidents will increase. Marijuana is a drug that is addictive, and it does have effects on the brain. People tend to be slower when under the influence of marijuana. Imagine having a doctor who is high off of marijuana because it was prescribed for them by their doctor doing surgery on you? There are already enough problems in the United States teen pregnancies, cancers of the lungs and throat, chronic obesity, diabetes and then some. The problems we have here in the states should be corrected before we start making, new and unnecessary issues that endanger the environment, the safety of the users and the wellbeing of others.

References
Allina Health. (2012). Smoke inhalation. Retrieved from http://allinahealth.org
Family council on drug awareness. (2000-2004). Conducting scientific research on canniboids. Retrieved from http://www.equalrightsforall.org
Miller, E. (2012, November). Effects of cannabis on memory & cognitive function. Retrieved from http://idmu.co.uk/canmem.htm
Tashkin, D. (1988, spring). Pulmonary hazards of smoking marijuana as compared with tobacco. New England Journal of Medicine, 38(9), 347-351.
Procon. (2012, November). 18 legal medical marijuana states and dc laws, fees, and possession limits. Retrieved from http://procon.org
Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration. (2009, January 15). National Survey on Drug Use & Health. Retrieved from http//www.samhsa.gov