Assignment 1: Medical Marijuana
Week 6 Assignment 1
COM/156, Lindy Hatten
There are several instances of naturally occurring substances that have positive medicinal benefits, which easily outweigh the negative effects of the drugs. Parts of the Cannabis plants are a very obvious example; there are currently seventeen states that have legalized medicinal marijuana for use by patients with a qualifying medical condition that has been evaluated by a physician. Cannabis is safe and effective at treating peripheral neuropathy, which causes great suffering to HIV/AIDS patients. Cannabis is also very effective in alleviating the pain and nausea caused from many other medical conditions and/or the treatments, such as chemotherapy, which is used to treat many forms of cancer. …show more content…
Anti-marijuana activists and certain government agencies would have you believe that marijuana is a highly addictive substance with no medicinal value, and that the users of the drug are to be considered criminals and addicts. Harry Anslinger of the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs, which eventually evolved into the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), created the “Reefer madness” campaign in the 1930s. The use of the Mexican name of the cannabis plant, marijuana, was popularized by the Hearst newspaper chain to scare the public into believing that there was a new and dangerous drug being introduced to American youth by black musicians and Mexicans. The result of this media blitz was the passage of the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937, which was the beginning of marijuana's prohibition. Since its prohibition, numerous studies have been conducted to determine marijuana's toxicity level: the conclusion of the studies was that it would take 20,000 to 40,000 times the normal dose to induce death. Another way of stating this would be that a person would have to ingest 1,500 pounds in 15 minutes. In 1972, after studying all the evidence, Judge Francis Young of the DEA found marijuana to be "one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man.” He also added that, “One must reasonably conclude that there is accepted safety for use of marijuana under medical supervision. To conclude otherwise, on the record, would be unreasonable, arbitrary and capricious.” His decision in the case was overruled by the Court of Appeals and medicinal marijuana was still denied even to seriously ill patients, until decades later when states began legalizing medicinal marijuana
COM/156, Lindy Hatten
There are several instances of naturally occurring substances that have positive medicinal benefits, which easily outweigh the negative effects of the drugs. Parts of the Cannabis plants are a very obvious example; there are currently seventeen states that have legalized medicinal marijuana for use by patients with a qualifying medical condition that has been evaluated by a physician. Cannabis is safe and effective at treating peripheral neuropathy, which causes great suffering to HIV/AIDS patients. Cannabis is also very effective in alleviating the pain and nausea caused from many other medical conditions and/or the treatments, such as chemotherapy, which is used to treat many forms of cancer. …show more content…
Anti-marijuana activists and certain government agencies would have you believe that marijuana is a highly addictive substance with no medicinal value, and that the users of the drug are to be considered criminals and addicts. Harry Anslinger of the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs, which eventually evolved into the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), created the “Reefer madness” campaign in the 1930s. The use of the Mexican name of the cannabis plant, marijuana, was popularized by the Hearst newspaper chain to scare the public into believing that there was a new and dangerous drug being introduced to American youth by black musicians and Mexicans. The result of this media blitz was the passage of the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937, which was the beginning of marijuana's prohibition. Since its prohibition, numerous studies have been conducted to determine marijuana's toxicity level: the conclusion of the studies was that it would take 20,000 to 40,000 times the normal dose to induce death. Another way of stating this would be that a person would have to ingest 1,500 pounds in 15 minutes. In 1972, after studying all the evidence, Judge Francis Young of the DEA found marijuana to be "one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man.” He also added that, “One must reasonably conclude that there is accepted safety for use of marijuana under medical supervision. To conclude otherwise, on the record, would be unreasonable, arbitrary and capricious.” His decision in the case was overruled by the Court of Appeals and medicinal marijuana was still denied even to seriously ill patients, until decades later when states began legalizing medicinal marijuana