Preview

Medical Marijuana Essay

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1657 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Medical Marijuana Essay
The issue on legalizing marijuana is a very controversial topic in the U.S. and all around the world. This is an issue for the fact that some people are being denied medical treatments just because marijuana has been illegal and misunderstood for so long. For as long as anyone can remember medical and legal marijuana has been seen in the negative side of the news and bad opinions by the general population. In recent years people, local governments, and state governments in the United States have been speaking out and is changing the way many people are viewing marijuana in this paper we will discuss the financial, medical, negative and positive effects of marijuana. Ways that you can fix this issue are contacting your local and state governments and expressing your opinions on this issue.
First, look at the way America is viewing the legalization of marijuana. Marijuana now being fully legalized in Colorado and Washington, also with 23 states making it legal for medical purposes and 6 others decriminalizing the drug is now on a different path with legalization. “Owners of the 37 new dispensaries around the state reported first week retail sales to The Huffington Post that, when added together, were roughly $5 million.” (Frener, 2014). As you can see the financial revenue from just one state in its first week of opening is huge. All of this money can go back into school programs, equipment for classrooms, and other community related budgets. Colorado and Washington are hopeful that they will make up to 2.1 billion in revenue for the states.
Uses for medical marijuana have been looked down upon until recent years. Many people follow what their parents think of the drug and that it is bad or they follow what their friends think. Scientists have been researching the positive medical effects of marijuana from tests and studies.
“Medical marijuana has shown positive results for epilepsy treatment, especially for patients who have physical resistance, to



References: Armentano, P. (2014, January 7). Recent Research on Medical Marijuana. Retrieved March 18, 2014, from norml.org/component/zoo/category/recent-research-on-medical-marijuana Ferner , M. (2014, January 8). Colorado Recreational Marijuana Sales Exceed $5 Million In First Week. Retrieved March 24, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/08/marijuana-sales-colorado_n_4552371.html Ingold, J. (2014, 12). Marijuana case filings plummet in Colorado following legalization. Retrieved March 19, 2014, from http://www.denverpost.com/marijuana/ci_24894248/marijuana-case-filings-plummet-colorado-following-legalization Nelson, S. (2013, September 16). Police Made One Marijuana Arrest Every 42 Seconds in 2012 - US News. Retrieved March 18, 2014, from http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2013/09/16/police-made-one-marijuana-arrest-every-42-seconds-in-2012 Shim, E. (2014, March 14). A 22nd State Is About to Legalize Medical Marijuana - PolicyMic. Retrieved March 18, 2014, from http://www.policymic.com/articles/85291/a-22nd-state-is-about-to-legalize-medical-marijuana Welsh, J., & Spector, D. (2013, April 20). Physical And Mental Effects Of Marijuana - Business Insider. Retrieved March 19, 2014, from http://www.businessinsider.com/physical-and-mental-effects-of-marijuana-2013-4?op=1

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Marijuana Controversy

    • 674 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Of course when you take the study of the negative side of marijuana you must also take the positive. With legalization spreading across the country this former illegal drug is saving lives. The first reason marijuana was looked at to be a legal drug was the positive effects it had on the ill. Some positive effects include: treatment of glaucoma, increase lung health, control epileptic seizures, and can stop the smoking of tobacco.…

    • 674 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Cohen, P. J. (2010). Medical Marijuana 2010: It 's Time to Fix the Regulatory Vacuum. Journal Of Law, Medicine & Ethics, 38…

    • 778 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    “Update: Medical Marijuana." Issues & Controversies On File: n. pag. Issues & Controversies. Facts On File News Services, 15 July 2009. Web. 26 Jan. 2013.…

    • 610 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Grinspoon, L. (2010). Whither medical marijuana. Georgetown Journal of International Affairs, 11(2), 75-82. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/910990414?accountid=458…

    • 1615 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Free Mary Jane

    • 688 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Grass, weed, kush, ganja, reefer, smoke, J, hash, nug, bud, Mary Jane; the flower of many names, Cannabis sativa, but more commonly recognized as marijuana. Cannabis’ roots have been imbedded in American culture since the late 1800’s. And has been through a legal rollercoaster ever since. Cannabis has gone from a government mandated crop, one of which you could pay your taxes with, to an “evil weed” and slowly up to what some view as a miracle cure. Currently 17 states have legalized marijuana in one form or another. Six additional states are seeking legislation change in 2012. If all are successful this will bring the total to 23 states, or nearly half of the country. Unfortunately the current remaining 33 states that have failed to pass cannabis reform laws continue to enforce a harsh drug policy under the prentices that they will be viewed as “tough on drugs” by the federal government and then supplied revenue in the form of grants to help fund the “war on drugs”. In other words, the harsher you are, the more they pay you. I have a personal problem with laws being used under the pretenses of profit over individual prosperity…

    • 688 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Medical marijuana can help many aliments. medical marijuana has even been proven to help with ptsd. Lots of prescription drugs have bad side effect and be just as dangerous as heroin. After all prescription drugs kill more people than heroin and cocaine combined. Medical marijuana as help people when they tried every drugs and none of them work or made them to tired and sick all the time. At the end of the any type of drug is not good for one's body even medical marijuana, but sometime one has to pick the lesser of the to…

    • 608 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Marijuana In Colorado

    • 403 Words
    • 2 Pages

    a. This puts the state on track to adjudicate fewer than 3,000 marijuana-related cases in 2014, according to Way, who added that it’s a step in the right direction, since about 5,000 citations were issued in 2013. (Rucke)…

    • 403 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Article Rebuttal

    • 1030 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The legalization of marijuana can help reduce the $16.4 trillion deficit in the United States because it can bring in an abundance of taxable revenue. According to, “Miron, Jeffey A., and Waldock, Katherine, "The Budgetary Impact of Ending Drug Prohibition," The Cato Institute (Washington, DC: Cato Institute, 2010), “drug legalization would yield tax revenue of $46.7 billion annually, assuming legal drugs were taxed at rates comparable to those on alcohol and tobacco. Approximately $8.7 billion of this revenue would result from legalization of marijuana and $38.0 billion from legalization of other drugs." (Para 5). In 2011, the Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) Domestic Cannabis Eradication/Suppression Department seized $42,113,659 million dollars worth of assets in their fight against Marijuana. With this revenue the government could fund educational programs or help pay down the national debt.…

    • 1030 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    MICHAEL , M. (1997, January 31). A medical opinion on marijuana. New York Times, p.…

    • 1051 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    This is greatly alarming to the people in the United States because it reveals how narrow minded the government truly is. United States states that marijuana is a fairly unstable drug which is very addictive. However, this simply is not true since marijuana through all of human existence has only had 2 cases of overdose. Research shows that marijuana is not addictive and is highly beneficial in solving everyday struggles of many humans. It is proven that medical marijuana can help reverse the effects of smoking cigarettes, reduce cancer cells growth, treat glaucoma, and countless other medical issues everyone faces or will face. The state governments started to realize how the benefits of marijuana would greatly help in the medical industry, but the federal government does not agree. Due to this, these states are starting to take issues into their own hands by legalizing marijuana for medical and even for recreation purposes. Legalizing marijuana will also lower the crime rate in the United States. Currently marijuana helps funds drug dealers and criminal organizations while the government is wasting money on police forces to help counter this. If marijuana was legalized, the profits would dramatically decrease for people selling and they would quit selling. The money saved could help local schools and the community. This would be very frightening to implement, but 26 states have already done this…

    • 1806 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Cannabis and Marijuana

    • 1035 Words
    • 3 Pages

    $42 billion dollars is what our current marijuana laws cost American taxpayers each year. If marijuana was legal, the money generated would be able to be used for other things like giving every one of our current teachers a 30 percent raise and use what's left to take a $27 billion whack out of the federal deficit. Or use it towards community or environmental projects to help the natural resources we use every day. “Marijuana in the U.S. is a $113 billion dollar business” (Gettman). It costs the average prison $40,000 to house an inmate for a year. If you multiply the number of marijuana related prisoners times $40,000 a year that is over $29 billion a year spent on prisoners alone. “Of the billions of dollars a year we spend to enforce, it has accomplished little or…

    • 1035 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Silberner, Joanne. FDA on Medical Marijuana:Science or Politics? 21 April 2006. Web. 7 May 2013.…

    • 2138 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    America has seen the losing side of a war the federal government can neither maintain nor continue to afford. Individuals are suffering at the hands of legislation for small infractions as the taxpayers are the ones who have to front the cost of this unnecessary witch hunt. Individuals would no longer have to buy cannabis illegally. As result the United States could stop wasting time and money, and increase its own revenue. While Colorado serves as a prime example as what the whole country could be benefit from if there was a more progressive standpoint on this issue. With the possibility of legalization occurring, it could be more effective in becoming the catalyst to getting rid of the black market drug trade rather than previous attempts in this country’s…

    • 1611 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Trossman, S. (2010). Exploring the science of medical marijuana. The American Nurse, 42(3), 1, 7. Retrieved from http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.umsl.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=4&hid=108&sid=d7ae271d-ac18-46a9-9ddd-ee1df600ce51%40sessionmgr112…

    • 5889 Words
    • 24 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Best Essays

    Medicinal Marijuana is a major asset to various individuals from high risk diseases to emotional stability. The use of marijuana is used widely within individuals that have the virus of HIV to the diseases of cancer, glaucoma, multiple sclerosis (MS) along with a long list of other medical conditions. After decades of doing research scientists have found how marijuana contributes to various diseases; marijuana helps AIDS patients by reducing pain, muscle spasms, nausea, vomiting and stress. It also helps the patient with their appetites and their sleeping patterns. The benefits of marijuana among cancer patients are that the drug prevents the spread of breast cancer; the drug reduces tumors along with the killing of cancer cells that are related to brain cancer. In a Multiply Sclerosis patient marijuana aids the consumer by limiting pain and spasticity; it also temporary relieves unsteadiness in the patient, (Fradella, 2011).…

    • 1861 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Best Essays