Should Marijuana Be Legalized Essays (1396 words) - Herbalism

Should Marijuana Be Legalized? The controversy of legalizing marijuana has been raging for quite a while in America. From some people pushing it for medical purposes to pott-heads just wanting to get high legally. Marijuana has been used for years as a popular drug for people who want to get a high. All this time it has been illegal and now it looks as if the drug may become legal. There has been heated debate by many sides giving there opinion in the issue. These people are not only left wing liberals either. Richard Brookhiser, a National Review Senior editor is openly supportive of medical marijuana yet extremely conservative in his writing for National Review (Brookhiser 27). He is for medical marijuana since he used it in his battle with testicular cancer. He says I turned to [marijuana] when I got cancer because marijuana gives healthy people an appetite, and prevents people who are nauseated from throwing up. (Brookhiser 27) Cancer patients are not the only benefactors from the appetite enhancer in marijuana, but so are any other nauseous people. Arizona and California have already passed a law allowing marijuana to be used as a medicinal drug. Fifty Six percent of the California voters voted for this law. We've sent a message to Washington, says Dennis Peron. They've had 25 years of this drug was, and they've only made things worse. (Simmons 111) The Arizona proposition garnished an even wider margin of separation between the fore's an against in a sixty five percent support tally. Ethan Nadelmann insists that these propositions are not about legalization or decriminalization. They're about initiating some non radical, commonsense approaches to drug policy. General Barry McCaffery disagrees saying, I don't think this was a medical issue from the start. (Simmons 111) He also calls the new laws, a tremendous tragedy. The federal government has a hard time letting the California/Arizona act stand. Marijuana is a schedule one drug, and has no medicinal purpose. Cocaine and morphine on the other hand are schedule two and do have medicinal value. Gen. McCafferey says a physician who tries to prescribe a schedule one drug with or without the referendums in California or Arizona, is subject to prosecution under federal law. (Simmons112) This quote has come under great duress since the DEA is the only group which can arrest someone who uses pot and slap someone with a petty misdemeanor. People will not care if they run the risk of a misdemeanor and likely use the drug anyway. Dennis Peron, one of the leading activists of marijuana legalization, has devoted twenty years to the legalization of marijuana. He says that when friend Jonathan West, developed AIDS, Dennis saw the potential uses for medical marijuana when he saw Jonathan feel better after smoking weed. (Rist and Harrison 75-76) Peron fought wildly to pass a bill to legalize medicinal marijuana. Any other drug that eased nausea, increased appetite, and reduced pain, would be prescribed everywhere. says Peron. (Rist and Harrison 75-76) A Harvard Medical psychiatrist calls the drug a wonder drug for pain, nausea, and appetite. However, there are many cons to the pros in prescribing marijuana for nausea and pain. Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) is the active drug in marijuana used to help relieve nausea in cancer patients. This THC has been proven to lower testosterone in the blood stream for men. (Angier 15) This is not a major concern to full grown men because the level of testosterone quickly rises back after the smoker is done smoking. However, it may be harmful to adolescent boys. In adolescence, a boy's body is going through many changes--it grows taller, it gets hairier, the voice deepens--and these changes are controlled by testosterone. Marijuana could very well block the normal growth process. says Carol Smith, of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethsheda Maryland. Columbia university did a study on 16 men who smoked five to fifteen joints a day. After they finished smoking their sperm counts were counted. It was discovered that all of the men experienced a dip in sperm count for weeks after and had malformed sperm cells. This could cause some serious malformations in conceived children. Studies were done on female rhesus monkeys who