It is clear that marijuana has numerous medical purposes. The question still stands on whether to let people to legally grow the marijuana for selling and for medical purposes. On the other front, marijuana poses serious threats to people due to its major harmful effects. Abuse and misuse of marijuana bring about various health effects on the body. In the US, some of the states have declared the use of marijuana for medical purposes as legal. For this move to cover the whole of the United States, it may still take more effort by the policy makers. This essay will discuss some of the pros and cons of the medical use of marijuana.
Pros
There exist a number of medical applications and uses of marijuana. Some medical procedures and operations have serious side effects such as nausea and vomiting. For instance, chemotherapy is used in the treatment of cancer cause nausea and vomiting. Medical marijuana comes to play at this point and is used to relieve these effects effectively. Disease conditions such as paralysis and multiple sclerosis are associated with body health conditions such as muscle spasticity which can easily be alleviated by medical marijuana. The use of marijuana goes as broad and diverse as helping patients with loss of appetite. HIV/AIDS patients and patients with cancer often have loss of appetite. Medical marijuana effectively acts upon this condition to help such patient by increasing their appetite ( Leung, 2011) .
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Of the many different applications and use of medical marijuana, one of the most widely efficient uses of the drug is relieving pain. The drug can relieve various types of pain. Studies and a lot of research on the use of medical marijuana have indicated that the drug is far much safer than most of other drugs. In a treatment of a similar symptom in which medical marijuana can be used, the drug is safer as compared to other drugs used to treat the same symptom. Studies have also proved that the use of marijuana alone minus smoking of cigarette concurrently, does not increase the chances of developing cancer.
Cons
As those against the legalization of marijuana for medical purposes may put it, the drug poses a significant threat and danger to the public. Frequent use of the drug severely affects a person's short-term memory. The drug may interfere with many other normal operations of the brain and other body organs. For instance, other than the brain, smoking of any form, whether it is tobacco or marijuana, significantly damages the lung tissue. With the lung tissue destroyed, conditions such as lung cancer among others would begin to develop. The frequent use of the drug may also impair an individual's cognitive ability. Furthermore, medical proof points that smoked marijuana contains compounds which cause cancer ( Bostwick, 2012) .
Although some researchers have described medical marijuana as an excellent pain reliever, there has been little evidence to prove this declaration. The legalization of medical marijuana will mean its growth will as well legalized to allow farmers to grow the plant for selling purposes. This poses a threat to the public as it carries the risk of abuse, misuse, and addiction. The abuse of marijuana and its misuse may cause accidents, impair peoples' judgment and bring about undesirable behaviors on individuals.
The medical use of the drug has been made legal in some of the states in the US. The debate on whether to generally legalize the drug for medical purposes still stands with some supporting the idea as other firmly resist the idea. It stands clear that the drug can be used for medical purposes including relieving pain. Some of the cons also point out that the drug carries a threat and a great risk to the public if it were to be legalized ( Van Ours, 2012) .
References
Bostwick, J. M. (2012, February). Blurred boundaries: the therapeutics and politics of medical marijuana. In Mayo Clinic Proceedings (Vol. 87, No. 2, pp. 172-186). Elsevier.
Leung, L. (2011). Cannabis and its derivatives: a review of medical use. The Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine , 24 (4), 452-462.
Van Ours, J. C. (2012). The long and winding road to cannabis legalization. Addiction , 107 (5), 872-873
