Should Marijuana Be Legalized For Medical Use? (Page 1)

My husband has Cancer (one of the big reasons people want to legalize marijuana) and has very bad cronic pain and we both agree NO!

i think it should be legalized for all use (medical and recreational), so i voted yes.

if something so simple as a plant that grows naturally can help people feel better and lessen their pain (and give them an appetite), what's the harm?

considering how toxic plenty of other chemical treaments are these days...yes! considering the toxic prescriptions that plenty of people are addicted to (outside their medical needs ), yes.

i agree with jess, i think alcohol is far more harmful than marijuana. i also think that alcohol is the real gateway drug (if you believe there really is one).

I must admit I've never smoked but I've seen my husband after a vicoden and that is a "legal" med that can give him the affects of a high. My problem with legalizing it for medical use is the control over it.

personally i think it should be legalized, i see no problem with it

if they can legalize ciggarettes which are terrible for you and are carcinogenic and are filled with gross things (like fermaldihyde and rat poison) marajuana is natural and not nearly as bad as cigarettes (my opinion)

also the simple fact of right now while people are buying it on the streets anyone can put anything into it and it can kill the people who buy it, if the government regulates it then people would know whats in it and it would be better

~alicia~

i voted no. so what are they gonna do next let them snort a line of cocaine to help them not be so tired.

I agree. Cocaine and marijuana are not the same. Cocaine is highly addictive and can kill you the first time you use it. There have not been any recorded incidences of lethal overdose from marijuana. Marijuana is not addictive, though it can be habit forming.

I have seen alcohol destroy many lives & families same as some drugs, but pot is the lesser of all evils but yet it is illegal that doesn't make since to me. you can get your snap on pot but not alcohol & some presription drugs. I think it is because most people in Congress socially drink but most have never smoked Pot (example remember the movies in school they showed us to keep us from doing drugs where the kids would smoke a joint get the munchies but the hotdog would talk to them then they would flip out ETC. And I think a lot of them believe that crap. I believe if you don't know anything about it, then how can you vote on it.

that still dont make it harmless. you guys never heard of anyone getting caught driving while under the influnce of marijuana.

The most potent argument against the use of marijuana to treat medical disorders is that marijuana may cause the acceleration or aggravation of the very disorders it is being used to treat.

Smoking marijuana regularly (a joint a day) can damage the cells in the bronchial passages which protect the body against inhaled microorganisms and decrease the ability of the immune cells in the lungs to fight off fungi, bacteria, and tumor cells. For patients with already weakened immune systems, this means an increase in the possibility of dangerous pulmonary infections, including pneumonia, which often proves fatal in AIDS patients.

Studies further suggest that marijuana is a general "immunosuppressant" whose degenerative influence extends beyond the respiratory system. Regular smoking has been shown to materially affect the overall ability of the smoker’s body to defend itself against infection by weakening various natural immune mechanisms, including macrophages (a.k.a. "killer cells") and the all-important T-cells. Obviously, this suggests the conclusion, which is well-supported by scientific studies, that the use of marijuana as a medical therapy can and does have a very serious negative effect on patients with pre-existing immune deficits resulting from AIDS, organ transplantation, or cancer chemotherapy, the very conditions for which marijuana has most often been touted and suggested as a treatment. It has also been shown that marijuana use can accelerate the progression of HIV to full-blown AIDS and increase the occurrence of infections and Kaposi’s sarcoma. In addition, patients with weak immune systems will be even less able to defend themselves against the various respiratory cancers and conditions to which consistent marijuana use has been linked, and which are discussed briefly under "Respiratory Illnesses."

In conclusion, it seems that the potential dangers presented by the medical use of marijuana may actually contribute to the dangers of the diseases which it would be used to combat. Therefore, I suggest that marijuana should not be permitted as a therapy, at least until a good deal more conclusive research has been completed concerning its debilitating effect on the immune system.

For more on this topic, please see Donald P. Tashkin, M.D., "Effects of Marijuana on the Lung and Its Immune Defenses," Secretary's Youth Substance Abuse Prevention Intiative: Resource Papers, March 1997, Center for Substance Abuse Prevention. Pages 33-51 of this address can be found at the website of the Indiana Prevention Resource Center at Indiana University, located at http://www.drugs.indiana.edu/druginfo/tash kin- marijuana.html.



RESPIRATORY ILLNESSES

The main respiratory consequences of smoking marijuana regularly (one joint a day) are pulmonary infections and respiratory cancer, whose connection to marijuana use has been strongly suggested but not conclusively proven. The effects also include chronic bronchitis, impairment in the function of the smaller air passages, inflammation of the lung, the development of potentially pre-cancerous abnormalities in the bronchial lining and lungs, and, as discussed, a reduction in the capabilities of many defensive mechanisms within the lungs.

Marijuana smoke and cigarette smoke contain many of the same toxins, including one which has been identified as a key factor in the promotion of lung cancer. This toxin is found in the tar phase of both, and it should be noted that one joint has four times more tar than a cigarette, which means that the lungs are exposed four-fold to this toxin and others in the tar. It has been concretely established that smoking cigarettes promotes lung cancer (which causes more than 125,000 deaths in the US every year), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (chronic bronchitis and emphysema) and increased incidence of respiratory tract infections. This implies, but does not establish, that smoking marijuana may lead to some of the same results as smoking cigarettes. It is notable that several reports indicate an unexpectedly large proportion ofmarijuana users among cases of lung cancer and cancers of the oral cavity,pharynx, and larynx. Thus, it appears that the use of marijuana as a medicine has the potential to further harm an already ill patient in the same way that taking up regular cigarette smoking would, particularly in light of the fact that those patients for whom marijuana is recommended are already poorly equipped to fight off these infections and diseases.

For more information, please see the Tashkin website mentioned at the end of the section on immune disorders. See also:

www.sarnia.com/GROUPS/ANTIDRUG/mrr/ 21.96.10.html, for information on the link between chemicals contained in marijuana and lung cancer.
http://www.marijuananews.com/latest..._tha t_heavy.htm, for an article concerning the link between marijuana and cancer, with commentary


MENTAL HEALTH, BRAIN FUNCTION, AND MEMORY

It has been suggested that marijuana is at the root of many mental disorders, including acute toxic psychosis, panic attacks (one of the very conditions it is being used experimentally to treat), flashbacks, delusions, depersonalization, hallucinations, paranoia, depression, and uncontrollable aggressiveness. Marijuana has long been known to trigger attacks of mental illness, such as bipolar (manic-depressive) psychosis and schizophrenia. This connection with mental illness should make health care providers for terminally ill patients and the patients themselves, who may already be suffering from some form of clinical depression, weigh very carefully the pros and cons of adopting a therapeutic course of marijuana.

In the short term, marijuana use impairs perception, judgment, thinking, memory, and learning; memory defects may persist six weeks after last use. Mental disorders connected with marijuana use merit their own category in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) IV, published by the American Psychiatric Association. These include Cannabis Intoxication (consisting of impaired motor coordination, anxiety, impaired judgment, sensation of slowed time, social withdrawal, and often includes perceptual disturbances; Cannabis Intoxication Delirium (memory deficit, disorientation); Cannabis Induced Psychotic Disorder, Delusions; Cannabis Induced Psychotic Disorder, Hallucinations; and Cannabis Induced Anxiety Disorder.

In addition, marijuana use has many indirect effects on health. Its effect on coordination, perception, and judgment means that it causes a number of accidents, vehicular and otherwise.





but remember marijuana is harmless.