Medical Marijuana's Pros and Cons

Medical Marijuana's Pros and Cons

After having my interview with Dr. Lucido about his knowledge on medical marijuana I've noticed some pros and cons. After the interview I could really tell he has extensive knowledge about this topic. He really knew a lot of the details on marijuana, as I'm sure he does about everything he prescribes. He was aware that sometimes people take advantage of the health care system and get their hands on medical marijuana, but he stills stands up for its use in the medical field. I decided to look more into the subject and ran across "An Extension Approach to Drug Legalization", by Martin Levinson. This discusses medical marijuana's laws and uses. It also cover's the positives and negatives that are associated with medical marijuana.

When Dr. Lucido was asked if marijuana should be legal he replied, "if marijuana was legalized there would be more people using it for the wrong reasons, but he thought that there would be a lot less death and crime out on the streets." Many people would agree with this statement. Other's would argue with it because they believe marijuana use would go down. Some think that if marijuana was legal less people would use it. A lot of youth wouldn't think it was cool because it wasn't illegal and there for adolescents marijuana use would decrease. This question is the basis of the paper, should medical marijuana be available? This paper will show you the positives and negatives of medical marijuana.

One of the most obvious cons for medical marijuana would be that it could be sold on the black market by its prescribers. Dr. Lucido notices that this goes on, but says that patients that really need medical marijuana to ease their pain or other disorders will keep it for their own personal use. He was saying that how out of al the prescriptions that he prescribes, marijuana is the least abused. Considering that patients can make five thousand dollars a bottle for some types of pain medication, medical marijuana can't even compare. Many still say though, that medical marijuana just adds on to the drug problem we have in our nation.

Medical marijuana is used for a number of different diseases. It is prescribed mainly for loss of appetite due to HIV and Glaucoma, but is also prescribed for Muscular Dystrophy, Alzheimer's, chemo patients, and people with psychological problems. It helps these people deal with the pain they are having. If some of these patients didn't have medical marijuana they would go through very harsh pain and may want to give up on life. According to Dr. Lucido, "with the correct use of prescribed medication for pain, anxiety, and even hypertension commonly produces tolerance and some measure of physiological dependency." Whoever gets prescribed medical marijuana really does need it.

Keeping certain drugs illegal has caused corruption among politicians and the citizens of our nation. It has been a battle for years over the laws associated with marijuana, but primarily medical marijuana. The politics are not only

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