Medicinal Cannabis (marijuana)
�It would relieve the dull throbbing pain and would calm me down, then I�d start eating like a horse.� This is from a person from Washington D.C. who was diagnosed with Hodgkin�s disease. He was a hockey player, so the chemotherapy would not allow him to play very much. He asked his doctor if smoking marijuana would help him at all because he was becoming very weak because the sight of food would make him sick. After he started smoking he started eating more and the dull pain started going away. The doctor who told him it would help was a specialist at the National Cancer Institute. Medicinal marijuana has a very long history; many laws attached, and can be used for many ill patients.
Medicinal marijuana has been around for nearly 5,000 years, when the Emperor Shen-Nung, known as the father of Chinese medicine, discovered the therapeutic qualities of cannabis, as told from the CQ Researcher about medicinal marijuana written by Kathy Koch (Koch 1999). Shen-Nung�s findings were passed down by oral tradition and eventually put into writing, were more than 100 ailments were relieved by marijuana. Up until 1937, at least 27 medicines containing marijuana were legally available in the United States (MPP.org). In 1970, the Controlled Substance Act was place in Schedule 1, making it illegal, and proposing that cannabis has a high potential for abuse, and no current medicinal use. Even though cannabis has been around for many years, there are still very many legal battles that are being fought, or have been fought.
Cannabis, or marijuana, or pot, is put into the Schedule 1 category. Schedule 1 defines a substance, as �no accepted medical use in the United States and have a high abuse potential.� As of right now, a lot of the people who would like for pot to be legal are working for marijuana to be rescheduled because cannabis does not have a high potential for abuse. Marijuana has been in this group since the Controlled Substances Act of 1970, and it has been illegal since the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937, which federally prohibited pot. In order for a doctor to prescribe marijuana the doctor has to registered with the Drug Enforcement policy. Doctors prescribe cannabis for many reasons.
It is prescribed mostly to people with AIDS, Glaucoma, Cancer, Multiple Sclerosis, Epilepsy and Chronic Pain. Each of these applications has been deemed legitimate by at least on court, legislature, and/or government agency in the US. It helps with relief from nausea and increase of appetite, reduction of intraocular pressure (pressure in the eye), reduction of muscle spasms, and relief from chronic pain. Marijuana could be helpful for millions of patients in the US. Nevertheless, (MPP.org) other than the seven people with special permission from the federal government, medical marijuana remains illegal!
Even though marijuana has been around for thousands of years, and has many proven medicinal pot still remains to be illegal. Medicinal cannabis has a lot of purposes, and can help a lot of people out that have serious illnesses or are dieing.
Marijuana Policy Project
CQ.com