Marijuana Should Be Legalized For Medicinal Purposes (Essay Sample)

Marijuana should be legalized for Medicinal Purposes
Author’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
Marijuana should be legalized for Medicinal Purposes
It is known by many names. Scientifically, it is known as Cannabis Sativa. On the street, it is known as weed. Other names that it has been called over the years are pot, reefer, and Mary Jane. Marijuana is a drug made from the dried leaves of the plant known as hemp (Harding, 2016). Many people use the drug for recreational purposes. Medicinally, marijuana can be used for treating various conditions and pain relief. To legalize the drug or not has been under debate ad nauseam. It is reasonable to legalize marijuana for medical purposes, but the resulting negative effects should not be underestimated or ignored.
Marijuana plays a significant role in medicine. Primarily, the drug is used for pain relief. Marijuana can also be used to treat seizures, weight loss and poor desire for food resulting from prolonged sickness such as nerve pain and HIV, nausea caused by cancer chemotherapy, and muscle spasms resulting from multiple sclerosis (Wallace & Ware, 2015). Although it can have side effects such as dizziness, euphoria, and drowsiness, the medical benefits of marijuana are far more important (Harding, 2016). For this reason, marijuana should be made legal for patients who need it.
Legalizing marijuana for medical use can potentially increase the illegal sales and use of the drug. According to Lopez (2016), more than 33 million Americans use marijuana as a recreational drug. This is a big market for drug traffickers. Drug peddlers may take advantage of the legalization and acquire fraudulent prescriptions to sell the drug to healthy people, which will spread the illegal use of marijuana.
Marijuana has been proven to have numerous ...