Landon Fowler
Mrs. McKoy
English 2 2nd
Period
4 September 2013
Cannabis:
Evil Drug or Medical Wonder
Ellen Smith was just an average sixty-two year old
elderly woman, or so she thought; there was one thing that made Ellen different. Ellen had Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, an
incurable tissue disorder that allows bones to easily become displaced. This syndrome was rapidly progressing, and
unfortunately for poor Ellen, pain medication just did not seem to help her
deal with her pain. After an operation
to fix her broken sternum, her doctor prescribed medical marijuana, she almost
immediately felt relief. Quoting Ellen,
“When you have severe or chronic pain, you don’t get high or stoned as many
people would assume. Instead, it just turns down the pain dial in your body.”
Smith usually eats applesauce mixed with cannabis oil she gets from the
marijuana she grows. For Ellen, and many women like her, medical marijuana has
been a miracle. It may not slow down diseases, but what it does do is take away
the discomfort so people can spend time with family and loved ones without
feeling the aching, intense pain. Marijuana should be legal for medical
purposes to help sick people deal with their pain.
During my hunt for information on the topic of medical
marijuana, I have learned a great deal about cannabis. According to the
article, “Medical Marijuana Rx or Risk?” I have discovered that using cannabis
medically is a practice that has been going on for thousands, yes thousands, of
years; with the first recorded use for medical purposes dating all the way back
to 2737 BC. This fact is important because it shows not just important, but how
traditional medical marijuana is. Another
very important piece of information I have found was located in the article,
“Health Effects of Using Cannabis for Therapeutic Purposes: A Gender Analysis
of Users’ Perspectives” It states that CTP, a chemical found in marijuana, has
been linked to significant improvements in mental health. This discovery is very important because it
shows that cannabis is not really as evil as so many people make it out to
be. It has the potential to help people,
and that is exactly why I believe cannabis should be legal for medical
purposes. The initial research that I
have done showed me many, if not all, of the benefits using cannabis can do for
a person. It also has made me wonder why
marijuana was made illegal in the first place.
I would like to further investigate this topic because I
feel as if I am scratching the surface to something gigantic, and I would like
to continue to learn more about it. I want to be able to identify why cannabis
should be legal medically, but at the same time also know the dangers of
it. Other people that disagree with me
might argue that marijuana is still a drug, and it is addictive if more than the prescribed amount is taken, and
t is just not worth it; the benefits to not outweigh the consequences. I personally believe that no one deserves to
feel the pain many people do due to conditions with their mental and physical
health. Overall, the question still
rings in my head, do the benefits really outweigh the dangers?
