For years there has been a wonder drug which has befriended countless sick
patients in a number of countries. A relatively inexpensive drug that is not
covered by health care plans which has aided the ill both mentally and
physically--marijuana. Significant scientific and medical studies have
demonstrated that marijuana is safe for use under medical supervision and that
the cannabis plant, in its natural form, has important therapeutic benefits that
are often of critical medical importance to persons afflicted with a variety of
life-threatening illnesses. Courts have recognized marijuana's medical value in
treatment and have ruled that marijuana can be a drug of 'necessity' in the
treatment of glaucoma, cancer, AIDS, and multiple sclerosis. From the
collection of information we now have on marijuana's health benefits for the ill,
there is no longer any reason to keep it illegal. It should therefore be legal
for licensed physicians to prescribe marijuana for terminal patients for whom it
offers the only reasonable opportunity for living without unbearable pain.
Marijuana has been used many times to help ease pain and suffering. It
often eases nausea in cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy, reduces the pain
of AIDS patients and lowers eye pressure in glaucoma sufferers. Cancer and AIDS
patients often lose a lot of weight, either due directly to their illness or
indirectly to the treatment of the illness. Dramatic weight loss puts their
lives in even more danger. Marijuana stimulates the appetite, thus enabling
patients to eat more and gain weight which in turn strengthens the immune system.
So if there are so many benefits, then why is marijuana not legal? Many
states contend that the ban on medical marijuana is necessary to prevent drug
abuse and the availability of illicit ...