A gateway drug?  In writing his community profile, Samuel discovered marijuana just may be a gateway to sensible pain relief.  He interviewed a high-school friend who suffered from chronic aches and pains and was prescribed prescription medication from his doctors.  Sam writes that the pain killers were not only ineffective but they were unsafe.   Here, Sam wishes to remove the stigma associated with marijuana.   He argues for the decriminalization of marijuana.   For his friend, prescription marijuana  became a safe alternative to the dangerous use of opioids.  It’s not about getting high anymore, Sam says.  It’s about getting well. 

Samuel Martinez

Mr. Lewenstein

English 1A

October 4, 2017

Medical Marijuana

When I first met  Jake it was around the last year of high school while I was helping out with some charity work when I met him. Jake was always outgoing and fun but sometimes it looked like he was pain throughout the day. He overcame this by smoking medical marijuana. You would never guess by just looking at him since he was always smiling and outgoing it would generally seem that everything was fine. However when people did find out about what he did they would only judge the fact that it was marijuana and immediately condemn him. I honestly felt bad for him because it seemed that every time they found out they would avoid him completely, but for me it was different because I am a really open minded person and I could see where he was coming from. When he started to hurt he would take a lot of pain killers which he immediately recognized as something not healthy but one day he went to his doctor and asked for a more healthier and organic solution. His doctor suggested medical marijuana as an alternative, at first he was opposed but after seeing some evidence he was on board, Now Jake never smoked for recreational uses only medical which in my mind was good he would tell me when he was done he would not feel any pain for a good amount of hours something that he didn't think was possible.

Jake was really the big first person I met that actually used medical marijuana in a medical way before that I only knew about the recreational use of it. After a while of hanging out after we did our charity work I began to notice that he had aches and pains. I asked him one day how he was able to withstand the pains and how long did the pills last and after awhile of confusion he laughed but not in a mocking tone. That’s when he told me that he had a prescription for medical marijuana and at first I was skeptical as every person normally would. Now as someone who was raised by parents who had zero tolerance to any type of drug that was not medically prescribed at first i was a bit ignorant towards his situations and did not really see it from his side. I told him why he didn't just take painkillers his response to this was that pain killers were usually addictive and after awhile your body begins to build a immunity to the drug which requires bigger and bigger doses to take effect. As you can see this will usually lead to a overdose which is something he never wanted to live through as he had a family member who experienced it. Afterwards, that medical marijuana unlike opioids or painkillers is not addictive and does not give the same type of high as regular marijuana does. In other words the chemical tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), which is what gets you high is reduced and cannabidiol (CBD) is raised as much as possible as this the chemical that gives the most benefit, without the benefit of getting high. After we talked some more i was convinced that this might be the drug that gives the most result without really any downsides to it and I hope that my paper will convince other people as well.

Medicine is becoming more and more advanced everyday so, why not consider medical marijuana as one? In many cases it is better than most types of painkillers as these can get addictive. Marijuana is associated with addiction and destroying lives which is simply not true at all. On the other hand however opioids can have deadly effects if the patient overdoses and in most cases patients are given different pills to counteract other pills. Shouldn't medication work to treat the aches instead of leading it to more pills and life threatening situations. In a time where medicine is advancing at a fast rate we should consider the benefits of medical marijuana for not just the patient but also the economy.

Weed, whenever we hear the word, we automatically think about shady dealings behind alleyways and dangerous consequences. Most people do not know enough however of its medical uses. It has limitless possibilities ranging from treating PTSD to helping migraines and even treating epileptic seizures. Not also that but it can help struggling local economies make an extra buck or two as it is a very profitable crop that many people use for medical purposes. In most cases this a safer alternative and maybe even better one to replace pills for depression and opioids as this can cause addiction. However, most people don’t even know that this is a option as in certain fields it isn't allowed to be said that it is one. In most cases people only pay attention to the fact that its marijuana and automatically disregard it as bad and don't even consider its benefits to not only the person using it but to the economy. So in this paper I wish to show its benefits and maybe some unknown facts that the average person wouldn't know about it.

Although marijuana is legal in the us it is still not allowed to be used in the Coachella music festival for recreational use. A concert goer can only use it he/she meet certain criteria and has a serious problem. Making concerts pot friendly can bring in tons of revenue and customers but the organizers must pay more to be allowed use of a private area. However this challenge can be remedied through sponsorships from different companies to promote items, strains,etc to bring in more customers to their shops. But what exactly is considered a public area? That is a question for the lawyers to decide as a concert in Colorado in 2012 had to be shut down because it advertised as “pot friendly” whilst being in a public area and was subsequently shut down. Although many good and bad things come from allowing pot to be smoked in a public area it is never guaranteed as a the law can change extremely quickly and fast.

I met Jake through a skype call since apparently he had moved to Riverside to study law since he was always interested in it. He told me that he got really into weed after he got his medical marijuana card and wanted to know more about his rights. From the sound in the background but I could tell that he was in a dorm of some kind which was good to see. He told me that after the interview he was gonna smoke some medical marijuana as he was beginning to feel bad. “A common misconception is that medical marijuana is a gateway drug which is simply not true” he explained. “ You don’t just wake up one day and decide I want to do heroin, no.” He was never addicted to medical marijuana as he only uses it when he gets pains and rarey for recreational use.

Furthermore, he never really understood the hate that medical marijuana gets.  He remembers telling his parents that he smoked marijuana for medical purposes “ We raised you wrong” said his mom to him and to that he felt sad. “It’s hard for me to explain to them that this is the safest alternative.”His parents have the old-school view where marijuana is just as bad as crack cocaine and they did not understand why he did it. As we talked i could see the pain in his eyes as if his mom just repeated to him what she had said to him on that day. “It’s ok” I tell him, “people are scared of change especially when it comes to things pertaining to illegal subjects. “At first i was ashamed to let people know that i did it at all” he confessed but as time went on he began to see that people were doing even more horrible stuff than weed. He admitted that for awhile he took painkillers to help him but that they were too addictive as he had seen what they can do first hand to his cousin. “People shut down marijuana as a medical substitute and that is the wrong way of approaching this subject to the average person”. Jake said, but when they actually see the medical benefits they quickly change their minds as only smoking a little bit can last way longer than any other painkiller”.

He told me that  his mother began to get herself informed about the situation and she was beginning to see the bright side and look past all the negative ideas that are said og medical marijuana. His dad on the other hand is very stubborn in learning anything about medical marijuana as he believes that its as harmful as any other type of drug sold out on the streets. He assured me that i shouldn't really worry about this type of issue as he knew that i would never really get into the medical side of it.  Before he left and went on with is business he said that his main goal was to teach others of his experience and maybe get some more supporters. I believe that he will eventually reach his dreams as he is not someone who can be easily stopped or hindered and i can not wait to hear about what the next chapter in his life holds.

A study has also been conducted by The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine that covers almost everything that has to do with medical cannabis. In the report it states “In adults with multiple sclerosis (MS)-related spasticity, short term use of oral cannabinoids improves patient-related spasticity symptoms.”(NASEM, 2017, pg. 85) They continue to explain that not only has it had benefits for many people with certain after effects on people who have been treated with chemotherapy. The report also explains that the biggest issue for scientists researching it for its medical benefits is the fact that the government does not want to declassify it as a schedule one drug. If one of the country's best research center has something good to say about it than not all their evidence can be disregarded. Even they say that more research should go into researching marijuana for its health benefits.   

The use of marijuana for medical purposes has been debated for a long time. Among its many benefits several problems can arise from smoking it too much or simply over using it. Marijuana is a powerful psychoactive drug and can cause severe mental illnesses to arise. This can be cause because of the two main chemicals of marijuana known as tetrahydrocannabinol and endocannabinoids are very powerful and contribute to the psychosis effect. Many people treat glaucoma , a type of eye disease, with weed as it can decrease the pressure in the eye. However, the side effects that come with this is an increase in heart rate and a decrease in blood pressure two things that are major things to look out for. Most importantly however is that smoking marijuana can increase the chance of certain cancers growing and even let tumors to grow. The smoke that comes from smoking weed 50 to 70 percent more carcinogenic than that of tobacco smoke this occurs and can lead the user to be more susceptible to developing lung cancer. One of the reason this happens is because marijuana is significantly linked to DNA damage which, may also initiate tumor growth. Medical marijuana has been a solution to many problems that deal with pain and nausea mainly from the after effects of cancer treatments but this does not necessarily mean that this the only option. CBI activators can also achieve this result and can be done with natural substances that do not involve marijuana. Most of the substances that activate them are , in fact, already in our bodies and really only need some sort of nudge to be activated. So taking this into consideration I believe that we should ban medical marijuana or mainly limit the use of it too people as there are safer alternatives to this that achieve the same result.

Marijuana being used as a medical sub substitute might be taken as an excuse for smoking in the first place. However the truth of the matter is that it helps and it has been proving to help and treat certain conditions. This can range from seizures to migraines and even the after effect of chemotherapy. I think people need to consider how this can not only help people but also help local economies to bring them out of money hardships and maybe even bring them back to their former glory. Long story short people should not dismiss it as a bad thing just because it is marijuana.

Works Cited

Angel, Tom.Medical Marijuana For Vets. New York Times Online. 2017

McDermed Carina. North Carolina Considers Medical Marijuana Legalization. Dailytarheel.com. 2017

The Weed Blog. How Much THC Is In Federal Medical Marijuana. Themaven.com. 2015

Bergerson Boyd. Cons Of Medical Marijuana. Livestrong.com. 2017

The National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine. The Health Benefits of Cannabis and Cannabinoids. Washington D.C: The National Academic Press, 2017. Print