Research Proposal on "Medical Marijuana"

Research Proposal 7 pages (2012 words) Sources: 15

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Medical Marijuana

There is presently much controversy regarding the topic of Medical Marijuana, given that numerous people cannot detach themselves from employing a traditional perspective concerning the matter-considering that the substance has little to no medicinal attributes and that it is actually a way of legally using it with recreational purposes. In order to be able to look at the condition from an impartial point-of-view, individuals need to analyze scholarly decisions explaining why (or why not) the use of medical marijuana is recommended, how the product can be get hold of legally and with a minimum amount of effort, and the conditions it has to be used with the purpose of being effective.

The media is typically inclined to inspire its materials from conventional sources and writers are in most cases reluctant to take on innovative perspectives when writing on the subject, feeling that this would make them vulnerable to criticism. Instead of relating to how medical marijuana can actually help individuals in particular cases, some people would rather focus on older views on marijuana. Employing a mocking portrayal of medical marijuana or referring to how the substance was understood in the first decades of the twentieth century will make the topic look unintelligent.

The purpose of this paper is to reinforce medical marijuana and reprimand the negligible methods most individuals used in writing in regard to it until the present moment. It is of course difficult to break away from tradition when relating to medical marijuana, given that a lot of sources of inspiration fall victim to prejudice and it is thus unadvisable to use such information, regardless of the fact that it initially seems to present important facts. Seriousness is extremely significant in talking about medical marijuana, because just as the medical conditions of the patients about to come in contact with the substance is very genuine, the medical character of the medicine needs to be proven. This paper is not merely meant to address the reader's needs in reading about medical marijuana, as its main purpose is that of addressing the subject from an unbiased point-of-view, even if information risks becoming tedious at times.

The masses need to focus on what medical marijuana is and understand that it virtually has nothing to do with the "weed" people use with the intention of inducing feelings of pleasure. Medical marijuana is essentially the same substance as the one that is illegally sold on the streets. However, the people using it are not interested in anything else but to ameliorate the state they find themselves in through having their pain removed.

There are presently sixteen states in the United States that have legalized medicinal marijuana, this leading to a national debated concerning the substance effects and its potential to serve as medicine. Numerous people in the country are still reluctant to ignore proven facts most probably because of institutions like the Food and Drug Administration, which lobby against the use of medical marijuana for the reason that people presumably become vulnerable to abuse when using medical marijuana (Bock 63).

The legalization of medical marijuana did not change anything in regard to the government's policy concerning the illegal use of the substance. Doctors and patients who use marijuana are carefully watched so as for them not to engage in illegal activities such as issuing prescriptions for no actual reason and respectively such as demanding prescriptions for no real motive. "Nofziger became convinced of the ben- efits of medical pot when his oldest daughter died from lymphoma at the age of thirty-eight. Before she died she underwent heavy chemotherapy that caused nausea, diarrhea, and loss of appetite. When neither Marinol nor Demerol helped, Nofziger and his family found that ?marijuana best helped reduce the effects of the chemotherapy to the point where she regained her appetite and actually began putting on weight. According to Nofziger, taking medical pot ?made her life more bearable to her and to her family?" (Gerber 133). It is only when they come face-to-face with medical marijuana that some people become willing to consider its benefits. Until then however, most are inclined to continue blaming the substance, certain that there is no use for them to even try to comprehend it.

People like Nofziger come to appreciate medical marijuana when it is relatively late for them and the people they love. If he were to support medical marijuana, his daughter would have most probably gotten through her initial chemotherapy sessions easier. Because of the way the substance is seen by most people today, it is not until people discover that they have no alternative left that they actually think about trying it. When they do, most of them acknowledge that they should have initially thought about it as being similar to conventional medicine used as pain killers (Gerber 133).

Those who support medical marijuana generally put across similar ideas, most of them related to how the substance can assist numerous people in experiencing less distress. In contrast, those who condemn the substance's use believe that most pain killers on the market are likely to be more effective than marijuana. Also, they believe that traditional medicine is more indicated in cases of extreme pain because it does not put people at risk. Medical marijuana's opponents are in most cases inclined to believe that the terms medical and marijuana should not be put together in the same sentence, since there is nothing therapeutic about the latter (Earleywine 167).

Whereas the general public tends to think that the topic of medical marijuana is of little importance to society as a whole, matters are actually different. Medical marijuana has generated a lot of tension in the last few years, as doctors and patients have virtually come to be harassed as a result of their choices in regard to medicine (Barkacs, and Barkacs).

During the first years consequent to its legalization, medical marijuana has been the cause of numerous raids meant to catch and penalize individuals who dealt with prescribing and using medical marijuana. This mainly happened because legislation was somewhat faulty in the beginning and authorities had trouble understanding if the people they confronted had committed illegal acts or if they simply did what numerous other people did, only that a difficult medicine was involved in their case (Kreit). "The purpose of California's Compassionate Use Act was to alleviate the suffering of those in chronic pain for whom traditional drugs provided no relief. Unfortunately, the U.S. Supreme Court, the California Supreme Court, and the Governor of California have usurped that purpose" (Barkacs, and Barkacs).

One of the principal elements related to the use of medical marijuana is the fact that it can easily lead to the substance's use for recreational purposes. There are numerous people who bend the law by claiming that they need medical marijuana for their pains even though they are not in pain. This makes it difficult for those who actually use medical marijuana with the purpose of suffering to a lesser degree (Dresser).

Conditions in California are critical because the state did not devise a complex plan concerning who is and who is not allowed to consume marijuana for medicinal purposes. As a result of this, many people who simply want to use it for recreational purposes use a series of imagined reasons to influence doctors in prescribing them with medicinal marijuana treatments. Certain marijuana growers who were previously illegally dealing the substance took advantage of the legalization of medical marijuana and assumed caregiver roles, which made them responsible for looking after individuals whom doctors prescribed with medical marijuana treatments. Dealers thus turned legal through exploiting the legislation, further contributing to damaging the image of medical marijuana (Dresser).

In trying to address the problem of whether or not medical marijuana should be accepted as a bona fide alternative to traditional pain killers one must consider patients who reportedly experienced a change to the good as a result of using the substance. Because they associate medical marijuana with recreational marijuana, some individuals immediately think that it would be absurd to prescribe the former to children, thinking that it would virtually mean that one would give drugs to underage individuals. However, considering that a great deal of conventional medicinal substances were found to be more dangerous than some class a illegal substances, and, in spite of that, they continue to be prescribed to children, it seems less worrying for medical marijuana to be given to young people. A reason for which some people cannot possibly accept a child being prescribed marijuana is because they link such an act to smoking. Marijuana can nevertheless be taken through a series of methods, with the one most commonly used with children involving them eating a muffin that contains the substance. In the case of JJ, a child diagnosed with bipolar disorder, post traumatic stress disorder, and impulse control behavior, "the results have been very good. JJ's social worker and teachers report that his behavior has taken a dramatic turn. His demeanor is very… READ MORE

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