Should Marijuana be Legalized for Medical Purposes?
Marijuana has been used extensively as a medical remedy for more than five
thousand years.
In the early 1900s, medical usage of marijuana began to decline
with the advent of alternative drugs. Injectable opiates and synthetic drugs such
as aspirin and barbiturates began to replace marijuana as the physician's drug of
choice in the twentieth-century, as their results proved to be more consistent than
the sometimes erratic effects of the hard-to-dose potencies of marijuana
(Grinspoon).
The Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 made cannabis so expensive to obtain
that its usage as a medical remedy in the U.S. came to a halt.
Although now
illegal in the U.S., marijuana continues to be used for both medical and
recreational purposes by many Americans.
There are a variety of opinions both for
and against the re-legalization of marijuana today. Perhaps the most controversial
aspect of the legalization debate is whether marijuana should be legalized for
medical purposes.
All drugs, both prescription and non-prescription, are federally 'Scheduled'
by the DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency). A drug's scheduling under Federal law is
determined "according to [its] effects, medical uses, and potential for abuse"
(Claim V).
In this classification system, marijuana is a Schedule I drug, grouped
with heroin, LSD, hashish, methaqualone, and designer drugs. These are drugs having
"unpredictable effects, and [causing] severe psychological or physical dependence,
or death" (Claim V).
A closer analysis of the DEA's Federal Scheduling system reveals that,
according to various studies by physicians on both sides of the legalization
debate, marijuana does not
meet the requirements of a Schedule I drug, but not
those of Schedule II.
The difference between the two classes is that Schedule I
drugs may lead to death, while those on Schedule II are less likely to do so.
Proponents of legalization cite information that indicates marijuana is a
relatively "safe" drug. "There is no known case of overdose; on the basis of animal
models, the ratio of lethal to effective dose is 40,000 to 1" (Grinspoon).
Even
some opponents of marijuana legalization support reclassification. Two physicians,
in a widely distributed opinions piece entitled "Marijuana Smoking as Medicine: A
Cruel Hoax", wrote;
"While the reclassification of THC to Schedule II might be
understandable, this would not be the result of smoking the crude drug marijuana,
which would as a result become more available and more readily diverted for non-
medical use"
(Nahas).
Although this evidence clearly does not support the
legalization of marijuana, it highlights one of many discrepancies that cloud this
smoky debate.
Lester Grinspoon, MD, is a proponent of the medical legalization and re-
classification of marijuana. In the Journal of the American Medical Association,
Dr. Grinspoon wrote an article entitled "A Plea for Reconsideration".
In this
plea, Grinspoon suggests that marijuana should be reclassified to a Schedule II
class drug, so that it might be legally prescribed.
He writes:
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