The BATTLE OVER MARIJUANA

The Battle over Marijuana

Abstract

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. 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.

The Battle over Marijuana

Introduction 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, 1996).

Problem Statement

Merijuana is used for medical puroposes as well as drug. The problem here is to discuss whether the use of marijuana should be legalized or not. And for this purpose to discuss this we proceed further to some medical and legal experts for a solution to this problem.

Hypothesis

“Marijuana usage for many today is a personal, rather than legal”. We have to prove that marijuana is used as a drug personally by majority not as a legal medicine. This hypothsis can be tested by conducting various experimens and opinion poll surveys.

Discussion

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, 1995, 34). 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 ...