Medical Marijuana

The blog that I will be writing about this semester is on Medical Marijuana. There is a huge controversy going around with medical marijuana today of the concerns, and benefits. I am interested in this topic because I am a medical marijuana patient myself. I want to learn more about marijuana; why and how marijuana was classified by our federal government as one of the worst drugs in America, Schedule 1 drug includes hardcore drugs like heroin, and LSD. For instance, the DEA states that “Schedule I drugs are the most dangerous drugs of all the drug schedules with potentially severe psychological or physical dependence.” However, marijuana research has showed that it is much safer than beer. There is a lot of controversy around medical marijuana on how it should be classified; why should it be federally legalized, and why it should not. There are many unanswered questions that I have about marijuana, and I hope to have answers to them by the end of my research.

A stance that I will be taking on is to federally legalize medical marijuana. When I was 11 years old, I was diagnosed with Osgood-Schlatter’s Disease on both of my knees. It is something that I still am experiencing currently. My knees were extremely sensitive to pain. If I bump into something just slightly, the pain would so bad that I could not bare it. What sucks the most was that I could not be as active anymore. After running for a bit, my knees would ache so bad that I’d lose feelings on my knees. It literally felt like I was floating. The pain would extend for days that it would also affect my sleep. I remember waking up crying almost every night because of the pain. I have tried ointments, over the counter medication like Advil, and prescribed medication, however, they had little to no affect on reducing the pain.

As I was surfing through Facebook, I came across an article named “Two U.S. States Become First to Legalize Marijuana.” My first thought was that this was just a bluff but as I read on it came clear to me that this is happening. I was extremely against marijuana because I was taught that it was the worst of the worst. But why did these states legalize marijuana if it was so bad? As time went on, I came across multiple articles of medical marijuana saving thousands of lives. Marijuana saving lives? I thought marijuana kills you. Questions started running through my mind like would it help me with my knee pain? I wanted to give it a go. One week after I turned 18, I actually went to a medical marijuana doctor so I can get prescribed, and become a legal medical marijuana patient. When I first tried medical marijuana prescribed to me, I almost immediately felt a decrease in pain on my knees which was surprising to me because other methods I have tried did not work at all. I did not have to smoke the marijuana, they extract THC from the plant, and puts it in a capsule where you can take it like any other pill.

My family was against me using marijuana to cope with my pain but it was the only thing that was working for me. They told me that it would cause cancer but I read an article of it helping patients with cancer where patients are substituting chemo treatment of cannabis. Everyone is taught that marijuana is bad for you by the media and people around you but little exposer has shown that it has actually helped people. The fight to federally legalize marijuana is on the rise, and still occurring today. States around the country are slowly but surely being legalized. Many are in a cloud and still believes that marijuana is bad for your health. In the medical industry, they do not want marijuana to be legalized because it may replace their practices. For example, cancer patients choosing marijuana over chemotherapy because it is much more safe, and you can actually socialized unlike in chemotherapy, you experience side effects that makes you like a zombie. I know that there are many other reason of why marijuana should not be legalized. From experience, marijuana is not bad at all. I do not experience any health changes, and I have been using medical marijuana for a year now. From what I have been told by my medical doctors, you are more likely to die from drinking too much water than overdosing on marijuana.