marijuana
...a was first used in America as a medical prescription in the early 1900’s for common headaches and menstrual pains. However, its use traces back to early 3000bc in China where relieving pains from childbirth, asthma, and epilepsy were all conditions found to be beneficial from the use of marijuana (Parker 1). In most recent observations many cancer, glaucoma, AIDS, epilepsy, and various other medically diseased patients have turned to marijuana as a quick cure for their ongoing pain from extensive treatments and surgeries. Cancer patients sometimes suffer from a lack of appetite after extensive chemotherapy treatments not to mention the pain they endure during these procedures. Marijuana takes great precedent in causing hunger. In fact, no other drug causes such a dramatic effect on the appetite than marijuana. Physicians constantly advise chemo patients to eat. The only problem with those instructions is chemotherapy treatment patients are usually to busy feeling nauseas and vomiting to eat anything (Parker 1). Glaucoma is another disease whose patients use marijuana as a source of comfort from growing ailments and possible loss of sight. Many affected by glaucoma say that the currently illegal drug stunts the further loss of eyesight and helps to relieve the pain caused by the growing illness (Parker 1). The fact of the matter is there are many people suffering from the pain that follows cancer treatments and the pain that occurs because of glaucoma, not to mention the countless of disorders that would benefit from the legalization of the drug. The next issue involving marijuana in many people’s view is all the people in jail because of it. In 1995, Will Foster was sentenced to 93 years in prison after police discovered the marijuana plants he had been growing in his basement (Sullum 16). He was not selling it, only consuming it himself to help ease his rheumatoid arthritis. After a few years in prison his sentence got reduced and he was brought up for parole. The Governor refused to grant his parole until ultimately the state would not grant him more money to fund the number of drug charged inmates in the state’s prison system. Foster was released because his case just happened to be on the governor’s desk when 2,300 harmless drug offenders were released because of lack of funds (Sullum 16). This is one of the many accounts of drug offenders in prison. The fact is more drug offenders are serving time than murderers and rapists. A simple possession charge can land you in jail for a year. Having three grams of cocaine in your possession can land you in jail for 20 years, which is the same for manslaughter in some cases. By legalizing marijuana, the jails could be reserved for those deserving and we could more time putting real criminal, the murderers, rapists, child molesters, and wife beaters, behind bars. This is where those types of people deserve to be for life, not the ones smoking marijuana to get away from their pa...