Medical marijuana

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Name:
Instructor:
Course:ENG102/1:25
Date:10/30/13
Medical marijuana
Most people around the world have experienced or read about the use of Marijuana and
its effects. To this effect, many claims have been logged about effects of smoking marijuana
with some people claiming that the habit has some benefits and others stressing on its harmful
effects. Some groups or individuals conceal their individual financial, personal or religious
interest in the drug behind clever talk such as the drug’s medicinal value with the aim of
convincing their governments to legalize it. The legalization of Marijuana is a very
contentious issue that has been addressed in many forums ranging from high school and
parliamentary debates, court proceedings, activists and some religious affiliations. In my
opinion, Marijuana should be banned and if it is to be used for its medicinal purposes, the
government should be its sole distributor.
The compromise made in the national war against illegal drugs commenced in 1996,
when a group of well funded drug law reformers and activists advocated for the legalization
of medical marijuana in the states of Arizona and California. Backed up by the evidence of 
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the drug’s ability ability to suppress symptoms and the side effects exhibited in sick people,
the Clinton administration was able to legalize the use of medical Marijuana in the two states.
This move gained the Clinton administration a large popularity winning with a margin of over
56% in California and 65% in Arizona. Overwhelmed by the success of such acts, the
Clinton’s administration embarked on a game plan that was geared towards avoiding similar
efforts by other states and to prevent the move to expand marijuana use to cover other non
medical uses. The government’s forceful response, gave rise to a tight legal clash in regards to
whether it was appropriate to break the drug laws that existed at that time, on grounds that the
move would be as a result of medical necessity. According to Gen McCaffrey who was the
drug czar at that time, small groups of individuals who had their own interests, were
determined to see Marijuana being legalized. The individuals had the necessary finances and
the energy to ensure that the drug was legalized.
James E Coople, who was the president of the Community of anti-drug coalitions of
America in 1996, made an argument against the legalization efforts by claiming that the
remaining 48 states had to be protected from the medical marijuana propaganda that was
advocating for retaliatory messages to counter the propaganda.
As the debate on legalizing marijuana exacerbates, there is a great need to educate
people on the health disorders that may result from marijuana use. Statistics indicate an
increasing potency of disorders among minors in the US as a result of the use of the increased
use of Marijuana. According to a psychiatric research done in 2012, marijuana related
disorders are a notch higher when compared to previous years especially among groups of 
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minors. Since 1999, several interviews have been carried out using computer aided techniques
and through personal interviews that entailed demographic questions that were related to
substance abuse. Out of the 6917 marijuana users that were interviewed, 15% of the
respondents were satisfied with the DSM IV criteria of the that was used to investigate the
level of drug abuse, 9.6 % of the respondents were found to be dependent on the drug while
24% had a sub-threshold dependence on marijuana. A high rate of abuse was reported among
male respondents and among young adults between the ages of 18- 25 years. A 10%
prevalence was reported among adults who never completed high school.
Most respondents preferred the use of the dependence criteria more than abuse criteria
when data for the research was being collected from them. The abuse group had a higher
probability of reporting an A2 i.e. a hazardous use of the drug while 18% reported an A3
which means problems with the law. Nonetheless, 34% of marijuana abusers who were
interviewed, endorsed a DI tolerance standing. With regards to the severity of the effects of
marijuana use, all respondents who were interviewed, associated with an increased level of
marijuana abuse as time went by. There was a high number of respondents who claimed that
they started to abuse marijuana at a very young age. Some of the health conditions that were
reported during the research included, SUDs, intense psychological distress, poor self related
health and severe depression. There was also n increased rate of marijuana usage disorders
especially among minors, admissions and the related treatments calls for more intense
research on the potential of MUDs profile changes.
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Most Americans may be surprised by the idea of legalizing recreational weed smoking
but the presence of campaigns and calls to legalize the illegal drugs are slowly gaining roo