Pros & Cons of Medical Marijuana

Medical Marijuana Should marijuana be a medical option? This seems to be the question that many people ask and a very controversial issue that many people argue over. But there are many pros and cons to medical marijuana that many do not know about. People have used marijuana as a medical treatment for thousands of years. Marijuana has been hailed as a prescription for many ills and physicians once used it to stimulate the appetite, relieve chronic pain, and treat asthma and migraines.

Many people are not aware of the fact that this has been so even in modern America as this plant was listed in the US Pharmacopeia, a list of the approved drugs in the United States, up until the 1940s. Medical marijuana can provide relief for conditions such as Alzheimer's Disease, Arthritis, Multiple Sclerosis, and Epilepsy. 32% of doctors indicated they would consider prescribing medicinal cannabis products if it were legal to do so.

And 33% of Other Doctors and 23% of Ophthalmologists thought medical practitioners should be able to prescribe cannabis products. Marijuana is safe, safer in fact than most other prescribed medications to treat the same symptoms. Studies show that smoking marijuana alone (without the concurrent use of tobacco) does not increase the risk of lung diseases. Marijuana has been used for centuries as a medicinal agent with good effect.

For every person who is for legalization of marijuana for medical purposes, there is another who argues against it. Some of the arguments from the opposition include Frequent marijuana use can seriously affect your short-term memory, frequent use can impair your cognitive ability, smoking anything, whether it's tobacco or marijuana, can seriously damage your lung tissue.

One of marijuana’s harmful consequences is its potential role as a gateway drug, which leads to “harder” drugs. While not all people who use marijuana go on to use other drugs, there is a high risk that people who do use it will be exposed or encourage to participate in trying more dangerous drugs. Marijuana is a valuable aid in reducing pain and suffering for patients with a variety of serious illnesses, but there are also many negative effects of marijuana on the body.

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