2_solis_myrna

Myrna Solis

Rhetoric

April 9, 2001

Is Marijuana Good or Bad?

The United States of America is a country in which people have the privilege of being free. Yet, the freedom people have is modified by laws implemented by the government that serves to protect and secure well-being. The welfare of the citizens is an issue that is highly respected and holds the highest consideration. Therefore, when a health issue is discussed, people want to be informed and educated as to the impact it may have on them. The more information they obtain, the better it is because it makes them knowledgeable and impartial. People can learn of the attributes and the positive effects of a substance even if it is marijuana. Marijuana tends to trouble people because they fear it will contribute to and increase criminal activity. People fear this may have a negative impact on families and communities. In addition, according to Lester Grinspoon, "Governments are unlikely to approve it because of concern about its use for nonmedical purposes and the difficulties of distributing as a medicine a substance that is already easily available." The concerns held by the people are all legitimate, but measures can be taken to ensure the safety and tranquility of every person. Moreover, the government's concern of marijuana being used for nonmedical purposes can also be laid to rest since it has never killed anyone who has used it for the relief of pain and / or for any other purpose (Grinspoon). Joan Bello, who has a Masters Degree in Holistic Health and Psychology, and clinical experience as a substance abuse counselor states "marijuana has no known level of toxicity" (22). Bello goes on to mention that in order for marijuana to produce a lethal reaction one would have to eat five pounds of it or smoke 40,000 joints in one day (22). She further states that marijuana is a substance that is constant in its complete harmlessness and its absolute healthfulness (105). Furthermore, the classification of marijuana as a narcotic is without basis, for the reason that the term narcotic describes a drug or a poison that reduces sensibility by depressing brain function which can cause death by stopping respiration, and marijuana has none of these effects (22). In essence, marijuana is a substance that should be legalized because it has the potential to give people a better way of life.

The myths of marijuana should not be the basis for which people should be reluctant to explore the substance and deprive others from using it. No person should allow themselves to be overwhelmed by concerns that others share. Maintaining criminal activity at a minimum is, without a doubt, shared by every citizen. Families and communities are by far one's most valuable possessions, but legalizing marijuana is not in anyway encouraging the disruption of these. As a matter of fact, Meaghan Cussen and Walter Block state that "the legalization of drugs would prevent our civil liberties from being threatened any further; it would reduce crime rates, reverse the potency effect, improve the quality of life in the inner cities, prevent the spread of diseases, save the taxpayer money, and generally benefit both individuals and the community as a whole." The citizens of the United States need to give each other the opportunity to grow as individuals and be responsible for their actions. If it is a person's decision to consume marijuana for relief of pain or for recreational use, then he should have the right to do so. More so, those who consume it for recreational purposes are unknowingly consuming a natural remedy that is in the strictest sense of the word, a medicine (Bello 27). According to Dan Baum, people are tired of seeing their tax money go toward a war against drugs that seems to be a very futile enterprise. Moreover, society is also tired of seeing young people ruined by arrest records for a drug that is less dangerous than other legal drugs like tobacco and alcohol. For instance, "more than 20,000 people are doing time for simple drug possession in California, at an annual cost of $21,000 a piece, according to the State Department of Correction" (Baum). Certainly, there are other states across the country that may be experiencing the same expenditure as California, and that is not the manner in which the tax payer's money should be spent. Instead, they should start saving the tax payers' money and use it to extend the research on marijuana to prevent the spread of diseases (Cussen and Block).

However, for purposes of reaching an agreement as to the legalization of marijuana, people should consider the alternative of legalizing it for medical use and restrict its distribution. This has been done in seven states across the country; Maine, Alaska, Oregon, Washington, Arizona, Hawaii and California have approved the legalization of marijuana for medical reasons (Baum). The number of states is likely to increase to nine according to Baum, and "in Colorado and Nevada, voters are expected to approve the legalization of marijuana use for medical reasons." Grinspoon further reports that marijuana is a substance which can help the symptoms and conditions of tetanus, neuralgia, labor pain, convulsive disorders, migraine, insomnia, dysmenorrhea convulsions, asthma, and rheumatism. Furthermore, researchers have also discovered that marijuana aids patients undergoing chemotherapy and those who suffer from glaucoma. According to Richard Brookhiser, chemotherapy is a harsh treatment in which a poison is dumped into the bloodstream, killing millions of cells, in order to kill the thousands of malignant cells. The process of the body removing the poison causes nausea. Marijuana is able to relieve the intense and prolonged nausea and vomiting (Grinspoon). In addition, glaucoma is a disease that degenerates the eyeball when the intraocular pressure rises to a point the optic nerve can not tolerate, and as a consequence, it causes irreversible damage and blindness; however, marijuana is able to treat it (Bello 106). For instance, Brookhiser states that "glaucoma patients find that it arrests the deterioration of their eyes." Bello, in addition, goes on to state that "within one hour of smoking marijuana and four hours following, the intraocular pressure is reduced to normal" (101). Moreover, marijuana has the potential to relieve pain and stimulate appetite and unintentional weight loss for victims of AIDS ("Cannabis "). HIV patients learn that marijuana is the most effective and least toxic treatment for increasing appetite and reducing weight loss (Grinspoon). The number of sick people that can be helped are countless, and many of them feel "marijuana is a powerful and needed medicine, they say, tragically withheld by misplaced phobia about drug addiction" ("Cannabis"). No reason exists to decline the legalization of marijuana, for tobacco is legal, and it is much more dangerous.

Citizens that consume tobacco become addicted to the substances it contains. The addiction people develop toward cigarettes is associated with the complex substances and the highly addictive nicotine they possess. According to William Everett Bailey M.S., "Tobacco smoke contains some 100,000 complex chemicals. Only about 4,000 have been identified and classified, and the remainder have not. The most prevalent and significant are nicotine, tar and some 2,000 extremely toxic chemicals and gases" (114). Moreover, Bailey also says that carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide are some of the most dangerous gases found in cigarettes; for they are attributes to the health hazard of smoking. In addition, if a drop of nicotine is placed on the tongue, it will kill a person in five minutes, and it is this small drop of nicotine that is found in about four cigarettes. It is important to point out that the majority of the gases contained in the cigarettes are carcinogens, which accelerate the process that leads to cancer (76, 114). To make matters worse, every six and half minutes, a person is killed due to second hand smoke (153). The usage of tobacco is also the reason why "every year, 125,000 American women die from tobacco related diseases" (157). Unfortunately, statistics show that women are starting to smoke at a fast rate (157). Furthermore, when alcohol and smoking are combined, these hazardous drugs increase the risk of cancer in the mouth, esophagus and larynx (141). Apparently, these harmful effects did not seem to matter to legislators because the legalization of addictive drugs did not stop with tobacco; there is also alcohol.

Alcohol consumption can lead to numerous health complications that cause death. For instance, it was recently reported by V.R. Preedy, et al., "Alcohol causes reductions in skeletal muscle protein synthesis, as well as of skin, bone, and the small intestine." People that consume alcohol, and fail to stay away from consuming dual substances such as cocaine and tobacco, are subject to obvious organ dysfunction (Preedy et al.). In addition, Joan Hurley and Janet Horowitz state that Achronic alcoholism may accelerate the processes associated with biological aging (51). Not to mention, alcohol can also cause "injury to the intestinal tract that may also take the form of varices (twisted and dilated veins or arteries) in the colon, which though rare, may cause sudden massive rectal bleeding in patients with liver cirrhosis" (61). Ironically, alcohol is a drug that is socially accepted even though its effects are deadly. Yet, marijuana, on the other hand, according to Bello, "has even been successful in treating alcoholics and morphine addicts, but the studies that demonstrate these results could not be replicated because of the government's ban on all marijuana testing by private agencies or medical scientists not employed by pharmaceutical companies" (30). Marijuana has also been linked to aiding people plagued with terminal diseases. These medical reasons are of great importance and should encourage individuals to legalize marijuana for medical use.

The legalization of marijuana is a controversial issue in this country. People feel leery about the drug because of all the misguided information they have received. Meanwhile, patients that need marijuana are suffering when their pain could be alleviated. Depriving patients from using marijuana is selfish. The legalization of marijuana is extremely important because it can prolong the lives of many sick people. Those who are sick should not have to become criminals or be arrested for using marijuana to live a life without pain. If people would only approach the legalization of it with an open mind, it would clear up many of their doubts. For instance, Douglas Stanglin reports that "Gen. Barry McCaffrey . . . one of the leaders in the fight against the new laws in California and Arizona that permit the use of pot for medical purposes . . . softened his rhetoric, noting that his office plans to spend $1 million on a comprehensive review of existing research on marijuana." Furthermore, McCaffrey stated "[it is] essential that we remain prepared to reschedule marijuana as a Schedule II drug if the medical evidence supports a conclusion that the drug does have effective therapeutic uses" (qtd. in Stanglin). Therefore, do not pass judgment on marijuana without first learning of the benefits and how it can help treat many illnesses that attack the population. People need to try to see marijuana through the eyes of the patients that hope for the drug to treat their illnesses. The time to realize the importance of marijuana is now, and not when a loved one becomes infected by one of these diseases. The longer the wait to legalize marijuana, the more people will continue to be tortured.

Sources Cited

Bailey, William Everett. The Invisible Drug. Houston: Mosaic Publications, 1996.

Baum, Dan. "The Drug War on the Ballot." Rolling Stone 23 Nov. 2000: 61.

Bello, Joan. The Benefits of Marijuana: Physical, Psychological and Spiritual.

California: Sweetlight Books, 1996.

Brookhiser, Richard. "Pot Luck: Any Sick Person Who Wants to Use Marijuana

to Help Himself has to Break the Law." National Review 11 Nov. 1996:

"The Cannabis CURE?" Mercury [Tasmania, Australia] 5 Dec. 2000: 28.

Cussen, Meaghan, and Walter Block. "Legalize Drugs No? An Analysis of the

Benefits of Legalized Drugs." American Journal of Economics &

Sociology 59 (July 2000): 525-536. 20 Mar. 2001

<http://www.texhare.edu/ovidweb>.

Grinspoon, Lester. "Whither Medical Marijuana?" Contemporary Drug

Problems 27 (Spring 2000): 3-15. 11 Feb. 2001

<http://www.texhare.edu/ovidweb/ovidweb>.

Hurley, Joan, and Janet Horowitz. Alcohol and Health. New York: Hemisphere

Publishing Corporation, 1990.

Stanglin, Douglas. "A Second Look?" US News & World Report 17 Feb. 1997:

25.

Preedy V.R., et al. "Protein Metabolism in Alcoholism: Effects on Specific Tissues

and the Whole Body." Nutrition 15 (July-Aug. 1999): 604.









			Myrna Solis Rhetoric April 9, 2001 Is Marijuana Good or Bad? The United States of America is a country in which people have the privilege of being free. Yet, the freedom people have is modified by laws implemented by the government that serves to protect and secure well-being. The welfare of the citizens is an issue that is highly respected and holds the highest consideration. Therefore, when a health issue is discussed, people want to be informed and educated as to the impact it may have on them. The more information they obtain, the better it is because it makes them knowledgeable and impartial. People can learn of the attributes and the positive effects of a substance even if it is marijuana. Marijuana tends to trouble people because they fear it will contribute to and increase criminal activity. People fear this may have a negative impact on families and communities. In addition, according to Lester Grinspoon, "Governments are unlikely to approve it because of concern about its use for nonmedical purposes and the difficulties of distributing as a medicine a substance that is already easily available." The concerns held by the people are all legitimate, but measures can be taken to ensure the safety and tranquility of every person. Moreover, the government's concern of marijuana being used for nonmedical purposes can also be laid to rest since it has never killed anyone who has used it for the relief of pain and / or for any other purpose (Grinspoon). Joan Bello, who has a Masters Degree in Holistic Health and Psychology, and clinical experience as a substance abuse counselor states "marijuana has no known level of toxicity" (22). Bello goes on to mention that in order for marijuana to produce a lethal reaction one would have to eat five pounds of it or smoke 40,000 joints in one day (22). She further states that marijuana is a substance that is constant in its complete harmlessness and its absolute healthfulness (105). Furthermore, the classification of marijuana as a narcotic is without basis, for the reason that the term narcotic describes a drug or a poison that reduces sensibility by depressing brain function which can cause death by stopping respiration, and marijuana has none of these effects (22). In essence, marijuana is a substance that should be legalized because it has the potential to give people a better way of life. The myths of marijuana should not be the basis for which people should be reluctant to explore the substance and deprive others from using it. No person should allow themselves to be overwhelmed by concerns that others share. Maintaining criminal activity at a minimum is, without a doubt, shared by every citizen. Families and communities are by far one's most valuable possessions, but legalizing marijuana is not in anyway encouraging the disruption of these. As a matter of fact, Meaghan Cussen and Walter Block state that "the legalization of drugs would prevent our civil liberties from being threatened any further; it would reduce crime rates, reverse the potency effect, improve the quality of life in the inner cities, prevent the spread of diseases, save the taxpayer money, and generally benefit both individuals and the community as a whole." The citizens of the United States need to give each other the opportunity to grow as individuals and be responsible for their actions. If it is a person's decision to consume marijuana for relief of pain or for recreational use, then he should have the right to do so. More so, those who consume it for recreational purposes are unknowingly consuming a natural remedy that is in the strictest sense of the word, a medicine (Bello 27). According to Dan Baum, people are tired of seeing their tax money go toward a war against drugs that seems to be a very futile enterprise. Moreover, society is also tired of seeing young people ruined by arrest records for a drug that is less dangerous than other legal drugs like tobacco and alcohol. For instance, "more than 20,000 people are doing time for simple drug possession in California, at an annual cost of $21,000 a piece, according to the State Department of Correction" (Baum). Certainly, there are other states across the country that may be experiencing the same expenditure as California, and that is not the manner in which the tax payer's money should be spent. Instead, they should start saving the tax payers' money and use it to extend the research on marijuana to prevent the spread of diseases (Cussen and Block). However, for purposes of reaching an agreement as to the legalization of marijuana, people should consider the alternative of legalizing it for medical use and restrict its distribution. This has been done in seven states across the country; Maine, Alaska, Oregon, Washington, Arizona, Hawaii and California have approved the legalization of marijuana for medical reasons (Baum). The number of states is likely to increase to nine according to Baum, and "in Colorado and Nevada, voters are expected to approve the legalization of marijuana use for medical reasons." Grinspoon further reports that marijuana is a substance which can help the symptoms and conditions of tetanus, neuralgia, labor pain, convulsive disorders, migraine, insomnia, dysmenorrhea convulsions, asthma, and rheumatism. Furthermore, researchers have also discovered that marijuana aids patients undergoing chemotherapy and those who suffer from glaucoma. According to Richard Brookhiser, chemotherapy is a harsh treatment in which a poison is dumped into the bloodstream, killing millions of cells, in order to kill the thousands of malignant cells. The process of the body removing the poison causes nausea. Marijuana is able to relieve the intense and prolonged nausea and vomiting (Grinspoon). In addition, glaucoma is a disease that degenerates the eyeball when the intraocular pressure rises to a point the optic nerve can not tolerate, and as a consequence, it causes irreversible damage and blindness; however, marijuana is able to treat it (Bello 106). For instance, Brookhiser states that "glaucoma patients find that it arrests the deterioration of their eyes." Bello, in addition, goes on to state that "within one hour of smoking marijuana and four hours following, the intraocular pressure is reduced to normal" (101). Moreover, marijuana has the potential to relieve pain and stimulate appetite and unintentional weight loss for victims of AIDS ("Cannabis "). HIV patients learn that marijuana is the most effective and least toxic treatment for increasing appetite and reducing weight loss (Grinspoon). The number of sick people that can be helped are countless, and many of them feel "marijuana is a powerful and needed medicine, they say, tragically withheld by misplaced phobia about drug addiction" ("Cannabis"). No reason exists to decline the legalization of marijuana, for tobacco is legal, and it is much more dangerous. Citizens that consume tobacco become addicted to the substances it contains. The addiction people develop toward cigarettes is associated with the complex substances and the highly addictive nicotine they possess. According to William Everett Bailey M.S., "Tobacco smoke contains some 100,000 complex chemicals. Only about 4,000 have been identified and classified, and the remainder have not. The most prevalent and significant are nicotine, tar and some 2,000 extremely toxic chemicals and gases" (114). Moreover, Bailey also says that carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide are some of the most dangerous gases found in cigarettes; for they are attributes to the health hazard of smoking. In addition, if a drop of nicotine is placed on the tongue, it will kill a person in five minutes, and it is this small drop of nicotine that is found in about four cigarettes. It is important to point out that the majority of the gases contained in the cigarettes are carcinogens, which accelerate the process that leads to cancer (76, 114). To make matters worse, every six and half minutes, a person is killed due to second hand smoke (153). The usage of tobacco is also the reason why "every year, 125,000 American women die from tobacco related diseases" (157). Unfortunately, statistics show that women are starting to smoke at a fast rate (157). Furthermore, when alcohol and smoking are combined, these hazardous drugs increase the risk of cancer in the mouth, esophagus and larynx (141). Apparently, these harmful effects did not seem to matter to legislators because the legalization of addictive drugs did not stop with tobacco; there is also alcohol. Alcohol consumption can lead to numerous health complications that cause death. For instance, it was recently reported by V.R. Preedy, et al., "Alcohol causes reductions in skeletal muscle protein synthesis, as well as of skin, bone, and the small intestine." People that consume alcohol, and fail to stay away from consuming dual substances such as cocaine and tobacco, are subject to obvious organ dysfunction (Preedy et al.). In addition, Joan Hurley and Janet Horowitz state that Achronic alcoholism may accelerate the processes associated with biological aging (51). Not to mention, alcohol can also cause "injury to the intestinal tract that may also take the form of varices (twisted and dilated veins or arteries) in the colon, which though rare, may cause sudden massive rectal bleeding in patients with liver cirrhosis" (61). Ironically, alcohol is a drug that is socially accepted even though its effects are deadly. Yet, marijuana, on the other hand, according to Bello, "has even been successful in treating alcoholics and morphine addicts, but the studies that demonstrate these results could not be replicated because of the government's ban on all marijuana testing by private agencies or medical scientists not employed by pharmaceutical companies" (30). Marijuana has also been linked to aiding people plagued with terminal diseases. These medical reasons are of great importance and should encourage individuals to legalize marijuana for medical use. The legalization of marijuana is a controversial issue in this country. People feel leery about the drug because of all the misguided information they have received. Meanwhile, patients that need marijuana are suffering when their pain could be alleviated. Depriving patients from using marijuana is selfish. The legalization of marijuana is extremely important because it can prolong the lives of many sick people. Those who are sick should not have to become criminals or be arrested for using marijuana to live a life without pain. If people would only approach the legalization of it with an open mind, it would clear up many of their doubts. For instance, Douglas Stanglin reports that "Gen. Barry McCaffrey . . . one of the leaders in the fight against the new laws in California and Arizona that permit the use of pot for medical purposes . . . softened his rhetoric, noting that his office plans to spend $1 million on a comprehensive review of existing research on marijuana." Furthermore, McCaffrey stated "[it is] essential that we remain prepared to reschedule marijuana as a Schedule II drug if the medical evidence supports a conclusion that the drug does have effective therapeutic uses" (qtd. in Stanglin). Therefore, do not pass judgment on marijuana without first learning of the benefits and how it can help treat many illnesses that attack the population. People need to try to see marijuana through the eyes of the patients that hope for the drug to treat their illnesses. The time to realize the importance of marijuana is now, and not when a loved one becomes infected by one of these diseases. The longer the wait to legalize marijuana, the more people will continue to be tortured.

				Sources Cited Bailey, William Everett. The Invisible Drug. Houston: Mosaic Publications, 1996. Baum, Dan. "The Drug War on the Ballot." Rolling Stone 23 Nov. 2000: 61. Bello, Joan. The Benefits of Marijuana: Physical, Psychological and Spiritual. California: Sweetlight Books, 1996. Brookhiser, Richard. "Pot Luck: Any Sick Person Who Wants to Use Marijuana to Help Himself has to Break the Law." National Review 11 Nov. 1996: 7. "The Cannabis CURE?" Mercury [Tasmania, Australia] 5 Dec. 2000: 28. Cussen, Meaghan, and Walter Block. "Legalize Drugs No? An Analysis of the Benefits of Legalized Drugs." American Journal of Economics & Sociology 59 (July 2000): 525-536. 20 Mar. 2001 <http://www.texhare.edu/ovidweb>. Grinspoon, Lester. "Whither Medical Marijuana?" Contemporary Drug Problems 27 (Spring 2000): 3-15. 11 Feb. 2001 <http://www.texhare.edu/ovidweb/ovidweb>. Hurley, Joan, and Janet Horowitz. Alcohol and Health. New York: Hemisphere Publishing Corporation, 1990. Stanglin, Douglas. "A Second Look?" US News & World Report 17 Feb. 1997: 25. Preedy V.R., et al. "Protein Metabolism in Alcoholism: Effects on Specific Tissues and the Whole Body." Nutrition 15 (July-Aug. 1999): 604.