Last week, I visited my parents and my father asked what I’ve been doing for my classes. I told my father that I was writing a blog, to which he asked what I was writing about. While he probably hoped it was something discussing important topics that could possibly help a prospective career, I told him I was writing an informative blog on how marijuana legalization is an effective policy. At this point, he must have concluded in his mind that I was a pothead because he effectively became stone-faced. I noticed this and decided to make a last ditch effort to sway his mind before his new perception of me became cemented in his mind. I told him about the study that showed how marijuana consumption can be an effective medicine to treat and prevent Alzheimer’s disease because of its effect to prevent the plaque formation in the brain found in Alzheimer's. As I expected, he perked up and eagerly asked me more questions concerning how this could be true. You see, his mother, my grandmother, passed away a few years ago as a result of a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease. Despite marijuana’s ability to treat this degenerative and terminal disease, it is obvious that most of marijuana’s medical uses go unnoticed by the public.
While marijuana can be used to treat many diseases, most people have very little knowledge of the other uses. The most well known use of marijuana as medicine is for the treatment of glaucoma. Studies have shown smoking marijuana loosens the intraocular pressure that causes glaucoma. As mentioned before, it can treat Alzheimer’s disease. In addition, the THC found in cannabis has been found to reduce lung cancer tumor growth and its ability to spread. Another cannabinoid found in marijuana, cannabidiol, has been studied to find that it can have the same effects of chemotherapy without the negative side effects. This would mean that consumption of marijuana would stop the spread of breast cancer. Scientists have also discovered that the symptoms of HIV and AIDS can be benefited by marijuana use. HIV patients that smoked marijuana were found to have increased food intake, better moods, and a better quality of life. Furthermore, a study from this year found that THC effectively causes the death of brain cancer cells while leaving healthy cells unharmed and having no toxic effects.
Before I read your blog whenever the word marijuana showed up, I always associated it with addiction. My uncle was addicted to marijuana and had to be put in rehab. Growing up in a family were marijuana use was common, I have negative opinions towards its use. But it is really interesting to find out that marijuana can help treat many diseases. I know that medicinal marijuana is legal in some states. I believe it would be beneficial for those who suffer diseases that marijuana can help treat that marijuana be legalized in all states.
ReplyDeleteWell, I'm not sure how to address the topic of addiction considering in a past post, I stated that it wasn't chemically addictive. Nevertheless, I've looked at some other sources since then and found that marijuana is not addictive in the traditional sense. It does not have the traditional withdrawal symptoms like nicotine or heroin. And yet about 10% report addiction. What I make out of this is that marijuana can have psychological addiction. On the whole, my recommendation would be (to those who do smoke): use it responsibly. Do not overuse cannabis and I recommend that you either use a vaporizer or cook the weed in food as these are safer than smoking it in traditional tools.
ReplyDeleteOh and here's the source for some of that info.
ReplyDeletehttp://addiction-dirkh.blogspot.com/2007/05/is-marijuana-addictive.html
I recognize that marijuana has many possible uses in medicine, although none of them have yet been clinically proven, but how does clinical use of exact amounts of THC in a controlled environment warrant its being available to the public? Cocaine is also used in medicine yet its illegality is not questioned.
ReplyDelete