Legalization of Cannabis for its Medicinal Value

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In 1972, Congress categorized Cannabis in Schedule I of the controlled substance, making it illegal in the United States. The reason behind was that they considered the plant has “no accepted medical use”. Decades later, 20 out of 50 states, and District of Columbia have legalized the medical use of cannabis. During the past decade, numerous researches and medical trials have been conducted on Cannabis. Opponent of the plants legalization argues that the drug is too dangerous to use; it is addictive; and that legal drugs are often more effective than marijuana. In this comment, I will be discussing the recent studies of the medical usage of cannabis. Based on those researches, I argue that cannabis can be a safe and effective treatment to a number of illness, such as cancer, AIDs, epilepsy and glaucoma. In addition, marijuana often provides unique benefits which other drugs fails to provide. Therefore due to its health and medicinal values, cannabis should be legalized.
Origin and Components
Scientifically known as cannabis sativia, the plant was originated from Central Asia. Cannabis leafs are perhaps the most recognizable plants with five to seven leaflets attached at a center point. The leaves are arranged palmately, radiating from a common center much like the fingers of a hand spreading apart.There are over 480 natural components in a cannabis plant, which 66 of the components are classified as “cannabinoids”, chemicals that are unique to the plant. The most well-known cannabinoid, delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (Δ9-THC), is the chemical primarily responsible for the mind altering effects of cannabis.
Lung function benefits
One of the heavily criticized side effect of smoking cannabis is that like cigarette, cannabis impairs lu...

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...the federal government to revise its classification of cannabis.
In retrospect, cannabis provides health benefit such as increase in lung capacity due to taking deep breaths while inhaling the drug. Research conduct on the drug’s effect on epilepsy and cancer provide concrete evidence that cannabis provides medical benefits. Futhermore, The studies suggested that cannabis provides additional medical benefits which is not available by conventional drug treatments. lack of evidence in the cannabis’ medical benefits is due to insufficient research on the medical benefits of the drug. The drug’s psychiatric risks are based on research of recreational usage and not medical. In order to study the effect of cannabis in human being, revision of Cannabis legal status is needed. Based on the health and medicinal values, discussed in this comment, cannabis should be legalized.

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