2/11/2013

The Controversial Medical Marijuana Pharmacy

By Terrie Joyner


Few issues are as polarizing as the controversy over establishment of the medical marijuana pharmacy. Intelligent arguments have been made on all sides of this very polarizing issue, not just from those who use cannabis, but from doctors, scientists, and lawmakers. What side of this fence one sits on often derives from personal experience with the use of it, not only as medicine but for recreation.

There is evidence suggesting that cannabis is useful for many medical conditions including glaucoma, cancer, and multiple sclerosis. Patients who have benefited from this form of treatment swear by it, and the doctors who prescribe it agree. There are still health care professionals who claim there is no medical benefit to it, although the question must raised as to why further study and testing has not been conducted.

One of the primary ways that cannabis is used, is to provide ease from stomach problems caused by chemotherapy. A huge recent controversy has arisen by those who claim that hemp oil has cured their cancers where chemo and radiation therapy did not. Those who administered hemp oil were arrested and charged with felonies, and many people are outraged by this.

Some individuals in government who believe the laws regarding cannabis should be either repealed, or at the least it should be decriminalized. Some people on the other end of the spectrum regard it as a gateway drug. They believe that using it for any purpose sets a dangerous precedent, and that it will encourage further abuse of the substance.

Nowhere is the polarization of this issue more dangerous than in the state rights versus Federal regulation argument. Several states in the US have legalized medicinal cannabis, and there are people lawfully engaged in the distribution of it, by prescription. The Federal government has stepped in and raided several of these businesses and put their owners, and sometimes the patients, in prison.

Hemp was used in centuries past for many useful things such as paper, clothing, and even medicine. Both North and South America exported it as a cash crop, and in fact it was at one time one of the largest cash crops in the Americas. In the early twentieth century, pharmaceutical companies issued propaganda films outlining the evils of cannabis, and people to this day question the true purposes to this.

World wide people are also polarized regarding the ongoing war on drugs which has been going since the Nixon Administration. Many people in government, as well as the general public, regard this war as having been a complete failure, having succeeded only in criminalizing citizens and expanding the military industrial complex. This issue becomes even more inflammatory when cancer patients or AIDS patients are put in prison.

There are several states which have legalized the medical marijuana pharmacy. The issue still rages on, both socially and politically. There are many who believe this form of medicine is superior to a lot of other pharmaceuticals, and there are those who claim that it simply legalizes drug abuse.




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