First, is marijuana a safe and effective medicine? Advocates maintain marijuana has been used medicinally for thousands of years and for a variety of uses. They claim that it is safe, no one has ever "died of an overdose," and that it is effective and helpful for a variety of serious illnesses, from multiple sclerosis to cancer and AIDS. In fact, even the Drug Enforcement Administration's (DEA) chief administrative law judge maintains the DEA should de

In conclusion, medicinal marijuana should be legalized, as it is a medication that can give relief from a variety of symptoms, and many others have used it for thousands of years without adverse affects. It needs to be legalized, and it needs to be soon.

Therefore, there may be other drugs capable of treating the debilitating affects of illnesses such as cancer, but many of these drugs have harsh symptoms of their own, and many patients find they get more relief from marijuana, and can tolerate its affects much more easily.

Would legalization send the wrong message to children? This is probably the most difficult argument to analyze, because it is so controversial. Children in our society today already use marijuana in record numbers, and so "sending the wrong message" may already be far too late. Marijuana is not perceived as a dangerous drug in much of the nation, and the worst symptoms from marijuana may be smoking it, it is much more dangerous than smoking cigarettes, especially on young lungs. Marijuana would not be legal for juveniles, it would only be legal for medicinal purposes, and this is not sending the wrong message to our children, it is sending a message that we are compassionate and caring for our diseased and our ill, and we want them to have the best care and medicines available to them.

Third, should the FDA approval process be circumvented with legislation? Having the FDA approve medicinal marijuana is simply another stepping stone in the process, and it should be circumvented with legislation because there have already been numerous studies as to the benefits of med

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