There are two sides of marijuana being used for medical purposes.
people think it is great and say it will help the pain go away. Other .
people .
believe it is a bad idea and become additive over time. Many .
propositions .
and court cases have contributed to marijuana use. A popular one is .
Proposition 215. This is a medical marijuana initiative. The biggest .
argument is that there is no real evidence that smoked marijuana is .
more .
effective than any other available treatment (McCaffery). It has been .
said .
that marijuana is a temporary relief medicine for diseases such as .
AIDS, .
Cancer, Strokes, and so on. The main reason why it is said to help .
these .
patients that have acquired these sicknesses is because the treatment .
called .
Chemotherapy. Chemotherapy is a long tedious process and it really .
takes a .
toll on the recipient of this treatment. There is a chance that this .
process .
can cure or prolong the patients life. But there is a price to pay for .
having to have this done to their bodies. The chemotherapy has side .
effects .
and the one that the marijuana helps is the vomiting. It helps the .
patient .
to keep their food down and it gives them a hunger so they don't waste .
away .
to nothing. .
Marijuana has been around for over 5,000 years and has been used in .
many .
different ways (Zeller 20). Greeks and Romans made medicines from this. .
Americans did not start to "get high" until the 1900s, and then it was .
legal. .
Marijuana became illegal in 1937, under the Marijuana Tax Act. This .
restricted marijuana use everywhere in the United States. Strict .
regulations .
governing cultivation of the plant made its production impractical. .
New .
synthetic drugs caught the fancy of physicians and marijuana was used .
less .
frequently. In 1942, the Federal Bureau of Narcotics convinced the .
U.S. .
Pharmacopedia to remove the drug from its listing. .
During the 1960s "hippies" and "flower children" used this drug to show .
how .
mature and independent they were, even though it was illegal (Zeller .
