Essay #2 Arguing without prescribing

 Medical Marijuana: The Indecision Issue

Richard Nguyen

Many people have a lot of skepticism towards marijuana and its uses, whether it is for medical purposes or simply to get high. But mostly on impulse or the first train of thought, what many people have in mind at the very moment of hearing the word "marijuana" is that it’s an illegal drug that makes the smoker get high. It is common sense to dictate that marijuana simply makes people get high and have harmful effects on both the body and mind because it is also common knowledge. To be honest, that is what I have grown up to believe in. That is what I was taught defines marijuana, but there are others who argue that it is also beneficial to the studies of medicine as well. The main question that I want to ask, then, is this: "is medical marijuana actually beneficial to medical use, instead of just being a drug for many people to get high on?"

When marijuana was first acknowledged in the U.S. it was immediately illegalized and was seen as a drug by many citizens, and it also became an opportunity to make illegal money for drug dealers. These are the two main causes for all the states in the U.S. to illegalize it, and to automatically brand the substance as prohibited for all to stay away from. To this day, in the states in which marijuana is illegal, people have been smuggling and using marijuana just to get high or for pain relief. The issue here is that while medical marijuana smokers are smoking to gain the medical benefits, i.e. pain releif from chemotherapy, for their health issues, in some states, most doctors are still a little bit skeptical on how helpful the drug can be, so they don't endorse it or recommend it as much as regular medicine. Even though most doctors think that medical marijuana isn't helpful, there are still some doctors who think that medical marijuana is actually beneficial. In a quote, writer Sharon Kirkey says,  "But research into medicinal marijuana is undergoing a surge of interest, with more evidence emerging not only of its ability to ease human suffering, but also of its apparent safety.” (Kirkey, A4) This quote is a good example, by Sharon Kirkey, of how the medical field is still skeptical about the marijuana usage, even though it helps people beneficially for health reasons.

Yes, there is an interest of study into the usage of medical marijuana, which solves the problem of medical study of marijuana, but it still doesn't solve the problem of skepticism about the study and the uses for it. Mostly because of the common knowledge of what marijuana was originally used for as a drug, before scientists and doctors started to begin thinking of using it as medicine, and because of that doctors and other medical researchers were studying about the harmful effects of marijuana as a drug. Such as certain users or smokers will have different effects on the human brain. For example, young teens that smoke or use marijuana will show poor academic performance and might even get addicted to it. “But scientific research shows that there are risks, especially for teens. For those who use it regularly, it can lead to poor academic performance, or even addiction." ("The science of marijuana how THC affects the barin." 22)That is just one example of how many people discover about how marijuana can harm the human body. In other words marijuana just got stuck being studied about how harmful it is to people or the human body in general. While others started to have an opened mindedness for thinking that it can actually be beneficial to people.

The issue here is all about how people argue about their differences on the uses for marijuana. While one doctor or medical scientist is studying about the harmful effects of marijuana, the other is researching how beneficial it is to the human body medically. An example how medical researchers and doctors can contradict each other, is that they always find a new fact or issue about marijuana be to both beneficial and harmful to the body. While one doctor says "marijuana smoke won't damage the lungs of the human body." The other doctor says “marijuana smoke has harmful effects of smoking and greatly boosts respiratory problems." "Cannabis doesn't damage the lungs like tobacco smoke, which changes the small airways and causes long-term and permanent damage."("Cannabis is useful.”)"The disease, which is often caused by smoking, actually encompasses a few disorders, including chronic bronchitis and emphysema. People with COPD often have difficulty breathing and shortness of breath, and experience increased coughing." (Carly Weeks. L4) I other words it is a way for both doctors and medical researchers to say that they are both half wrong all the time.

That mainly sums up how the medical study on marijuana works for doctors and medical researchers. To rephrase my point, doctors will always have an argument with each other, proving one person is right and the other is wrong; by discovering new material about marijuana and to disapprove each other's theorize about it. This causes an endless cycle between the two arguments to always discover new material about marijuana. But in my opinion, I cannot decide whether it is beneficial to human health or not because I cannot form an unbiased opinion. I have never smoked marijuana yet so I cannot say that I am able to form an honest opinion because I only know about marijuana through readings, and other people who have smoked it. But until I experience medical marijuana first hand, to fully understand the effects and benefits of it, I can finally have both sides of the argument to form a well-developed opinion of whether it is beneficial to human health or not.