Marijuana, in its natural form, has been thought to be one of the safest and oldest therapeutically active substances known to man. However, in today's society it's categorized as an illicit, illegal substance. When people hear the phrase, "legalization of marijuana," they only think of the ones smoking it for recreational purposes, rather than for medical value. Although, some states in the U.S. have made the criminal distinction between people who smoke marijuana as a doctor's recommended remedy and recreational users, who just smoke to enjoy the effects. However, the federal government and its drug enforcement agencies claim there is no distinction in federal law. The social debate of legalizing medicinal marijuana should be long over because legalizing marijuana for medical purposes would bring about more help than harm to the miserable patients suffering from AIDS, cancer, glaucoma, multiple sclerosis, and other serious or terminal illnesses. .
Marijuana comes from the plant classified as Cannabis sativa or Cannabis indica. The cannabis plant was first used for medicinal purposes nearly 5,000 years ago, and it was introduced to Western medicine in 1839 by a British physician. Classified as a Schedule I drug, cannabis belongs to the most restrictive categories for psychoactive drugs in the Drug Enforcement Administration's (DEA) five categories. Drugs in this category meet three criteria: the drug has high potential for abuse; the drug has not therapeutic value; the drug is not safe for medicinal use. The category of Schedule I contains heroin, LSD, mescaline and psilocybin. The Schedule II category consists of drugs that doctors are able to prescribe to their patients, such as morphine. From 1975 until 1992 a program called the Investigational New Drug (IND) allowed patients to receive marijuana from the government if prescribed by a physician. Out of the fifteen granted to receive marijuana legally, during that time period, only eight of them are living today.