For Jamie Muller, a victim in a car accident, "smoking pot helped the pain go away and brought back my appetite" He has stopped smoking pot in fear of the legal trouble that faced him. If marijuana were legal he would not have to worry about the law and he could stay away from the constant pain. The side effects that the other painkillers brought were very negative, so marijuana seemed to be the best alternative for Muller (Turner). A cancer patient, Irvin Rosenfeld says "this is the best medicine I've discovered" (Rogers). For many people the best medicine for their pain is marijuana.
Marijuana has yet to have any proven medicinal value. "The government and the American Medical Association say that there is no scientific evidence that marijuana is useful" (Rogers). There are many doctors that still say that marijuana is damaging and addictive. Some say that the only reason patients smoke marijuana is because it is fun and makes them happy, which in turn gets their mind off the pain (Colin). The therapeutic symptoms of marijuana could be a placebo since there is no scientific evidence to support the effects that marijuana has on the body. Marijuana may really not make pain go away, there is no strong evidence proving that it does, only people that say or think their pain goes away.
Marijuana has yet to be studied in great detail. It is classified as a Schedule 1 drug which means it is dangerous with no medical value. With marijuana as a Schedule 1 drug it is illegal to conduct research proving the medical value of the drug. It has been used for approximately 5,000 years to relieve illnesses. In a book written by Lester Grinspoon, Marijuana Reconsidered argued that marijuana is less harmful than tobacco or alcohol (Turner). Without changing the status of marijuana as a Schedule 1 drug there is no way that scientists can prove the medicinal value of it. Keeping marijuana as a Schedule 1 drug gives the government the power to control and dismiss the proof that marijuana has some medical value.
Health and marijauna is a big issue, whether it can be used as medicine and whether it is actually a valid form of medicine. ... Think about it, if the government legalized marijuana for only medical uses they could standardize prices, amounts sold at a time, reasons for smoking, just to name a few. ...