Imagine being diagnosed with cancer and there are only a few.
After a few months of taking all types of different medications with minimal success nothing seemed to relieve the pain. Also the medication has a side effect of nausea. By this time with no more options left, anything is worth a try to get some relief. Marijuana has been known to help cancer patients, but the physician cannot prescribe marijuana as medicine. After resorting to other methods of treatment using marijuana has relieved pain and nausea, which are the first steps in overcoming this illness. But should you go about risking an arrest for your health? Do you have a choice? Well, you should. The medical usage of marijuana should be utilized in the United States. This issue has been debated for many years and it is time to see which side has more powerful an argument. .
The prohibition of marijuana has denied critically ill patients across the United States a drug that would effectively treat their illness and relieve their pain. Oregon grandmother Stormy Ray was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1985, and she says, "Medical marijuana has literally saved my life"(Sager 30). James Messer, an AIDS patient, took synthetic THC (the active stimulant in marijuana) pill called Marinol for pain relief. The only nearby pharmacy that sold Marinol had been out of stock for two months. Desperate in need to get medication he obtained some marijuana (or cannabis) and was arrested in Stuart, Florida for possessing little more then four grams of the drug(Mathre 16). Messer was arrested for using an illegal drug for its therapeutic value. Should someone get arrested for taking an aspirin for a headache? .
Another victim of the marijuana prohibition, Peter McWilliams, is now dead at the age of fifty because of a court ruling. He died by choking on his own vomit. The Libertarian party issued a press release that read - "McWilliams was prohibited from using medical marijuana-and being denied access to the drug's anti-nausea properties almost certainly caused his death"(Buckley 11).