Since marijuana has a high potential for abuse and lack of accepted medical use, the manufacture, acquisition, distribution, and possession of marijuana, or cannabis sativa, is subject to regulation under Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act, the most restrictive of the five federal classes of controlled substances. As a Schedule I drug, marijuana is considered to have no current accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse. Yet there are people who want this drug to become a Schedule II drug, which would declare the drug to have current accepted medical use but will still be considered to have a high potential for abuse. If this happened, cannabis sativa would therefore be legal and people would have much easier access to it. Countless researches have been done over marijuana's medical uses and the conclusion is that marijuana is not the best available treatment for a patient. Years ago, the American Medical Association considered the therapeutic potentials and hazards of marijuana. As the American Medical Association examined marijuana's emerging therapeutic possibilities, they found more and more evidence that marijuana was hazardous to health. With the therapeutic potential of marijuana eclipsed by safer and more effective drugs, they came to the conclusion that there was no therapeutic use for marijuana; all they found was hazards. Marijuana should not be legalized for any purposes because it is too hazardous, there are better medications, it is a gateway drug, and young people will get the wrong message if it is legalized. .
Some people believe that marijuana should become a Schedule II drug so that it will be available to the sick. Others are delighted at the thought of having it legalized, even in strict terms, so that they can have easier access to it and use it for recreational purposes. People believe that it is the safest and most effective medicine that can be used for terminally ill patients.
