For hundreds of years, marijuana has been used for legitimate beneficial purposes.
Pro-Legalization groups such as the Physician's Association for AIDS Care and the National Lymphoma Foundation argue that Marijuana should be legalized in order to treat terminally ill patients. Among them are AIDS victims who find that marijuana stimulates their appetites so they can resume their normal eating patterns and prevent weight-loss, a serious concern. .
Those suffering from Glaucoma said it has prevented them from going blind by alleviating the harmful pressure inside the eye, which ultimately leads to permanent blindness. According to the National Eye Institute, glaucoma is a destructive disease where pressure inside the eyeball causes damage to the optic nerve. If the pressure is not alleviated, the patient will ultimately become blind. A Cannabis study by Dr. Robert Hepler, in 1971, shows the eye pressure of "youthful subjects" one hour before and one hour after smoking several "marihuana cigarettes". Ten patients averaged a decrease of %24.6 in intraocular pressure. For sufferers of glaucoma that spells relief. .
Many cancer patients say it alleviates the severe nausea that accompanies chemotherapy, and the medicines used to treat the horrible disease. Cannabis makes lifesaving treatment possible where it wasn't before. Until 1937, there were twenty-seven medicines containing marijuana were legally available in the United States to aid suffering patients including those of AIDS, cancer, glaucoma, and even multiple sclerosis.
Lobbying groups like the PAAC and the NLF, are working hard to show substantial evidence that marijuana can be used as a prescribed drug. Many advocates who are pro-legalization complain that morphine and cocaine are legal and very dangerous drugs, much more so than cannabis, which for me, brings up the question "why not legalize marijuana as a medical drug?", when it is proven safer than cocaine and morphine.