FREE ESSAY ON MARIJUANA

MARIJUANA

Marijuana (also spelled marihuana) is a psychoactive drug made from the dried leaves and
flowering parts of the hemp plant. It is one of the most strictly classified illegal
drugs in the United States. Under the 1970 Controlled Substances Act, marijuana is listed
as a Schedule I substance, which defines it as having "a high potential for abuse" and
"no currently accepted medical use." Marijuana is therefore classified more severely than
cocaine and morphine, which as Schedule II drugs are also banned for general use, but can
be prescribed by doctors. It is illegal to buy, sell, grow, or possess marijuana in the
United States. Marijuana prohibition comprises a large part of the federal governments
War on Drugs. Law enforcement officials made 600,000 marijuana-related arrests in 1996,
and 800,000 in 1998-four out of five arrests being for possession alone. Under federal
and state laws, many of which were strengthened in the 1980's, people convicted of
marijuana offenses face penalties ranging from probation to life imprisonment, plus fines
and forfeiture of property. In addition to criminal justice efforts, the federal
government, state government, and local communities spend hundreds of millions of dollars
annually on prevention programs such as Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE), in which
local police officers visit schools to teach young people to refrain from trying
marijuana and other drugs.
However, public controversy has been growing over the two assumptions-high abuse
potential and no legitimate medical use-that underlie marijuana's status as a Schedule I
drug. In turn, disputes over the abuse and medical potential have shaped differences of
opinion over public policy. Many of those who question one or both of these assumptions
about marijuana have advocated a full or partial relaxation of the governments blanket
prohibition of the drug, while those who accept these assumptions generally are opposed
to any full or partial legalization of marijuana.
Supporters of marijuana's continued prohibition argue that the drug is easily abused and
can lead to numerous physical and psychological harms. Short-term health
effects-according to the NIDA (National Institute of Drug Abuse)-of the drug listed in
this paper include memory loss, distorted perception, problems with learning and
coordination, an increased heart rate, and anxiety attacks. Long-term effects according
to NIDA-include increased risk of lung cancer for chronic marijuana smokers and possible
damage to the immune and reproductive systems. In addition, marijuana opponents argue
that many users attain a psychological dependence on the "high" that marijuana can
create. Such dependence can result in stunned emotional and social maturity as these
users lose interest in school, job, and social activities. About 100,000 people each year
resort to drug abuse treatment programs to end their marijuana addiction. Marijuana is
also viewed by some commentators as a "gateway" drug that can lead to the abuse of other
dangerous and illegal substances, including cocaine and heroin On the other hand, critics
of U.S marijuana policy argue that the dangers of marijuana have been exaggerated. They
contend that many, not most, users of marijuana suffer no lasting harm, do not move onto
other drugs, ad do not become addicts. Some surveys on marijuana use in America have
shown that nine out of ten people who have tried marijuana have since quit. Researchers
working with rats have found that marijuana is a far less addictive substance for the
animals than cocaine or heroin Pro-Legalization activist R. Keith Stroup summed up the
views of many who oppose marijuana prohibition when he asserted before a committee that
"moderate marijuana use is relatively harmless-far less harmless than that of either
tobacco or alcohol."
Whether or not marijuana, as a Schedule I drug, truly has "no currently accepted medical
use" is also a matter of public controversy. In November 1996, voters in two states,
California and Arizona, passed referenda that legalized marijuana for medical use (these
developments and the actions of other states have no impact on marijuana's status as an
illegal Schedule I drug). Supporters of the California and Arizona initiatives maintain
that marijuana is effective in alleviating the symptoms of medical conditions such as
AIDS, glaucoma, and multiple sclerosis. Anecdotal evidence of marijuana's efficacy,
advocates claim, comes from AIDS patients who have used marijuana to restore a appetite
and cancer patients who have smoked it to combat nausea caused by chemotherapy
treatments-often as a last resort when legally prescribed medicines failed. Those who
contend that marijuana has useful medical purposes call for the government to at least
reclassify the drug as a Schedule II substance that can be prescribed by doctors. As
stated by Lester Grinspoon, a Harvard University psychiatrist, marijuana's continued
prohibition as a Schedule I substance "is medically absurd, legally questionable, and
morally wrong."
The California and Arizona referenda legalizing medical marijuana were strongly opposed
by prominent federal government officials, including the director of the Office of
National Drug Control Policy, Barry McCaffrey, who criticized the measures as being
"dishonest" and asserted that marijuana "is neither safe or effective" as medicine.
Opponents argue that the very concept of medical marijuana is absurd because it is not,
like most modern medicines, a synthesized chemical whose composition can be precisely
manufactured and controlled. Instead, it is taken from a plant and consists of four
hundred chemicals whose exact composition varies with each "dose". Furthermore, they
assert, marijuana's claimed medical effectiveness by clinical trials. Marijuana's
psychoactive properties may make people feel better, contends Robert L. Peterson, a
former Michigan drug enforcement official, but that "does not make a drug a medicine."
Marijuana opponents maintain that better legal medical alternatives to marijuana
exist-including Marinol, a pill available by a physicians prescription that contains THC,
the main active ingredient in marijuana. An additional concern voiced by many is that
legalizing marijuana for medical purposes would send the wrong message to America's
youth. "At a time when our nation is looking for solutions to the problem of teenage drug
use," asks Thomas A. Constantine, head of the Drug Enforcement Administration, "how can
we justify giving a stamp of approval to an illegal substance which has no legitimate
medical use?"
Whether or not marijuana's possible medical advantages outweigh its potential harm is a
central question in current debates about this controversial drug. This paper presents
various opinions and viewpoints of marijuana and its uses, as well as information on its
history and genetic make-up.
The marijuana, cannabis, or hemp plant is one of the oldest psychoactive plants known to
mankind. There are three classifications or species of cannabis: Cannabis Sativa,
Cannabis Indica, and Cannabis Ruderalis. The fiber has been used for cloth and paper and
was the most important source of rope until the development of synthetic fibers. The
seeds have been used as bird feed and sometimes as human food. The oil contained in the
seeds was once used for lighting and soap and is now sometimes employed in the
manufacture of varnish, linoleum, and artists' paints. The chemical compound responsible
for the intoxicating and medicinal effects are found mainly in a sticky golden resin
exuded from the flowers on the female plants. The marijuana plant contains more than 460
known compounds of which more than 60 have the 21-carbon structure typical of
cannabinoids. The only cannabinoid that is both highly psychoactive and present in large
amounts, usually 1-5 % in weight, is (-)3,4-trans-delta-1-tetrahydrocannabinol, also know
as delta-1-THC, delta-9-THC or simply THC. A few other tetrahydrocannabinols are about as
potent as delta-9-THC but are present in only a few varieties of cannabis and in much
smaller quantities.
A native of central Asia, cannabis may have been cultivated as much as ten thousand years
ago. It was certainly cultivated in China by 4000 B.C. and in Turkestan by 3000 B.C. It
has long since been used as a medicine in China, Southeast Asia, Africa, the Middle East,
and India for malaria, constipation, rheumatic pins, "absent-mindedness", and "female
problems", to quicken the mind, to induce sleep, dysentery and fevers. 
The medical use of cannabis was already in decline by 1890. The potency of cannabis
preparations was to variant, and individual responses to orally ingested cannabis seemed
erratic and unpredictable. Another reason for the neglect of research oh the analgesic
properties of cannabis was that the greatly increased use of opiates after the invention
of the hypodermic syringe in the 1850's allowed soluble drugs to be injected for fast
relief of pain; hemp products are insoluble in water and cannot be administered so easily
by injection. Toward the end of the twentieth century, the development of synthetic drugs
such as aspirin, chloral hydrate, and barbiturates, which are chemically more stable than
cannabis indica and therefore more reliable, hastened the decline of cannabis as a
medicine. But the new drugs had severe disadvantages. More than a thousand people died
from aspirin-induced bleeding each year in the United States, and barbiturates are, of
course, more dangerous. One may have expected physicians looking for a better analgesic
to turn to cannabinoid substances, especially after 1940, when it became possible to
study congeners (chemical relatives) of THC that might have more stable and specific
effects.
But the Marijuana Tax Law of 1937 undermined any such experimentation. This law was the
culmination of a campaign organized by the Federal Bureau of Narcotics under Harry
Anslinger in which the public was led to believe that marijuana was addictive and its use
led to violent crimes, psychosis, and mental deterioration. The film Reefer Madness, made
as a part of Anslinger's campaign, may be a joke to the sophisticated today, but it was
once regarded as a serious attempt to address a social problem, and the atmosphere and
attitudes it exemplified and promoted continue to influence our culture today.
Under the Marijuana Tax Law Act, anyone using the hemp plant for certain defined
industrial or medical use was required to register and pay a tax of a dollar an ounce. A
person using marijuana for any other purpose had to pay $100 an ounce. The law was not
directly aimed at medicinal use of marijuana; it was aimed at the recreational use of
marijuana.
By the 1960's, as larger numbers of people began to use marijuana recreationally,
anecdotes about its medical use began to appear, generally not in medical literature, but
in the form of letters to popular magazines like Playboy. Meanwhile, legislative concern
about recreational use increased, and in 1970 Congress passed the Comprehensive Drug
Abuse Prevention and Control Act (also known as the Controlled Substances Act), which
assigned psychoactive drugs to five Schedules and placed cannabis in Schedule I, the most
restrictive. NORML petitioned this placement in 1972, asking that it be moved to Schedule
II, therefore enabling it to be prescribed by physicians. Congress compromised 13 years
later by placing synthetic delta-9-THC (dronabinol) as a Schedule II drug in 1985, but
kept marijuana itself-and the THC derived from marijuana-in Schedule I.
"Marijuana can be harmful when abused, and its use by minors should be discouraged.
However, when used in moderation and responsibly, marijuana is far less harmful than
tobacco or alcohol. It's continued criminal prohibition by the government is a wasteful
and destructive social policy that results in the needless arrests of thousands of
otherwise law-abiding citizens. Marijuana should be legalized or decriminalized. At the
very least, it should be made available by medical prescription for patients who need it
to alleviate suffering." -R. Keith Stroup, founder of NORML (National Organization for
the Reform of Marijuana Laws) 
Since 1970, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws has been a voice
for Americans who believe it is both counter-productive and unjust to treat marijuana
smokers as criminals. "We do not suggest that marijuana is totally harmless or that it
cannot be abused. That is true for all drugs, including those which are legal. We do not
believe that moderate marijuana use is relatively harmless-far less harmful to the user
than either tobacco or alcohol, for example-and that any risk presented by marijuana
smoking falls well within the ambit of choice we permit the individual in a free society.
Today, far more harm is caused by marijuana prohibition than by marihuana itself.
It's time we put to rest the myth that smoking marijuana is a fringe or deviant activity,
engaged in only by those on the margins of American society. In reality, marijuana
smoking is extremely common, and marijuana is the recreational drug of choice for
millions of mainstream, middle-class Americans. According to the NIDA (National Institute
on Drug Abuse) data, between 65 and 71 million Americans have smoked marijuana at some
point in their lives, and 10 million are current smokers (have smoked as at least once in
the last month.) In fact, NIDA found that 61% of all illicit drug users report that
marijuana is the only drug they have ever tried; this figure is raised to 80% if hashish
is included (a marijuana derivative.) 
At NORML, we believe that marijuana smokers, like those who drink alcohol, have a
responsibility to behave appropriately and to assure that their recreational drug is
conducted in a responsible manner. Neither marijuana nor alcohol consumption is ever an
excuse for misconduct of any kind, and both smokers and drinkers must be held to the same
standard as all Americans.
NORML Board of Directors in February 1996 issued the following statement that defines how
any responsible marijuana smoker should act:
-  I. ADULTS ONLY
Cannabis consumption is for adults only. It is irresponsible to provide cannabis to
children
-  II. NO DRIVING
The responsible cannabis user does not operate a motor vehicle or other dangerous
machinery impaired by cannabis, nor (like other responsible citizens) impaired by any
other substance or condition, including some medicines and fatigue.
-  III. SET AND SETTING
The responsible cannabis user will carefully consider his/her set and setting, regulating
use accordingly.
-  IV. RESIST ABUSE
Use of cannabis, to the extent that it impairs health, personal development or
achievement, is abuse, to be resisted by responsible cannabis users.
-  V. RESPECT RIGHTS OF OTHERS
The responsible cannabis user does not violate the rights of others, observes accepted
standards of courtesy and public property, and respects preferences of those who wish to
avoids cannabis entirely." -Testimony of R. Keith Stroup on behalf of NORML before the
Subcommittee on Crime of the Judiciary Committee, U.S. House of Representatives, on March
6, 1996
In November 1996, the people of California approved proposition 215, an initiative that
could, in effect, make marijuana legally available as a medicine in the United States for
the first time in many years. Under this new law, patients or their primary caregivers
that possess or cultivate marijuana for medical treatment recommended by a physician are
exempted from criminal prosecution. The treatment may be for "cancer, anorexia, AIDS,
chronic pain, spasticity, glaucoma, arthritis, migraine, or any other illness for which
marijuana provides relief." Physicians may not be penalized in any way for
recommendation, which may be either written or oral. The passage of this law is only the
beginning of a trend that presents new challenges for physicians, who will be asked to
assume responsibilities for which many have not prepared themselves. As more and more
patients approach them with questions about marijuana, they will have to provide answers
and make recommendations. That means they must not only listen more carefully to their
patients but also educate themselves and one another. They will have to learn which
symptoms and disorders may be treated better with marijuana than with conventional
medications, and they may need to explain how to use marijuana.
Cannabis is a strikingly safe, versatile and potentially inexpensive medicine. When
reviewing its medical uses in 1993 after examining many patients and case histories, the
following are those diseases, disorders, and pains that were immensely helped by
marijuana: nausea and vomiting in cancer chemotherapy, the weight loss syndrome of AIDS,
glaucoma, epilepsy, muscle spasms and chronic pain in multiple sclerosis, quadriplegia,
and other spastic disorders, migraine, severe pruritus, depression, and other mood
disorders. Since then, a dozen more have been identified, including asthma, insomnia,
dystonia, scleroderma, Crohn's disease, diabetic gastroparesis, and terminal illness. 
For example, cannabis has also been found useful in the treatment of osteoarthritis.
Aspirin is believed to have caused more than 1,000 deaths annually in the United States.
More than 7,600 annual deaths and 70,000 hospitalizations caused by non-steriodal
ant-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are reported. Gastrointestinal complications of NSAIDs
are the most commonly reported serious adverse drug reaction. Long term acetaminophen use
is thought to be one of the most common causes of end-stage renal disease. Cannabis
smoked several times a day is often as effective as NSAIDs or acetaminophens in
osteoarthritis, and there have been no reports of death from cannabis.
It is often objected that the evidence of marijuana's medical usefulness, although
powerful, is merely anecdotal. It is true that there are no studies meeting the standards
of the Food and Drug Administration, chiefly because legal, bureaucratic, and financial
obstacles are constantly put in the way. The situation is ironical, since so much
research has been done on marijuana, often in unsuccessful efforts to show health hazards
and addictive potential, that we know more about it than about most prescription drugs.
In any case, controlled studies can be misleading if the wrong patients are studies or
the wrong doses are used, and idiosyncratic therapeutic responses can be obscured in
group experiments. The chief legitimate concern is the effect of smoking on the lungs.
Many physicians find it difficult to endorse a smoked medicine. Although cannabis smoke
carries even more tabs and other particulate matter than tobacco smoke, the amount needed
by most patients is extremely limited. Furthermore, when marijuana is an openly
recognized medicine, solutions for this problem may be found, perhaps by the development
of a technique for inhaling cannabinoid vapors. Even today, the greatest danger of using
marijuana is not impurities in the smoke, but illegality, which imposes much unnecessary
anxiety and expense on suffering people.
A synthetic version of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, the main active substance in
cannabis, has been available in oral form for limited purposes as a Schedule II drug
since 1985. Both patients generally regard this medicine, dronabinol (Marinol), and
physicians as less effective than smoked marijuana. A patient who is severely nauseated
and constantly vomiting, for example, may find it almost impossible to keep a pill or
capsule down. Oral THC is erratically and slowly absorbed into the bloodstream; the dose
and duration of action of smoked marijuana are easier to titrate. Furthermore, oral THC
occasionally makes many patients anxious and uncomfortable, possibly because of
cannabidiol, one of the many substances in marijuana, has an anxiolytic effect.
Besides their direct responsibility to individual patients with respect to medical
marijuana, physicians have another obligation that is social and ultimately political.
Jerome P. Kaiser has identified it in his recent New England Journal of Medicine
editorial entitled "Federal Foolishness and Marijuana." He describes the governments
policies on medical marijuana as "hypocritical" and predicts that physicians who "have
the courage to challenge the continued prescription of marijuana for the sick" will
eventually force the government to reach some sort of accommodation. That important task
will inevitably fall to the younger generation of doctors, including present and future
medical students.
"Marijuana's claimed healing power with regards to glaucoma, cancer, and pain relief have
not been proven by scientific studies. Because of its damaging effects to the brain and
lungs, marijuana should be considered a health hazard, not a medicine. The media should
fully inform the public about the dangers of smoking marijuana." -Dr. Paul Leithbert,
substance abuse specialist.
There has been more extensive research on marijuana over the past 40 years than on any
other substance. Cannabinoids from a single marijuana cigarette deposit in the fatty
tissue of the body (brain, testes, ovaries, etc.) and remain there for three to four
weeks. Repeated use of the drug produces THC storage in these vital organs for months. By
contrast, when alcohol is consumed it is metabolized in a few hours.
Contrary to the arguments of its advocates, marijuana is physically and psychologically
addictive. Additionally, when a user stops he experiences withdrawal symptoms. Also,
myriads of psychological symptoms develop as use becomes chronic.
When a joint is inhaled, over 2,000 noxious chemicals invade the lungs. Users typically
"toke", holding the smoke in their lungs to enhance the absorption of THC. This produces
more rapid lung damage than smoking tobacco. Marijuana and tobacco share the same
chemical compounds (except for the cannabinoids), but somehow cigarettes are deemed the
more deadly, while pot is touted as a medical necessity. The high from pot has been
described by its users as a euphoria, a pleasant, relaxed escape that causes one to
become self-absorbed and to pay less attention to his surroundings. The anticipations of
these sensations is the major reason for use. And with repeated use, one's ability to
think becomes dulled, concentration is more difficult, and pathological thinking
develops. The ability to perform tasks-especially new ones-diminishes, the memory becomes
impaired, the sense of time is altered, and an inertia or lack of motivation develops. In
many users, an antimotivational syndrome sets in.
Chronic users often develop such problems as emotional instability, difficulty in
absorbing and integrating new information, and decreased work performance. As the brain's
"pleasure center" becomes exhausted, users have difficulty in experiencing pleasure and
often put forth less effort to socialize. Users go from a sense of suspiciousness to a
full-blown paranoia-and, eventually, to total "burnout."
In spite of the documented side effects associated with marijuana use, it has nonetheless
been promoted as useful in the treatment of an amazing variety of ailments.
Unfortunately, the truth about marijuana's effectiveness in treating physical maladies is
completely overblown:
-  Glaucoma. Proponents claim pot smoking lowers the pressure in the eyes of glaucoma
patients. A small pressure drop does occur in some patients when marijuana is used two to
four hours around the clock. This would mean, of course, that the user would be
constantly stoned. In many users the pressure increases, however, and recent research
indicates that marijuana users have a decreased circulation to the optic nerve-a serious
problem. Also, there have been medications available for years that are as effective as
marijuana and that have minimal side effects.
-  Cancer. Marijuana is advocated to fight nausea in patients receiving intensive
chemotherapy. But it is really no better than the many safer anti-nauseates available.
Also marijuana has been found to damage the immune-system, which is important in fighting
cancer and other serious ailments like AIDS, infection, etc.
-  Pain. Marijuana is not an analgesic. For example, users frequently have toothaches
which are not relieved with their marijuana smoking; they require the standard pain
killers. Marijuana is not helpful in fighting other kinds of pain either.
In short, all the "medical uses" for marijuana, including asthma, seizures, multiple
sclerosis, muscle spasms, etc., are really just excuses to get high. Some users may be
under the delusion they are being helped, but marijuana users typically smoke for the THC
while still taking the standard medications for their disease. Synthetic delta-9THC
(Marinol) is available by prescription for some conditions and is effective. Marijuana
users say they prefer the side effects from cannabis to the side effects of prescription
drugs, however.
In essence, then, rather than being a medicine, marijuana is a health hazard. Who would
call a drug "recreational" if they realized that chronic use caused permanent brain
damage? Marijuana use is never cited by proponents as a factor in high school dropout and
failure rates, as well as the increase in promiscuity and sexually transmitted diseases.
Such is the case, however. Another area they ignore is the dramatic effect cannabis has
on the ability for one to drive a car safely. Not only is the driver impaired in major
ways while high, but for hours after the high wears off. Why are these important facts
not better understood by the public? For more than 35 years the media have suppressed
information on cannabis. The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) published an annual
report on "Marijuana and Health" for many years-each issue cataloguing the increasing THC
content of the weed and the dramatic research findings on damage to the users body. These
reports have been ignored by the media, although all levels of media outlets were
supplied with NIDA findings.
In 1971 the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) was founded.
It soon became a highly organized and influential body. There are 80,000 members in many
larger cities. NORML conducts seminars to train lawyers in defending users and pushers
when they are arrested. The hearings in state houses across the country are highly
choreographed by these lawyers. They often call in NORML's national advisors-Lester
Grinspoon, MD and Thomas Ungerleider, MD-for the hearings. For many years these two
psychiatrists have been major activists in the marijuana war. Dr. Grinspoon declares that
marijuana is a "wonderful medicine" and finds it useful for almost everyday malady. Users
who have major medical problems are featured witnesses at hearings. These patients
declare that they would be dead except for their marijuana. The media (especially TV)
featured these experts and patients, usually ignoring the testimony of legitimate medical
experts.
If marijuana is legalized there are billions of dollars to be made by the unscrupulous.
Billionaire financier George Soros, who admits to having experimented with cannabis, gave
a million dollars for the California and Arizona pro-pot initiatives.
The FDA issues narcotic licenses to physicians. Under license guidelines, Schedule I
substances " have no accepted medical use...and have a high abuse potential." Included in
this category are heroin, marijuana, and LSD. Any physicians, however, can receive
marijuana for use in legitimate medical research. But marijuana users want free access to
the drug. For the more, the Psychotropic Convention Treaty of 1971 classifies marijuana
as Schedule I drug. The U.S. is on of the 74 nations that have accepted the treaty.
A fascinating article, " The Return of Pot," by Hannah Rueban, appeared in the February
17, 1997 issue if The New Republic. A visit by Reuban to San Francisco's Cannabis
Cultivators Club demonstrated the total absurdity of state-sanctioned use of marijuana.
Reuban stated, " it's as if the rotting of the late '60s San Francisco described by Joan
Didion in Slouching Toward Bethlehem has been preserved in reverse; the characters are
the same, but the center was holding." Reuban recounted the lives of the burnt out beings
that frequent the clubs and made it obvious that "medical marijuana" is the red herring
that NORML plotted. The article should be must reading for state legislature facing the
issue of legalizing "medical marijuana."
The views shared by many critics of marijuana is: Using marijuana for illness would be
like prescribing moldy bread (containing penicillin) for phenomena or suggesting
cigarette smoking for weight loss. Prescribing marijuana for any medical condition is
totally irresponsible. Some doctors do and are either naive about the damage marijuana
causes or perhaps are users themselves.
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