Marijuana Prohibition Marijuana Smokers Essay - 1,156 words

... e of the nation's leading ocular pathologists" (Brazaitis unknown). Later in Randall's life he discovered by accident that smoking marijuana not only lessened the strain on his eyes, but eliminated the tricolored halos that marred his vision. Randall didn't believe that smoking an illegal drug could stop the deterioration of his precious eyesight. Then after six months of trial and error, he became a believer. Randall began to grow his own marijuana, due to the fact that he could not afford the street price for it.


He pleaded not guilty on previously unheard of grounds of medical necessity. He petitioned his government for help. In November 1976, Randall became the first American to gain legal medically supervised access to marijuana. Twenty-three years after Randall's initial diagnosis of impending blindness, he is one of eight Americans who continue to recieve free marijuana from the federal government. In another case of effective medical marijuana use, Irvin H Rosenfeld who is a medical marijuana user said "I feel like without the marijuana, I would be dead, " he said. "And I'm still a good and productive member of society" (Smith, unknown).


Tumors choke Rosenfeld's body, the result of a rare congenital condition. Rosenfeld took on seven operations to remove 40 tumors. Doctors suspect that 200 tumors are hiding inside of Rosenfeld's body all of which are noncancerous. But pain still tortures him as tumors strangle his bones and muscle. Rosenfeld began to smoke marijuana in the ' 70 s.


After playing a 45 minute game of chess he stood up and said "With this disease, I can't sit still for more than 10 minutes" (Smith, unknown). Rosenfeld immediately thought to himself what he had taken today. He then realized that he had smoked a marijuana joint. A joint is finely chopped up marijuana that is rolled in tobacco rolling papers.


The next day he called his surgeon and told him what had happened. His surgeon told him that he had never heard of a medical use of marijuana. After an 11 year battle the federal government agreed to provide Rosenfeld marijuana harvested from a 5. 6 acre chunk of land on the University of Mississippi campus in Oxford. One negative view of marijuana is that even though it is not addicting, it may be habituating. The individual may become psychologically rather than physically dependant on the drug. Heavy marijuana smokers might feel the need to be high before they do anything, including work, school, or play becasue it makes things easier to tolerate and more enjoyable.


These symptoms are very much alike with the habits that can develop with the abuse of alcohol and tobacco. So needless to say without the abuse of marijuana, there really is no reason to keep it from ones life. A major complication of marijuana use is the tendency of some users to progress to more dangerous drugs. Marijuana is often called the "gateway drug. " After prolonged use of the drug, the individual might feel the need for different or more intense drugs. The drug of choice after marijuana can depend on finance and area, for example, "Users in economically deprived areas usually go on to heroin, whereas more rich individuals tend to move from marijuana to more potent hallucinogens such as LSD" (Adams 2).


One final negative aspect of legalizing marijuana is that many people claim there will be an increase in the amount of people who use and try it. That is simply not true. There is some evidence suggesting that drug use under a relaxed system might not inc ...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

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Essay Tags: alcohol prohibition, legalizing marijuana, marijuana prohibition, marijuana smokers, million americans

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