Cedrick Casana English 1301 MWF

Marijuana

Since the dawn of man humans roamed the earth looking for vaccines and cures for
disease and other ailments. The evolution of chemistry published many vaccines for all types of
diseases, but what exactly is in those vaccines? Is it even safe to put inside our bodies? What if
there was a plant that was one hundred percent natural and it helped cure and reduce many of our
everyday illnesses and the illnesses that no one likes to talk about? What if that plant could do
much more? For example power our homes and cars. Im talking about marijuana, people!
Marijuana can do so much good for everyone, but no one gives it a chance.
Lets start off with the basics. What is marijuana? Well, marijuana is just a plant like I
mentioned above. It has a stem, roots, leaves, and seeds. It also naturally produces buds. Buds
are the stuff people smoke. In other words its just like any other plant. Its like roses for
example. It needs to be watered and given tons of sunlight. It doesnt just grow out of nowhere or
get chemically enhanced with chemicals like other class A drugs. Im pretty sure if marijuana
was legal everywhere you could just go to Home Depot and buy yourself a plant just like you
would buy yourself flowers or a bouquet of marijuana flowers. People seem to forget that
marijuana is like any everyday plant. It needs tender loving care for it to be properly grown. The
marijuana plant produces oxygen like any plant would. It also goes through the process of
photosynthesis. Im not too sure why people see the marijuana plant as this rare plant that can
only be used in ways that get you high. The cannabis plant is as safe as Sunflowers and Daisys.
In my opinion a big bouquet of marijuana would be beautiful. It could spice up any center piece
or any home decoration. Also, the marijuana plant smells wonderful. It has its own smell just like
other flower. Id love to just get a huge bouquet of marijuana and just take a whiff. The smell is
really distinct and sweet. Like any other plant, marijuana is green. For all of you people who

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think its some weird alien like plant. I kid you not if I was to cut the leaves off of a marijuana
plant and a rose plant, leaving just the stem, you wouldnt tell the difference. Youd have to be a
skilled florist or a botanist to truly see the difference between the two.
The medical benefits of marijuana are outrageous! Marijuana has been experimented on
patients with a wide variety of ailments, and the results have been great so far! One such ailment
that has the nation on edge is cancer. Doctors have given cancer patients marijuana and the
results are phenomenal. Most patients saw their cancer rapidly diminish or completely vanish.
The use of marijuana in cancer patients has proven effective in reducing side effects of harsh
treatments. Cancer patients claim marijuana reduced the severe nausea one gets while
undergoing chemo therapy. For some families marijuana has been the only source of moral
support they could find. A good example of a family who found refuge in the arms or marijuana
is a judge in New York was informed he had stage three pancreatic cancer. Doctors informed his
family that he had only a few months to live left. The judge and his family contemplated every
solution, but they found no positive outcome in sight. One day the judge heard about another
cancer patient who had won the battle against cancer by smoking marijuana and applying hash
oil to the cancerous area. The judge pushed his pride aside and gave marijuana a chance. He
began using high doses of marijuana. After using marijuana, he is one of the only people with
stage three pancreatic cancer to live longer than experts believed. (New York Times Article 2012)
The judge was completely against marijuana in the beginning. Months prior to his diagnosis he
was probably sending people to jail for measly marijuana violations or traffic stops involving
marijuana. He had the idea of marijuana being a deadly drug implanted into his brain because the
justice system has a mind of its own. Fortunately, he opened his mind a little and gave marijuana
a chance. You can debate that the decision to smoke marijuana ultimately saved the judges life.

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To this day the judge has changed his mind about marijuana. Hopefully he becomes an advocate
for marijuana legalization in the future. We need people who are higher on the hierarchy to stand
up and spread the honest truth about marijuana. We need business owners, CEOs, and
millionaires to stand up support cannabis.
Marijuana isnt only useful to cancer patients. It can be used to cure all types of everyday
sicknesses. Everything from your basic cold, flu, and pains. Cannabis also has the power to treat
anorexia, insomnia, post-traumatic stress disorder, and many more ailments. Dr. Sunjay Gupta,
an anti-marijuana fanatic, took a tour around the United States to observe exactly how marijuana
is helping patients. (CNN Article 2013) Gupta was totally against marijuana. He believed
marijuana should be A class a drug. The same category heroin is under. Class A drugs are
severely penalized and most class A drug offenders usually receive a hefty fine or a heft jail
sentence. As a result there are thousands of Americans in our prisons who are just there for some
marijuana. Marijuana?! Are you serious? The American public is paying taxs to keep marijuana
offenders incarcerated thats ridiculous. We should focus on offenders who abuse life threatening
drugs and keep them off the streets. Anyway, as I was saying after speaking to many patients
Gupas opinion on marijuana has changed. He finally saw the true benefits of marijuana. He met
a patients who suffered from uncontrollable seizures. The patient suffered at least 300 seizures a
day. After using marijuana daily the patients said the number went from 300 to 3. That is
absolutely incredible! I dont doubt Dr. Guptas opinion changed after his tour around America.
Marijuana has so many positive benefits, but because of close minded people, like Dr. Gupta, it
is looked at as this crazy drug that fries peoples minds and erases your memory. It is up to the
people to spread the word and inform the ignorant. Regardless of marijuanas criticism, it still
has a huge fan base and patient base. Users spread from coast to coast. Marijuana is the most

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abused drug in the United States. Everyone has tried marijuana at least once in their lives. Its
easier for children to obtain marijuana than it is for them to get beer or pills. The fact that no one
has died from marijuana in the history of mankind has me sold! The evidence is there! Patients in
California say marijuana works! 92% of patients claim marijuana works for them. (Washington
Post Article 2014) A survey was conducted in California to see how many people were for
medical marijuana and the results were awesome if youre a fan of marijuana. The survey was
partially conducted to see the difference between older users and younger users. Surprisingly it
wasnt just young patients. There was huge number of older patients that agreed that marijuana
was a great treatment for their ailments. There was a theory that if marijuana was made legal the
only people using it would be younger folks. The survey done in California is a good argument
to that theory. I for one believe the majority of medical marijuana users are young but there is a
vast community of elders that use medical marijuana. I happen to know a few actually. Age
shouldnt matter when it comes to pain. The fact people believe young users of medical
marijuana just use it to get high angers me. For all they know that patient might over indulge
on marijuana to sooth pain or to increase appetite. The world is so ignorant.
I happen to know someone really close to me who suffers from Post-Traumatic Stress
Disorder. My step brother Tony was deployed to Iraq in 2005. He would end up coming home in
2007 after serving two deployments. At first he seemed normal. It wasnt until I went for a drive
him that I noticed my step brother was different. I can remember it like it was yesterday because
it was my first time being exposed to the harsh realities of war. We were driving down Country
Club road and I remember seeing some trash on the side of the road. The largest of the items was
a white plastic bag. Tony saw it as well and immediately slammed on the breaks. He was frozen
with fear. I asked him in a startled voice whats wrong dude? what he said next blew my mind.

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It isnt safe to drive here he exclaimed. I sat there in total disbelief. I had no idea what was
going on. After three minutes he decided to creep his Mustang slowly past the trash and then
sped off in fear. He then explained what had happened. He explained how in Iraq he had to
constantly be looking out for road side bombs called IEDs, or improvised explosive devices.
That constant fear of death marked my brother for life. He returned home with Post Traumatic
Stress Disorder. Sadly, no one in our family knew what he was going through so he stayed in
silence for years. One day I overheard him talking about marijuana. He told me it has been
helping him drastically. He told me a long story of how he contemplated suicide and how he
wasnt able to live a normal life with all the fear he gained from combat. I thank the lord
marijuana was invented. If it wasnt for marijuana I believe my step brother wouldve sadly
taken his own life.
The use of cannabis helped my friend, Jesse, finally go to sleep. Throughout high school
my friend Jesse would complain daily about not being able to get enough sleep. We would
always ask him why and he would never have an answer. His sister, who is a nurse, said he
probably has insomnia. We all didnt really know what that was so we looked it up. Wikipedia
said marijuana was one great way to battle insomnia so Jesse gave it a try. Keep in mind he was
a senior in high school when all this was going on. The day after Jesse said he was going to try it
and we didnt hear from him the rest of the day. He was sound asleep for hours and hours. I
guess his body was just so exhausted he needed the entire day to come back to homeostasis. It
needed all the rest is could get. When he finally awoke he said he felt completely replenished. He
finally got some sleep because of marijuana. To this day he still uses cannabis to peacefully fall
asleep. Ive heard many people complain about not being able to fall asleep and every time I
prescribe them marijuana. Its the least I can do, honestly. Why put your body at risk by

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consuming chemicals prescribed by the man. Just make a marijuana tea and you will be sound
asleep in no time!
Despite marijuana being so beneficial, the federal government portrays it as something
the public should be afraid of. Many states have attempted to pass a bill that would legalize
marijuana under a certain amount and for people over a certain age but congress was always fast
at rejecting them. Pennsylvania tried passing a bill that would allow medical marijuana in
Pennsylvania, but as soon as it hit congress it was rejected. (High Times Article 2014) a
spokesperson for the DEA claimed the nature of its medical uses is still unknown. The bill was
supposed to allow medical marijuana to a certain amount of patients and only a certain amount.
It seems as if thought the government is trying to kill us. They would rather give you some
unknown prescription medication that could possibly being doing more harm than good. If the
government legalized marijuana people wouldnt be so worried about scary diseases like cancer.
Im guessing they dont want to legalize marijuana because they feed off of diseases and the
money they make off of diseases. Im more than positive the government knows how beneficial
marijuana is. They just simply dont want to make it legal and will never make it completely
legal. This seems like a really cruel thing to do because many people need marijuana to get
through a single day. Out all fifty states, twenty allow medical marijuana. (CBS News Article
2014) This shows that people are beginning to rethink the whole marijuana subject. People are
learning, theyre finally realizing people actually do get helped because of marijuana. With so
many innovations in science and technology, people are finally truly learning about marijuana.
Theyre learning about the chemicals in marijuana. Marijuana has six main chemicals and the
one that gives you the high is called THC. This chemical is often given to patients with HIV
going through chemo therapy. THC can be used to relieve many times of pains and bumps.

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Aside from all the medical benefits of marijuana, it also benefits the public and a wide
variety of ways. The stem of a marijuana plant can be processed into a material called hemp.
Hemp is one of the oldest materials known to mankind. My dad told me the Chinese first began
using hemp way back in the day to make clothing. To this day hemp can be made into clothing,
but it doesnt stop there! Due to innovations in technology, hemp can be made into paper, food,
and even fuel. It can be used for almost anything you can imagine. I dont know why the
American government takes advantage of this billion dollar gold mine that is marijuana. I mean
if someone was to make a fuel out of marijuana not only would it be cleaner, but it would be
cheaper because marijuana is a renewable resource that could be easily replanted. We wouldnt
have to be killing our environment by burning fossil fuel. We could use a much cleaner
alternative. Sometimes I wonder if anyone as every thought of this. Most likely some genius is
hard at work trying to achieve just that. Hemp could also be used as an energy alternative.
Imagine how clean the world would be if everyone used solar energy and hemp energy to power
their homes and cars. Heres a little fun fact: The Declaration of Independence was actually
written on hemp paper. So far after mentioning everything I have I have one question on my
mind how isnt marijuana legal?
One last benefit marijuana has is the ability to make you relax. Thousands of young and
old men and women use marijuana as a way to unwind after a long day. I occasionally dive into
the euphoric seas of marijuana when Im feeling stressed. If everyone was to just smoke a little
cannabis after a long day there wouldnt be people overdosing on pain killers or drowning in
alcohol. I believe a little marijuana is good for anyone. Lets be honest, we all try it at one point
in our lives. I dont understand why people make such a big deal about it. Its less harmful than

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coffee and peanuts. Since man first used marijuana there has never been a death because of
marijuana. Its literally impossible to overdose on marijuana.
In conclusion, marijuana shouldve been legal a long time ago! The evidence is looking
everyone in the face but no one seems to notice. Ive shared some information on why I believe
marijuana should be made legal. I touched upon the medical benefits and the economic benefits.
I even gave you some personal accounts of how marijuana helped loved ones. After reading this
Id like to ask you, do you think marijuana should be legal?

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Sources
Rennert, Kera (December 13, 2013) Medical Marijuana: What does science say?
CBSNEWS.com/videos/medical-marijuana/what-does-science-say. Web.
Gupta, Sunjay Dr. (Thu August 8, 2013) CNN Health: Why I Changed My Mind on Weed.
www.cnn.com/2013/08/08/health/gulpa-changed-mind-marijuana/ web.
Bienenstock, David (Monday Sept 29, 2014) The Clinic: Pa. Senate Approves Medical
Marijuana, Gov Readies Veto. HighTimes.com/read/clinic-pa-senate-approves-medical
marijuana-gov-readies-veto .Web.
Reinbach L Gustin (May 16,2012) www.nytimes/2012/05/17/opinion/a-judges-plea-formedical-marijuana.html2_r=0/ web.
Ingraham, Christopher (October 1st, 2014, 10:33AM) 92% of Patients Say Medical Marijuana
works. Washington Post.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/92%-of-patients-say-medical
marijuana-works. Web.