Jesus Navarro

Period 3
04/25/2019

A lot of people hear the word ¨marijuana¨ and assume its a bad thing without thinking
how it would help people with different medical conditions. Many people have misconceptions
on benefits of marijuana because of the way the news represents and describes it negatively and
it is less harmful than people think. People should really start thinking on how marijuana helps
people with cancer and would like to help in legalizing marijuana. In Washington and california
they have legalized marijuana while in Illinois it is still illegal.

Marijuana is almost like a medicine to people who have cancer. A Professor of Clinical
Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco says "A day doesn't go by where I don't
see a cancer patient who has nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite, pain, depression and insomnia.
[Marijuana] is the only anti-nausea medicine that increases appetite¨. Meaning that marijuana is
acting as a medicine for the people who have depression and loss of appetite, this causes them to
eat and help them with cancer. There is different types of marijuana and different elements in
marijuana. Cannabidiol (CBD) is what is inside of marijuana that doesn't make you ¨high¨, it
eases anxiety and helps with depression.

In addition marijuana is not as harmful as people think or believe, one person stated that
"there is very little evidence that smoking marijuana as a means of taking it represents a
significant health risk¨ they also think that ¨a day's breathing in any city with poor air quality
poses more of a threat¨. To summarize people just hear the negative things in the news and what
people say or tell them, since there has been no cases on people getting cancer from smoking
marijuana or consuming it should be legalized. There is other more harmful things like polluted
air that can cause cancer, some types of food, scented candles and air fresheners etc.

However other people still believe that marijuana should still be illegal for the reason that
a President of the Institute for Behavior and Healths says "Marijuana use is positively correlated
with alcohol use and cigarette use, as well as illegal drugs like cocaine and methamphetamine¨
for most part the president is trying to explain that people who use marijuana have a bigger
possibility of using other drugs, this is not only one person who think this about marijuana there
is many other people too. Although this may be true on procon.org it says ¨alcohol and tobacco
are legal, yet they are known to cause cancer, heart failure, liver damage, and more. According to
the CDC, six people die from alcohol poisoning every day and 88,000 people die annually due to
excessive alcohol use in the United State”, so if people who are getting cancer from something
that is legal like alcohol and smoking tobacco why should it be legal? In that case marijuana
should be legal because there is no cases of people getting cancer from marijuana.

In conclusion people have misconceptions on benefits of marijuana because of the way

the news represents and describes it negatively. There is so much use for marijuana besides to
get ¨high¨, people who have cancer need it because it helps them. This would mean people who
are against legalizing marijuana are basically not letting them have their medicine to continue
living. The news puts the word marijuana out as if it a horrible thing but they never tell the
people that there's no cases of marijuana causing cancer and that there is good things about it.
They always put marijuana on the news for a negative purpose only. Therefore people should
start thinking about the real benefits of the use of marijuana and would change their mind into
legalizing marijuana for the people who need it to live. How would you feel if you had cancer
and that the only thing helping you is marijuana, but you can't get any because it's illegal?