HEALTHCARE

Legalization of Marijuana

Legalization of Marijuana

Medical Marijuana

In the U.S. the use of marijuana for medical purposes is illegal because federal law marijuana is included in Schedule I, which includes material deemed unsafe, have an enhanced ability to cause addiction and have no therapeutic value. However, since the '70s. Legislatures of 35 states have enacted laws to support the use of marijuana as a medicine. In 1996, state governments in California and Arizona have approved the legislative initiatives, eliminating criminal penalties for possession of marijuana for its medical use. Despite this, federal law does not permit states to carry out the delivery of marijuana legally. Only 8 people in the country receive marijuana under the federal program. Compassion ceased accepting new patients after a number of applications, mostly from AIDS patients have increased significantly. Thousands of Americans illegally use marijuana for therapeutic purposes, putting themselves at risk of being arrested or prosecuted. But, of course, many people who are marijuana would be beneficial, stop the ban on its use.

Since 1986, commercially available synthetic THC (Marinol) has been introduced, a drug in Schedule II, which allows doctors to prescribe it under strict control. Marinol is usually prescribed as an antiemetic and an appetite stimulant, but doctors can prescribe the drug for other diseases such as depression and muscle spasms, too. In some patients, the drug has a therapeutic effect similar to oral THC but many find marijuana more effective. For people suffering from nausea, vomiting and unable to swallow the pill, smoking marijuana is often the only possible way of introducing THC, which gives a quick effect and relieves in just a few minutes instead of 1 hour or more in comparison to taking THC (Wood, 2011).

Smoking marijuana provides not only faster but also more complete flow of THC into the bloodstream rather than ingestion of Marinol and it should come from the stomach into the small intestine, where it is absorbed into the bloodstream. After this, THC passes through the blood of the liver, where a large part of the drug is transformed into other compounds. On the contrary, the use of 2-5 mg THC in marijuana smoking reliably achieves effective concentrations of THC in a lesser amount of time (Regan, 2011).

Smoking allows patients to better select the dose depending on the appearance and disappearance of symptoms. People, who suffer from nausea and vomiting due to AIDS or cancer or chemotherapy, admit that smoking marijuana brings quick relief in comparison to overall doses of THC. Another problem associated with taking THC, is the fact that in this case, the psychoactive side effects may be more pronounced than when smoking. One of the metabolites of THC is 11-hydroxy-THC - the compound having an equal or even more pronounced psychoactive effect. A quantity of 11-hydroxy-THC is also formed when smoking marijuana, but its concentration rarely reaches the level of the psychoactive. When taken orally, patients experience psychotropic effects of THC and 11-gidroksiTGK, increasing the likelihood of psychological reactions is not ...