Medical Cannabis Persuasive Essay: Legalizing Marijuana

Chris Felcan
Prof. Aleksandra Galus
26/11/14
Medical Cannabis Persuasive Essay Studies have proven medical marijuana has therapeutic effects concerning pain management, nausea, vomiting, seizures, and appetite loss, for patients suffering from medical diseases. These diseases include cancer, HIV, epilepsy, and multiple sclerosis. Legalizing the use of marijuana as a medical remedy for treating symptoms and combatting side effects of the treatment would improve a patient 's quality. Legalizing marijuana as medicine could also help boost our economy with taxation of the plant, create jobs in a time of economic struggle, and save our economy billions of dollars. Our government should legalize marijuana solely to benefit those individuals
Medical marijuana has proved for some patients to have even better results than the drugs prescribed by a physician, which is quite an unexpected discovery. The legalization of medical marijuana could not only benefit the health of our citizens, but it would also create a great opportunity for revenue due to taxation. If the Drug Enforcement Administration would allow marijuana to become legal, it could potentially boost our economy, create employment due to marijuana dispensary stores, and provide another source of revenue in each state. Taxing marijuana would essentially be exactly the same concept as taxing cigarettes today. “It can be estimated that excise taxes in this range would rise between $2.2 and $6.4 billion per year. Altogether, legalization would save the taxpayers around $8 - $16 billion.” (ProCon.org) Aside from multiple medical benefits, it is important to recognize how the United States economy could save an estimated 7.7 billion dollars annually, if they let citizens have an alternative legal form of medicine such as marijuana. Much of our country’s money saving would come out of the amount of money spent in order to arrest, prosecute, and incarcerate those who use marijuana. In short, the money saved by eliminating law enforcement costs and taxes the government could apply to
Patients have indicated they benefit from the use of medical cannabis, so why not allow them to use it? Opponents also feel as if marijuana is addictive and if legalized would create an increase in usage among non-prescribed users. This view was proven wrong by a study which displayed sixteen out of twenty states where medical marijuana is legal actually saw a decrease in marijuana use among individuals. Another concern the opposing side argues is how allowing marijuana to be smoked will only cause an increase in lung cancer. They figure what’s the point of allowing patients who are ill to smoke and decrease their health even more? The National Academy of Science confirmed that “marijuana’s short term medical benefits outweigh any smoking-related harm for some patients.” (Reichbach) A study by UCLA also showed no connection between lung cancer and marijuana. The idea that someone should suffer with an illness when there’s an effective option for relief existing is essentially a violation of human rights and those who are against legalizing medical marijuana should reconsider their