Since Its Been a While

As it has been a while since I put up a post, here is a paper (only a 2 pg, dbl spaced) I recently wrote for social problems. It deals with the issue of the medical use of marijuana.

Medical Marijuana

It is my belief that marijuana should be legal. I do not think it is the job of the government to decide or attempt to regulate what I can and cannot put in my own body. If I want to smoke myself to oblivion, that should be my decision and my decision alone; it shouldn't be based on government policy. Throughout this paper, you may notice that my beliefs are similar to those carried by the majority of the Libertarian Party.
As for the medical use of marijuana, assuming it was legalized, if you desire to submit to the medical opinion of a doctor who recommends the use of marijuana, so be it. We are free to seek second opinions. If you are uncomfortable with the idea of using such a drug, you can always seek the recommendation of another physician, or ask the original physician if he knew of any other options.
Getting to the matter of the marijuana itself, there are several precautions that should be taken prior to the use of marijuana. The first is to know your source. When you take a look at a bag of marijuana off any average street corner, you will find that the contents is not a pure concentration of marijuana. Some drug dealers will mix other drugs in with the pot in an attempt to create an addiction in the casual drug user thereby guaranteeing business for tomorrow with a craving for a more expensive drug (such as cocaine or heroine). If you subscribe to the thinking that “The government is concerned with my best interests,” the reason I just described may be, in part, why we have seen the government take such a strong stance against the medicinal use of marijuana. One way to overcome that problem would be to grow your own, which leads me to the converse style of reasoning. If you are more in line with the school of the thinking that says, “The government is here only to take more control and look out for itself,” you may be more inclined to think that the government will not legalize the medicinal use of marijuana because 1) it will be difficult to regulate where people acquire the drug from and 2) will therefore make it more difficult to tax, which leads to reduced governmental income from the marijuana itself and from the taxation of the previously used prescription drugs.
It is not very easy to answer the question as to whether or not marijuana can benefit people when used as a medicine because the federal government has set up quite the obstacle course for scientists to negotiate. Therefore, you can already assume that most of the US studies will be skewed in their results. The studies that were completed, though, took place so long ago that the data may be obsolete or even incorrect, if re-run with today's equipment and methods.
I am a firm supporter of private research. Whether or not the researchers have kissed the ring of the Almighty State and received its blessing is irrelevant to me. I think there should be some limitations regarding what can be done in the name of science, but I would hardly classify researching alternative medicines as outside the moral bounds of science and medicine. What could the worse-case scenario of medicinal marijuana research be? Even if death was possible, how could that outcome be worse than the possible death outcome of other approved medicines? When you look at the “reported side effects in some cases” of modern day medicine such as, internal bleeding, nausea, blurred vision, birth defects, irregular heart beats, increased & decreased blood pressure, warnings not to drive, loss of appetite, stomach ulcers, do we really have anything else to worry about? In the long run, you're going to die of the disease if you don't take any drugs. It seems that the current attitude is along the lines of so what would be big deal be if you bite the dust a little early due to your medication? Almost everyone does things on a fairly regular basis that shortens their lifespan. If you're going to die, why not lessen the pain just a little. Again, I am back at my original point that people should be able to do to their bodies as they see fit.
In closing, I don't think you will see the government take any action which would result in, or could potentially result in, the relinquishment of any power from its own hands. It would be just as easy to assume that you could put medicinal marijuana up on the shelf right next to Elvis, Sasquatch and Area 51.

Crispy