Marijuana Benefit

The laws against medical marijuana and the complicated rigmarole that lobbyists have had to deal with have always baffled me, yet has become even more compelling since I began my nursing endeavors. One primary responsibility of a nurse is to ensure their patients’ pain is minimized or eliminated.

Why should we or the state/federal government deny chronically and terminally ill patients any treatment they desire to minimize their agony? Simply put, medical marijuana should be changed from a Schedule I substance to a Schedule II substance, thereby authorizing physicians to prescribe the drug in certain medical situations.

Marijuana has several therapeutic uses. Many patients have testified to the effectiveness of smoked and ingested marijuana to increase their appetite, reduce nausea, reduce pain and decrease intraocular pressure in patients with glaucoma.

Due to how cheap it is to grow, it would be more affordable and obtainable by those patients in need, not to mention its legalization would lead to tremendous local, state and federal profits due to taxation. The government is spending an inordinate amount of money on maintaining marijuana’s illegality when they could be capitalizing on its sales tax.

It is a fact that marijuana is safer than many medications being prescribed by physicians on a daily basis. Downgrading the schedule seems like a no-brainer, but the federal government is enforcing such strict implementations on the studies of medical marijuana that the progress of its legalization is stagnant. A change needs to be made with our generation.