Since elementary school, have you constantly been warned of the dangerousness of drugs like marijuana? Yes, marijuana can be dangerous, if you smoke 800 joints, which is how much it would take to kill you. I believe that marijuana has a great ability to help relieve pain from disease and even the drugs that you have to take for your disease.

Marijuana can be helpful in pain relief and in fact can help with diseases such as AIDS. According to Donald Abrams, MD, "Patients receiving cannabinoids [smoked marijuana and marijuana pills] had improved immune function compared with those receiving placebo.” Also, many patients in the United States with AIDS suffer from AIDS wasting, where the patient looses a lot of body weight due to loss of appetite. Most AIDS patients that smoke marijuana or take marijuana pills show improvement in their depression, and a better appetite.

Marijuana also has not yet been proven to have any bad effects on a person’s health. Marijuana has been smoked in the United States for roughly four decades, and there has not been a single case of lung cancer. According to Lester Grinspoon, MD, I suspect that a day's breathing in any city with poor air quality poses more of a threat than inhaling a day's dose -- which for many ailments is just a portion of a joint -- of marijuana." Even if marijuana had the same effect of cigarettes, it would take years before the lung problems would come, and by then most patients, sadly, would be very near death because marijuana does not cure diseases, it only makes it a more enjoyable time to be living.

Many people worry that the patients are going to get addicted to the use of marijuana. Much unlike cigarettes, less than ten percent of people become “addicted” to marijuana. Also, it is not a true addiction because most people do not smoke it every day. Also, addiction is not a fear because most cannabis users have terminal illness, cancer, or AIDS that they most likely never live through.

I believe that medical marijuana should be allowed in the United States. Consider this: alcohol has been legal in the United States since the prohibition. Alcohol causes violence, liver disease, and many roadway fatalities, while marijuana reduces the likelihood of violence, and has never been reported to cause disease. The facts are that marijuana is a very safe drug and should be allowed to be used medically.