e addicted and crime could increase. These users would need to purchase the drug, and as the need increases, more money would be needed to fund this habit. There are also many advantages of smoking marijuana for medicinal purposes. Persons suffering from the advanced stage of AIDS find that marijuana stimulates their appetites. They are able to digest foods to gain strength and prevent emaciation. Glaucoma patients have discovered that using marijuana has prevented them from going blind by diminishing their sight retardation. Cancer patients use marijuana to alleviate the severe nausea that is a side effect of chemotherapy. By the 1930s marijuana’s use as a drug began to decline. Man-made drugs were being created in the laboratories as a safer alternative. In 1937, the use of marijuana became illegal when the Marihuana Tax Act was passed (Mathre 50). The Controlled Substances Act of 1970 was passed to officially mark marijuana as an illicit drug. Ironically, at this time two new medical discoveries were made. The first one was using marijuana in the treatment for glaucoma, and the second one was the ease it provided for cancer patients. This next portion of my paper will detail the medicinal benefits of marijuana usage. Marijuana has been shown to be beneficial in patients suffering from the eye condition known as glaucoma. Glaucoma is a group of diseases characterized by the triad of elevated intraocular pressure, optic nerve injury, and visual loss (Grinspoon 40). It is very prevalent today and is an important cause of blindness in all populations. Glaucoma is more common in older patients and in certain ethnic groups. Today glaucoma is treated with eye drops containing beta-blockers, which inhibit the activity of epinephrine (Grinspoon 40). These drops are highly effective, but they may create some serious side effects. Some of the side effects include: depression, slower heart rate, and an increase in the risk of hea...
