a medicine appears to beits remarkable safety. It has little effect on major physiological functions, and there is noknown case of a lethal overdose. On the basis of animal models, the ratio of lethal toeffective dose is estimated as 40,000 to 1. By comparison, the ratio is 3-50 to 1 forsecobarbital and 4-10 to 1 for alcohol. Marijuana is also far less addictive and far lesssubject to abuse than many drugs now used as muscle relaxants, hypnotics, andanalgesics (Miller 19). The chief legitimate concern surrounds the effect of smoking onthe lungs. Cannabis smoke carries more tars and particulate matter than tobaccosmoke. However, it appears that cannibus smokers inhale less smoke than an averagetobacco smoker (Randall and O’Leary 30). Nevertheless, there continues to be considerable opposition to legalizingmarijuana, even for medical benefits. The League Against Intoxicants and the NIDA(National Institue of Drug Abuse) claim that marijuana should not be medically legalizedfor the following five main reasons:1. Pregnant women who smoke marijuana may have babies with abnormalities,2. Marijuana can impair coordination of judgment,3. Marijuana may lead to the use of heroin and cocaine,4. Marijuana does not better one’s physical or psychological state in terms ofprogress, and5. Smoking may lead to lung cancer (Randall & O’Leary 280-285).Statistics and experiments were taken, however the exact numbers and testswere not listed. Several “anti-legalization” groups agree that tobacco is more dangerousthan marijuana and support the notion of discovering a method to decrease the smokeinhalation or manufacture marijuana in pill-form. The FDA approved a THC-based pill,used mainly to countereffect appetite loss and weight loss of AIDS patients (Randall &O’Leary 283-287).Each disagreeing argument used to favor or oppose medicinal marijuana facesthe opposition of long-held societal perceptions and stereotyp...
