The Re-educated Stoner

Something you probably thought a myth about Cannabis….

The Cure for Cancer, A Criminal Enterprise

Cannabis has been used for over 25,000 different industrial products including concrete, paper, and even a cure for cancer throughout history.  It also is said to be a multi-billion dollar market that for the most part is distributed through underground society. The fact that it is illegal under federal law in the United States must be due to some kind of detriment that it causes our citizens from its horrific abuse, or it could be because of the psychological damage that it has been said to cause.  On the contrary, there has never been a death recorded due to the use of cannabis in human history regardless of its current millions of daily users. There also has never been any scientific proof that shows cannabis to cause psychosis; only that after a subject that had the genetic traits of one prone to diseases like schizophrenia, did use of cannabis trigger their disease into effect. By forming a bill to legalize medicinal cannabis, to be regulated by the FDA, we can reduce abuse, regulate dosage, and make the drug available to patients in need.

According to the World Health Organization cancer rates could escalate to 50% in the world population by 2020.  That means that the number one fatal disease could possibly become cancer.  So if this illegal drug has been proven to cure a serious disease that has said to have no cure by the government, then neglect for any fundamental research could possibly be a set back towards preventing a disease that has killed countless amounts of humans throughout history.

Cannabis is currently the most commonly used drug in the country.  With no true extensive research on this medicine aside from private parties in the United States, we have no true evidence against the use of THC (tetrahydrocannabinol, the active ingredient used for medication in the plant) in the human body.  Through any other American way the subject is innocent until proven guilty. Cannabis should be taken into consideration as any other drug, there are side effects that need to be researched and need to be controlled. Like other drugs, cannabis is not for everyone and should be prescribed by professionals, regulated by the FDA, and given in specific doses.  The United States needs to consider these things when taking action of legalization.

Another key component that has rejected the proposals to legalize cannabis is the lack of government funds to research the true effects and side effects of the medicine. The money for this research already exists.  There are already private organizations that are researching the extensive resource and medicine that is cannabis.  By legalizing the medicinal use of cannabis, to be regulated by the FDA, the medicine could possibly be used with a better understanding of the cause and effect factors that help cannabis with the act of killing cancer cells. If the plant itself has over 25,000 industrial uses it could also have a plethora of medicinal uses as well.  We could use the money that is already being funneled into other forms of “unconventional medicine” and eventually we may see that cannabis is in fact a newer more conventional form of medicine than the current pharmaceutical industry that monopolizes the American market today.  A recent study according to MedelinePlus shows that twenty percent of Americans today use prescription pills for uses other than what they are prescribed for.  The drug addiction and abuse issue is entirely a separate one from the issue at hand and until cannabis is proven otherwise, to either be valuable in other forms of medicine or not, it should be exclusively regulated for those only who need it based on the research of their disease and how cannabis can help them in fighting off such cancerous disease. 

Over 100 references have already shown to prove cannabinoids (found in human’s and animal’s nervous and immune system) can be used to fight “incurable” cancerous tumors.  The cannabinoids only attack the tumor, leaving other organs and nervous systems untouched and sometimes even protected from the cancer’s return.  This makes cannabis a much more safe and less invasive treatment for cancer patients than treatments like radioactive chemotherapy or surgeries and should be taken into consideration when dealing with such a seriously fatal disease such as cancer.  Cancer is a disease that can take to the human body in many different ways and therefore, logically, should be fought with a medicine that can attack it in many different ways. 

With the passing of a bill legalizing medicinal cannabis, to be regulated by the FDA it takes one step closer to a solution and can help these patients with the treatment that is desperately in need.   There is a drug abuse problem in America today, but the drug abuse problem should not cause a detriment to the value of medicine in our society.  This problem can be addressed in a different debate and should be left out when considering the harsh statistic that by 2020 it could be very likely that nearly half of the world’s population with be plagued with the epidemic that is cancer.

By making cannabis a legal drug that is extensively researched and regulated by the FDA America can help these patients and help to inform the public of the extensive research and truths behind medicinal cannabis and make it a controlled substance regulated by the government for the people who need it.