The medical use of marijuana should be approved by the federal government of the United States of America. Politics and personal bias have no place in the medical arts. Science, not prejudice, is the yardstick by which the efficacy of medical treatment is to be measured. the practitioner must be able to use all possible modalities in an effort to alleviate suffering.
             The government's stance on health care is slightly schizophrenic. In the early years of the AIDS epidemic, scant attention and even less resources were devoted to the crisis. Presently significant revenues are earmarked to fight the pandemic, but needle exchanges (a proven method to slow the disease's spread) are illegal. The government grows, tests, and on a small scale, distributes marihuana, but has stated that those physicians who even suggest it's use to the patients shall be prosecuted.
             Marijuana is a naturally occurring sap of a green leafy hemp plant. This plant can be found in almost any part of the world. Marijuana has been widely used in Asia, Asia Minor, and parts of Africa and is presently known worldwide. Referred to by other names such as hemp, pot, green, weed, cannabis, smoke, reefer, and ganga, it is used in many cultures. Some of it's cultural applications are for the relief of anxiety, social lubricant, and in religious ceremony. The plant has over 400 identified compounds with delta-9- tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) as a main psychoactive ingredient. According to Spencer, "In addition to the central nervous system effects, marihuana reduces intraocular pressure, dilates the bronchi, has antiemetic effects, and stimulates the appetite, especially for sweets" (415).
             For thousands of years marijuana has been used as a medicine. Marijuana was legal in the United States until the Marijuana Tax Law of 1937 and only in 1970 was it classified as a schedule one drug. The federal government supplies the drug to eight types o...