By MICHELLE WILLSON
Editorial Editor
Should Medical Marijuana be legalized? Many have very strong opinions on it. 28 States and Washington DC have all legalized it but there has not been many medical test or trials done. So specialist do not know how much it helps or even what it helps exactly. Multiple Clinical Trials are being performed and will hopefully shed some light on this “smoky” situation.
The Washington times stated ”Eighty-three percent of Americans surveyed recently said that doctors should be able to prescribe marijuana to patients” That is an overwhelming amount of people who agree.
There are a lack of clinical trials being performed because there is a lot of funding needed to put one on and a lot of criteria that has to be followed to get approved to do one. It takes a lot of extra test to be in a trial and they have to make sure they have a good range of candidates that agree to do the trial.
Like every scientific test to see the right results you need a control group and a test group and a greater number of candidates means more thorough the results.
Now with every medicine there will be side effects most of which are still being tested in clinical trials however “a small study from Harvard’s Marijuana Investigations for Neuroscientific Discovery (MIND) program looked at a group of people who used the drug to treat and manage anxiety, chronic pain, post-traumatic stress disorder, and sleep problems, and found that after three months of use, they did not show signs of declining cognitive function. In fact, their executive function skills — like paying attention and managing time — actually improved.” Stated Harvard Health Publishing.
In a study published in Journal of the American Medical Association their studies showed that marijuana does not impair lung function, they believe that it may even increase lung capacity. (businessInsider.com)
These studies alone show great results and prove that their could be a lot of positive side effects to legalizing Medical Marijuana everywhere.
I have seen and read stories about Medical Marijuana helping several different patients. From helping decrease the amount of seizures a little girl was having, Decreasing the pain of an elderly person with arthritis and a Youtube video posted by Ride With Larry shows unedited video of the effects of Marijuana on Parkinson’s disease and the results were astronomical.
Right now I am just talking about Medical Marijuana though with clinical trials being tested right now. I believe if they continue to show promising results recreational Marijuana could end up being legalized everywhere as well. I sure we will learn more about side effects as the trials begin to release their results.
I am on the side of the 83%. If it can help someone with a illness than why not. Even if it is not a part of getting rid of their medical issue if it can help ease their pain or stop there seizures even if it is just for a couple hours It is a win in my book. Why not allow them to have a less painful existence and give them a little peace of mind.