If marijuana is helping people that have been diagnosed with AIDS, and have chronic
pain, why not have medical marijuana become legal? Marijuana should be legal to use medically
in every state in the United States. Marijuana will help save people with AIDS who have chronic
pain, with few side effects. This drug has been researched for many years, and studies have
shown that marijuana needs to be used now for medical purposes, because it is safe taken in the
prescribed amount. This medicine has no side effects from smoking it as apposed to cigarettes
that cause lung cancer. Marijuana should be used for legal purposes in every state in the United
States.
Marijuana is a better medicine for healing AIDS because the medicine to treat AIDS has
many side effects that irritate the patient. AIDS causes nausea, which is a bothersome after
effect. However, if the patient used marijuana, then irritations would not be an issue. The
traditional medications used in treatment for AIDS cause a wide range of reactions, including
loss of appetite, nausea, headaches, depression, pain, disorientation and fever. The only medicine
capable of treating the entire spectrum of the annoying pains, without causing harm to the user is
marijuana (Peter Gorman). AIDS is a growing problem in the United States. In 2006,
approximately two and a half million people died from AIDS, and in 2007, over three million
people died. Also, between 1991 and 1996, the number of AIDS cases among people fifty and
older grew twenty- two percent (Cynthia Hubert). Since that time, there have been many reported
cases where marijuana has saved peoples lives, in the thirteen states that have legalized medical
marijuana in the U.S (NORML). In other cases, people have died from starvation because they
stopped using medical marijuana. In the case of a man named Barnes, who was diagnosed with
AIDS, he was denied access to medical marijuana because the Bush Administration terminated
the program that allowed federal marijuana. Therefore, Barnes di