Using Pot: Getting High or Getting Healing

By: BLAIR HINES

Marijuana has a long history of use dating back to early colonists in North America, where hemp was grown for textiles and rope, as told by history.com in a report, marijuana became criminalized due to political and racial factors.

During the "War on Drugs," brought on by President Richard Nixon through the Substance Abuse Act of 1970 where marijuana was listed as a Schedule 1 drug alongside LSD, heroin, and ecstasy, where it was seen, have had no medical uses and the risk of high abuse of it. This has caused the medical use of marijuana to be halted until California in the passing of the Compassionate Use Act in 1996 legalized the use of medical marijuana for chronic severe illnesses. 

According to an article by businessinsider.com, twenty states have legalized the use of medical marijuana while only ten states have legalized the use of recreational marijuana. Michigan became the 10th state to legalize recreational use of marijuana on November 6th, 2018 while Utah and Missouri had voted to legalize marijuana.

Overview of what states have legalized medical and recreational marijuana

However, many view the use of marijuana very differently. Marijuana has had controversial opinions throughout history, some believe there are healing qualities to marijuana and some use it as a way to receive a high. As addressed by NCBI.org, in Marijuana as a Medicine? The Science Behind the Controversy, clinical studies have suggested that people who smoke marijuana have been more prone to developing respiratory problems.

This text goes on to talk about the differing opinions on whether or not marijuana is a gateway and often referred to as a "stepping stone," but it is linked to people who heavily use alcohol, nicotine, and have major phystiricatice disorders. One study found that those who used marijuana 10 to 99 times in their lives were unlikely to have tried drugs like cocaine and heroin. 

Furthermore, marijuana can be beneficial because of the different forms they are in. Marijuana can be smoked, ingested from a pill, an edible form, or vaporized. In an article by lifescience.com, "Marijuana contains 60 active ingredients known as cannabinoids. The body naturally makes its own form of cannabinoids to modulate pain," Donald Abrams said, a medical specialist for cancer patients at the University of California.

Life Science reports on the effects of marijuana and how beneficial to others, "the primary psychoactive cannabinoid in marijuana is THC or tetrahydrocannabinol. THC targets the CB1 receptor, a cannabinoid receptor found primarily in the brain, but also in the nervous system, liver, kidney, and lungs. The CB1 receptor is activated to quiet the response to pain or noxious chemicals."

What this means is that many strains of marijuana such as CBC, a cannabinoid or CBD have been linked to reducing pain, inflammation, epileptic seizures, and treating mental illness. CBD has been proven to be beneficial in reducing seizures, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. 

In a story covered by ABC News in 2010, 12-year-old Ryan who was diagnosed with OCD when he was six years old where his mom Judy has said that he was treated with multiple forms of drugs and therapies. Judy shared the pain their son went through before the use of medical marijuana, 

"A couple of weeks ago I pulled into the driveway and he came running out of the house and threw himself down on the car and said, 'I want you to kill me, I want you to run me down, I don't want to live anymore. I can't take this OCD anymore."

In an article by the Des Moines Register, the Iowa Department of Public Health announced on Tuesday, March 20th 2018 that starting in December five locations were offered licenses for dispensary locations in the state.  They include Council Bluffs, Davenport, Sioux City, Waterloo and Windsor Heights. The article goes onto say that these dispensaries are set up around Iowa’s new medical marijuana law which allows sales of some types of marijuana medications to people who are suffering maladies like epilepsy, cancer, multiple sclerosis, Lou Gehrig’s or intractable pain.

Anna Nett, a senior Spanish major at the University of Iowa, spoke about what she feels is important about marijuana, “Legalize it because people need it, and legalize it for harm reduction. And I feel like there should be no punishment if someone were to be caught with weed.”

Nett went on to say that legalizing marijuana reduces our jail population and it saves the U.S. government money. She enthusiastically said that is also reducing demand from drug traffickers as well as the reduction of drug violence in Latin America.

Similarly, Junior Finch VanDyk, a Political Science major at the University of Northern Iowa spoke on their thoughts about the use of medicinal marijuana, “I think medical marijuana is really important when used alongside or even in lieu of anti-anxiety medication it can help with panic attacks, general anxiety, and insomnia. I think if alcohol is legal recreational weed should be too, it’s no more dangerous and it isn’t addictive, scientifically speaking. It’s less destructive than alcohol, doesn’t tend to lead to violence, and can have benefits. I don’t think there should be a punishment for being caught with any amount of pot because it shouldn’t be illegal in the first place.”

According to ACLU.org report, Iowa has the highest racial disparity rate in the United States with a black person being 8.34 times as likely to be arrested for marijuana as a white person.  Dubuque County has had the worst where there were 1,816 arrests per 100, 00 for blacks as opposed to 181 for whites. Furthermore, Woodbury County at 2,036 as opposed to 251, Johnson County 1,918 vs 247, Linn County at 2,090 vs. 284, and Clinton County at 1,148 as opposed to 1,148 vs 157.

A graph on arrest rates for marijuana possession by race in Iowa

“What really bothers me is the notion that marijuana is also medicinal - because it’s not… We can have an intellectually honest debate about whether we should legalize something that is bad and dangerous but doesn’t call it medicine - that is a joke. There are pieces of marijuana - extracts or constituents or component marijuana - which is what people are talking about when they talk about medicinal marijuana - it has never been shown to be safe or effective as medicine.” Chuck Rosenberg, JD. Acting Administrator of Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) stated the following on November 4th, 2015 found on this report on procon.org.

Ultimately, there are very many differing opinions on the use of recreational marijuana and medical marijuana throughout our country. It seems to depend if the person who has an opinion is directly affected by its use.  It continues to be a controversial topic on whether the legalization of each is important for the United States.

Image Credits:

WSBT 22

Flickr.com

BusinessInsider.com

KCCI.com