Legalization_of_Marijuana

Legalization of Marijuana What will happen to society and the children of parents that use marijuana if it becomes legal for everyone to use' I am stringently against the legalization of Marijuana. People that are drug impaired function at a slower rate and lower level than people who remain sober and people that chose to use Marijuana and have children could be putting their children in danger of harm due to lack of supervision. However legalizing Marijuana could on the other hand stimulate the economy and help empty the jails and prisons thus making the high cost of each inmate less of a burden on society. Another stance is the medical value of Marijuana. I am so strongly against marijuana being legalized because of my personal experience with people who are using this drug and the effects it has on the user and all others around them. I have spent countless sleepless nights due to the use of this drug by other people. I have watched the treatment and neglect personally of people using marijuana that have children and my own brother’s attempt to abuse me and my children while under the influence of marijuana alone and not in combination with any other drug. I have personally watched my very intelligent brother lose his short term memory, his home, approximately 10 relationships with women that would have been great wives and who he really loved but not as much as marijuana, his health due to emphysema, car wrecks, being beaten and robbed for his marijuana and money from the sale of the drug, his job and ability to work, and his familial relationships all but the one with me. I watched as he smeared icy hot all over a two year old little girl because “She wanted it, so why’s she cryin’, awww it ain’t hurtin’ her! Quit it now bro!” In light of this and other people I know who have their own children and neglect to watch them or smoke marijuana with the children in the room with them thus getting their children high from this drug I cannot condone it being legalized for parents. People that smoke marijuana become irresponsible in terms of self-care and the care of their children. According to Raising Children Network (Australia) Limited’s article and blog post called ‘Raising Children Network”, “children of drug users are more likely to be neglected than other children, and to use drugs themselves.” This truth should be carefully considered before checking yes to legalizing marijuana at voting time. Other things to consider when considering legalizing marijuana where children are concerned are: • Children in homes with parents who smoke marijuana daily have problems with brain development, learning, and difficulty with emotional control, behavior, and social adjustment. • These children are at greater risk of child abuse and neglect. It is known that parents that use this drug frequently drive with their children in the vehicle while intoxicated which puts them in danger, to forget to feed their child (ren), have poor school attendance, and not being involved with their children’s educational needs or emotional needs. Use of marijuana while pregnant has been shown to cause low birth weight, harm the unborn child’s health, to cause behavioral problems later in life. Marijuana crosses the placenta and can cause fetal distress, abnormalities, miscarriage, premature labor, low birth weight and developmental delays. These are all good reasons not to legalize marijuana based on lack of child rearing ability and harmful side effects to unborn children alone. Some people will argue that marijuana should be legalized to stimulate the economy and helping to empty the jails and prisons. Decriminalizing the use of marijuana would cause an impact economically but is it worth the trade off' While we would see a decrease in jail and prison population we would see an increase in joblessness due to not appearing for work or not being able to perform once someone under the influence of marijuana got to their job. We may see a rise in the mortality rate among Stimulating the economy and helping to empty the jails and prisons adults and children due to malpractice form doctor’s practicing while under the influence, and what about our political leaders' What type of decisions will be made for us under if our President, the Congress, and the House of Representatives make decisions about war and laws while stoned' According to an article written by Joe Klein in Time Magazine, “We spend $68 billion per year on corrections, and one-third of those being corrected are serving time for nonviolent drug crimes. We spend about $150 billion on policing and courts, and 47.5% of all drug arrests are marijuana-related. That is an awful lot of money, most of it nonfederal, that could be spent on better schools or infrastructure — or simply returned to the public.” California has already legalized marijuana and has realized a tax profit of 1.4 billion dollars in one fiscal year alone. Klein claims that marijuana is a veritable marijuana economic-stimulus package in and of itself due to jobs being established in agriculture, management, sales, and so on. Klein asks so in a nonchalant way, “So why not do it'” Some believe that legalizing vices such as marijuana is debilitating and causing us to live in a less virtuous world but that one could just as easily debate the health risks eating at fast food chains like McDonalds’ issues a more serious health risk than marijuana use does and that the cost of criminalization has become enormous to the average tax payer. One might make one last argument for the legalization of marijuana and that is the medical benefits of using marijuana. My stance on this is that the use of prescribed marijuana is no worse than the use of prescribed barbiturates by doctors and benzodiazepines. Both are addictive and both do have shown effective treatment of pain due to serious lifelong injuries causing lifelong debilitating pain and also panic disorder. Both of these other types of drugs that are legally prescribed but not sold at the local convenience store like cigarettes are also sold illegally on the streets to drug abusers. “The therapeutic properties of marijuana come from the numerous chemicals found in the leaves, buds, and resin of the cannabis plant. The cannabis plant, commonly called hemp, is also well known for the value of its fiber and pulp from the stalk as well as the highly nutritional seed oil.” (Mathre, MSN RN CARN, Perspectives on Addictions Nursing Vol. 4, No. 2 pages 8-9, 1993). Mathre also state in her article on medical use of marijuana that William B. O'Shaughnessy, MD, studied marijuana and found it to be a safe and effective for treating a variety of different medical problems. The Ohio State Medical Society was the first organization or medical group to do studies to prove the benefits of using marijuana as a medical treatment in 1860 and found that marijuana did in fact have medical treatment value. In 1980 a study was done by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) of the National Academy of Sciences and they found that marijuana had therapeutic potential in decreasing the intraocular pressure for glaucoma patients, controlling the severe nausea and vomiting associated with chemotherapy, acting as an anticonvulsant, relaxing muscles and thus counteracting spasticity problems, and other uses, but the investigators there at IOM stated that more investigation needed to be done and highly recommended that further investigation be done to find the full extent of the potential for marijuana as a medical treatment due to the fact that marijuana seemed to work differently than any other conventional medications available to us. Where safety of use of the drug for medical treatment is concerned this was stated by a DEA worker. “Safety: Numerous studies have been conducted to determine marijuana's toxic level: they have concluded that it would take 20,000 to 40,000 times the normal dose to induce death (Institute of Medicine, 1982: Randall, 1988). Another way of stating this would be that a person would have to ingest (or inhale) 1,500 pounds in 15 minutes. After studying all the evidence, the judge in DPF v. DEA #92-1179 and ACT v. DEA #92-1168 found marijuana to be "one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man" (Randall, 1989, p. 440). He continued. "One must reasonably conclude that there is accepted safety for use of marijuana under medical supervision. To conclude otherwise, on the record, would be unreasonable, arbitrary and capricio us" (Randall, 1989, p. 444).” Nurses know that no drug is completely safe and that all drugs can be abused. “Nurses are patient advocates. Addictions nurses advocate treatment for addicted people. Addictions nurses also advocate medicinal treatment of life- and sense-threatening illnesses if the medicine improves the quality of life for a patient. Nurses, as healthcare professionals, must honestly and rationally examine this issue, rather than respond to scare tactics and moral judgments about "illegal drug users." (Mathre, MSN RN CARN, Perspectives on Addictions Nursing Vol. 4, No. 2 pages 8-9, 1993). I still believe that the legalization of marijuana is a fools dream and I will always remain against the legalization of marijuana for the general public due to the strong possibility of public and child endangerment and abuse. I will still also concede that marijuana is a money maker no matter who is making the money from it whether it is a drug dealer or our government. Is that how we want to be seen as a people governed by a cartel of drug dealers' I will also always condone the medically supervised use of marijuana for people that will benefit from its use and by people who will not abuse or sell the drug for profit. References: A) Parenting as a drug user by Raising Children Network, 24-08-2010, © 2006-2012 Raising Children Network (Australia) Limited. All rights reserved. http://raisingchildren.net.au/articles/parenting_as_a_drug_user.htmlParenting as a drug user B) Why Legalizing Marijuana Makes Sense: By Joe Klein Thursday, Apr. 02, 2009 http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1889166,00.html The original version of this article misstated a statistic concerning policing in the U.S. Marijuana accounts for 47% of all drug arrests, not all arrests. Illustration by Stephen Kroninger for TIME C) The Medicinal Use of Marijuana Mary Lynn Mathre, MSN RN CARN Perspectives on Addictions Nursing Vol. 4, No. 2 pages 8-9 June 1993 http://www.ukcia.org/medical/medicinaluseofmarijuana.php Herer, J. (1991). Hemp and the marijuana conspiracy: The emperor wears no clothes. Van Nuys, CA: Hemp Publishing. Institute of Medicine. (1982). Marijuana and health. Washington, DC: National Academy Press. McCaffery, M., & Vourakis, C. (1992). Assessment and pain relief in chemically dependent patients. Orthopedic Nursing, 11(12), 12-27. Mikuriya, T.H. (Ed.). (1973). Marijuana: Medical Papers 1839-1972. Oakland, CA: Medi-Comp Press. Randall, R.C. (1988). Marijuana, medicine, and the law. Washington, DC: Galen Press. Randall, R.C. (1989). Marijuana as medicine: Initial steps. Washington, DC: Galen Press.