Marijuana. It has been apart of our lives for the past thousands of years and has received every possible reputation: positive, negative and everything in between. Now it is here in Fort Collins as medical marijuana. As of now there are only 15 states that allow the use of medical marijuana and 6 other states are waiting for the bill to pass. The state of Colorado passed the bill by 54% on June 1, 2001. The medical conditions that allow for one to receive a medical license for marijuana include the following: cancer, glaucoma, HIV/AIDS positive, cachexia, severe pain and nausea, seizures, and persistent muscle spasms. As of June of 2010, two more bills were passed in order to keep the marijuana only available to those who are in dire need of it. House Bill 1284 and Senate Bill 109 have made it more difficult for dispensaries to open due to requirements and also cracked down on suspicious doctors for handing out licenses to those without serious enough conditions.
Is this the start of making marijuana more socially acceptable in the future? The drug was seen for the past several decades as something horrific and still is today by many Americans. How did it change in to a medicine in the past few years then? Is it really helping those with cancer and chronic pain or is this just an easier way to maintain drug use?
In 2000, when the bill passed in the state of Colorado to allow medical marijuana to be used, many residents took up the opportunity to get a license. When I moved to Colorado and found out that medical marijuana was legal, I wondered who qualified for it and what made them the exception to the law. All the responses I received told me that anyone could get marijuana legally. "Just go in and complain about back pain and you can get a license", this one student told me when I asked about how a license was obtained. Several other students at CSU told me very similar responses. Many of the students that I spoke to thought the idea of medical marijuana was great. No surprise. But did they really think of it as in the medical sense or just the recreational drug it has been seen as for so long?
Our society has made western medicine seem like a necessity we need in our lives. Our bodies have seen so many "unnatural" treatments for our back pains and coughs that we are slowly becoming immune to the antibiotics the doctors have been shoving down our throats. So now we are given this "natural" drug to help with the pains of cancer. I believe that something we can use that is purely from nature versus a business revenue producing expensive pills that in return have so many more side effects then marijuana.
The legalization of medical marijuana has been a big step for the United States in taking a different stance on drugs then previous times. With this new position on medical marijuana, it shows that in this time in age people are becoming more open minded about a substance that had been given such a negative reputation. If this drug is helping those with conditions that the pharmaceutical businesses have not been able to "fix", then it is a beneficial thing to have legalized. Yet, the residents of the area have over abused it for things as chronic back pain for a car accident a few years back or persistent migraines. This is why the two bills came out a few months back; to help fight against the over-using of medical marijuana.
Despite controversy over the drug, medical marijuana is a positive thing to allow our society to utilize for their serious medical conditions. I believe that medical marijuana is a step towards a community that is not reliant on chemicals and the billions of dollars a year spent on prescriptions, which in the end could create other harmful side effects to our bodies. Yes, it is a "drug" but so is vicodin to help with your back pain that in the end makes the body more addicted to the unnatural chemicals then to marijuana. Laws, just like the bills passed earlier this year are needed to help keep medical marijuana available to those who really need this drug. It is important to not exploit medical marijuana because I do believe that it is a effective alternative to western medicine.
NewsHawk: Ganjarden: 420 MAGAZINE
Source: The Coloradoan
Author: Dani Nicodemus
Contact: The Coloradoan
Copyright: 2010 The Coloradoan
Website: Getting High in Fort Collins
Is this the start of making marijuana more socially acceptable in the future? The drug was seen for the past several decades as something horrific and still is today by many Americans. How did it change in to a medicine in the past few years then? Is it really helping those with cancer and chronic pain or is this just an easier way to maintain drug use?
In 2000, when the bill passed in the state of Colorado to allow medical marijuana to be used, many residents took up the opportunity to get a license. When I moved to Colorado and found out that medical marijuana was legal, I wondered who qualified for it and what made them the exception to the law. All the responses I received told me that anyone could get marijuana legally. "Just go in and complain about back pain and you can get a license", this one student told me when I asked about how a license was obtained. Several other students at CSU told me very similar responses. Many of the students that I spoke to thought the idea of medical marijuana was great. No surprise. But did they really think of it as in the medical sense or just the recreational drug it has been seen as for so long?
Our society has made western medicine seem like a necessity we need in our lives. Our bodies have seen so many "unnatural" treatments for our back pains and coughs that we are slowly becoming immune to the antibiotics the doctors have been shoving down our throats. So now we are given this "natural" drug to help with the pains of cancer. I believe that something we can use that is purely from nature versus a business revenue producing expensive pills that in return have so many more side effects then marijuana.
The legalization of medical marijuana has been a big step for the United States in taking a different stance on drugs then previous times. With this new position on medical marijuana, it shows that in this time in age people are becoming more open minded about a substance that had been given such a negative reputation. If this drug is helping those with conditions that the pharmaceutical businesses have not been able to "fix", then it is a beneficial thing to have legalized. Yet, the residents of the area have over abused it for things as chronic back pain for a car accident a few years back or persistent migraines. This is why the two bills came out a few months back; to help fight against the over-using of medical marijuana.
Despite controversy over the drug, medical marijuana is a positive thing to allow our society to utilize for their serious medical conditions. I believe that medical marijuana is a step towards a community that is not reliant on chemicals and the billions of dollars a year spent on prescriptions, which in the end could create other harmful side effects to our bodies. Yes, it is a "drug" but so is vicodin to help with your back pain that in the end makes the body more addicted to the unnatural chemicals then to marijuana. Laws, just like the bills passed earlier this year are needed to help keep medical marijuana available to those who really need this drug. It is important to not exploit medical marijuana because I do believe that it is a effective alternative to western medicine.
NewsHawk: Ganjarden: 420 MAGAZINE
Source: The Coloradoan
Author: Dani Nicodemus
Contact: The Coloradoan
Copyright: 2010 The Coloradoan
Website: Getting High in Fort Collins
