Marijuana has been an age-old form of treatment for an array of medical ailments. However, in the early 20th century, the rise of other drugs, including aspirin and barbiturates, began to be prescribed more prevalently than marijuana as a medical remedy/treatment (Steve, 30). While replacements such as these were often more reliable than marijuana in treating particular medical symptoms or side effects of treatments, such as chemotherapy side effects, marijuana continues to be utilized for both recreational and medicinal purposes across the nation. Marijuana should be legalized for a number of reasons, particularly due to its many uses in regards to medicine.

Many of those who advocate for the legality of marijuana claim that the drug is indeed “safe,” particularly in comparison to other drugs on the market. Marijuana is classified as a Schedule I drug category, which means that under the Drug Enforcement Agency, or DEA, it can produce unknown effects, which may engender harmful health side effects, including a drug dependency. Also worth noting is that, in this category also, are other drugs such as LSD and heroin (“Claim V,” 1). Many proponents of legalizing marijuana argue that marijuana should instead be classified as a Schedule II drug, as Schedule II drugs are less likely to lead to death. Many physicians and other healthcare professionals continue to contest that marijuana is actually “safe.” In fact, there has been no known event of a marijuana overdose (Grinspoon, 1). Regardless of this fact, marijuana remains in the Schedule I category.

According to the Journal of the American Medical Association, marijuana is in need of a reclassification status, which would thus make it a Schedule II drug. This would, as a result, allow for the legal prescribing of marijuana. Additionally in this article, Grinspoon found that nearly half of oncologists today hold the belief that patients should be able to smoke marijuana, as a means of coping more effectively with the associated side effects of chemotherapy, such as nausea or dizziness (1). Indeed, the article states, “if marihuana were actually unsafe for use under medical supervision, as its Schedule I status explicitly affirms, this recommendation would be unthinkable” (Grinspoon, 1). Hence, this article proposed for a new recognition and identification of marijuana as a legal, medicinal drug that could potentially aid patients in combating a variety of health ailments.

In a more recent survey, it was found that medical marijuana might actually have more support from physicians in the USA, rather than consumers. In this study, over one thousand physicians and almost three thousand consumers were surveyed. From these results, it was ascertained that almost seventy percent of the physicians surveyed believed that marijuana was advantageous in treating several illnesses; however, only half of the consumers believed this same conviction (Preidt, 1). There has been some promising evidence that marijuana can be effective indeed in helping patients to manage muscle spasticity that is often associated with multiple sclerosis, and also in helping to increase the appetite of patients who have AIDS, as they may be experiencing the associated wasting (Swick & Jellinek, 1). Also worth noting is that there are still several experiments and studies underway in investigating further uses of marijuana as medicinal treatment.

In summary, marijuana should be legalized across the nation, primarily because of its associated benefits in treating certain health ailments and/or side effects. There is broad support it seems from healthcare professionals across the nation, as marijuana has been found to alleviate or lessen certain health symptoms, thus promoting healing or more comfort to compromised patients. Furthermore, there are still other studies that are underway, which may in fact further endorse the legality of marijuana.