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Unlike prescription pills, medical marijuana is a topic full of controversy in today's society. It has a heavy stigma and stereotype, where its consumers are viewed as American “pot smokers” who have been lazy and unmotivated for years dealing with their problems through consuming marijuana. Even though prescription pills are viewed as miracle workers, chosen by a doctor; prescribing the patient, the best and most expensive drug isn’t the best option for the patient unless it's necessary. While both (prescription pills and medical marijuana) are seen in the news, often people don’t have knowledge of what both can do in terms of positive and negative effects and what their roles are.
Legal prescription pills or drugs (like over-the-counter) have been the most commonly abused drugs over the years. Prescription drugs can be addictive and dangerous when they are handled the wrong way. Addiction develops when a person gets injured, he or she is prescribed medicine (e.g., pain killers), and from the pleasure and relief the pills give off, the person becomes addicted causing health problems or even death. I knew a person through my mom’s side (she was a family friend). The same happened to her except she wasn’t an addict at first but because of the relief pills gave off, she soon became one. Which had cost her life. In fact, numbers show that the problem with prescription pills has increased and gotten worse, Greer states, “Prescription drug abuse can have far-reaching effects, including (but not limited to) health effects. Each year nearly 15,000 overdose deaths are attributed to prescription pain relievers more than heroin and cocaine combined. For each overdose death, prescription pain relievers are linked to an estimated 10 addiction treatment admissions and 32 emergency department visits” (3).
Medical marijuana is different from prescription drugs in the sense that the beneficial outcomes outweigh the negative ones. For example, the best-supported medicinal use of marijuana is as a treatment for chronic pain. It can help muscle spasms, control epileptic seizures, etc. According to Medical Marijuana Rx or Risk, an article that discusses whether the medicinal use of the cannabis plant was a safe and effective arthritis treatment states, “In-vitro and animal studies have shown that both herbal and synthetic cannabinoids have the ability to suppress inflammation. Most recently, a Biological & Pharmaceutical Bulletin study in 2011 revealed that six different cannabinoids inhibited the activity of COX-2 enzymes, which play a role in arthritis-related inflammation” (54). In the article it goes on to state that marijuana plays a role in decreasing pain (but not preventing the diseases that come with it), if someone is going through chemotherapy their nausea and loss of appetite can be eased upon consuming cannabis. It mentioned the different ways marijuana can be consumed. If a person doesn’t like the idea of smoking cannabis, he or she has the option to take it orally (e.g., swallowing it in the form of a pill, cooking/baking it and putting it in daily foods, or using oil extraction from the marijuana). There are other safer forms of taking cannabis than taking prescription drugs.
The similarities between the two would have to be that there are negative effects on both sides. Both cause effects over short- and long-term periods. Prescription drugs cause health problems, abuse of that substance, etc. Marijuana can cause memory loss over a long period of time, dizziness, respiratory problems, and even addiction leading to other substances, yet has fewer consequences than stronger substances. For example, Agrawal et al state “These studies suggest that use of cannabis usually precedes initiation of other illicit drugs such as cocaine, hallucinogens, and amphetamines but may follow prior use of nicotine and alcohol. There is also some evidence that the abuse/dependence of cannabis may co-occur with the abuse/dependence of other illicit drugs (Tsuang et al., 1998)” (217). Once a user becomes tolerant to the results of a drug like prescription drugs or medical marijuana the abuse increases, and new substances are likely to be used (to experiment for a bigger high). The only positive aspects that out way the negative ones depend on the usage a person takes on medical marijuana. The same goes for prescription drugs but it has far more consequences than marijuana such as death.
Although medical marijuana and prescription drugs share different types of causes, they both have similar effects. While marijuana consisted mostly of positive aspects (when consumed cautiously) and prescription drugs of negative ones, they both shared the “value of its consumption”. When overusing prescription drugs or marijuana the effects will soon take a toll on someone’s health. All of this information can help somebody’s opinion over the two sides.
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