Legalization of Marijuana - Research Paper Example

I suffered a closed head trauma that left me shaken by up to five grand mal seizures per day. I became addicted to pharmaceutical medication that did not relieve the seizures that plagued my life. About 25% of epileptics do not respond to medicines. I am one of many who do not. While the prescription drugs left me debilitated, I discovered that with marijuana I could completely control the onset of a seizure. For me this knowledge was freedom. By using it I am able to abandon pharmaceutical medication and its side effects.

Arrest and acquittal In August of 1992 my husband, Mike and I were arrested for felony cultivation of five marijuana plants that I grow openly in our front yard. This crime is punishable by three years in state prison. After our arrest we realized the importance of challenging the existing laws governing the medical use of marijuana. We hoped that in presenting a necessity defense we might clarify the medicinal use of marijuana, freeing myself from further prosecution and establishing a precedent for patients relief.

After 7 1/2 months the district attorney of Santa Cruz County, California dropped charges against me for marijuana cultivation. He stated, "No reasonable jury would find her guilty." Having won what I thought to be the right to use the only medicine that controls my seizure activity, I again planted five marijuana plants in my front garden. . Or are we shuffled between departments? The fact is, even though there is no alternative that will provide relief for my condition, and despite my having adequately established necessity through the judiciary system, it is still illegal to use or cultivate marijuana.

California State Senator Henry Mello has presented a non-binding resolution, SJR 8 in a bipartisan effort to allow the use of marijuana medicinally. There is at present no provision by the federal government to meet the needs of patients, only the remnants of the antiquated Compassionate IND (Investigational New Drug) serving nine government-approved patients exists to this day. This defunct program supplied patients with government marijuana, but the project was axed by the Bush administration in March of 1992.

Research There exist three phases of study that are necessary in ascertaining the acceptability of a new drug for medical use in treatment. The FDA requires: Phase I; safety, Phase II; pilot studies on efficacy, and Phase III; controlled studies on efficacy and safety. According to Judge Francis L. Young, presiding Administrative Law Judge to the United States Department of Justice in the DEA hearings on the Marijuana Rescheduling Petition in 1988, it has been established that marijuana satisfies both Phase I, II and Phase III studies on safety and efficacy.

Having demonstrated sufficient evidence to substantiate these findings it then seems redundant to continue further studies on the safety or efficacy of marijuana. By succumbing to the FDAs present acceptance of only Phase II; safety studies, we surrender ground already gained. In fact, as patients' needs are ever growing it is essential to focus on the third phase, i.e., controlled trials, if any aspect of further