Legalizing Weed in New Places

Over the course of about a month, the controversial drug, marijuana, has found legalization for medical purposes in a few more US states and the UK. Medicinal marijuana was legalized in Missouri, Michigan, and Utah in the recent midterm elections, and the UK passed the law on November first. Canada also legalized recreational marijuana in October. Indiana lawmakers are considering taking action, but the proposals have been hard for them to proceed with.

Even though the cannabis will be used for medicine, could people get ahold of it for their own purposes? This is a question citizens of the United States contemplate with all the time. The battle of legalizing marijuana continues through every state. People argue for allowing the use of medicinal cannabis, allowing personal use, not allowing one or the other, or not allowing any use at all. Many worry for the health and safety of others if the drug gets in the wrong hands. It is possible for marijuana to cause health risks, according to drugabuse.gov. Also, when the drug is abused, the abuser could bring danger to themselves and people around them. For example, a high person driving on a busy highway could put other drivers in danger if they cannot perform daily activities well enough.

Now that cannabis is usable for medicine in more states, the UK, and Canada, sick patients no longer have to travel as far to be able to get the treatment they need. Patients in the UK used to have to travel to states like Colorado for proper treatment. Specialist doctors can now prescribe cannabis, and families with a sick loved one can get a weight taken off their shoulders. Medicinal marijuana can be prescribed to help relieve severe pain, brain-related conditions, mental health disorders, gastrointestinal disorders, however, no other conditions are allowed to be relieved with the drug, according to CNN.

Today, some people still question the safety of medicinal marijuana. The doctors must be trusted to prescribe it to the right people and under the right conditions, but not everything can work out perfectly all the time. It is possible for a “patient” to be prescribed, but they end up using it to grow their own and illegally sell it or use it as a drug to get high. Cannabis does not have the physical ability to kill a person like other drugs may, but if it is abused, abusers can put the people around them at a risk. This could only happen if the user would get themselves so high that they cannot perform everyday activities regularly, though.

Since all of the new places have introduced the medicinal properties of marijuana to their citizens, people with severe and otherwise untreatable health conditions can seek treatment. Doctors have to be trusted with prescribing the right thing to the right person, and the patient also has to be trusted. The argument for marijuana will still continue throughout the world until everyone is pleased, but that is usually a task not able to be fulfilled. Besides the ongoing arguments, sick patients now have easier access to something that could change not only their lives but their families’ lives too, because of the recent legalization in multiple new areas.