There seems to be no middle ground in the ongoing battle between people who think that weed should be legalized and those who believe very strongly that it should be banned no matter what its medical uses may be. A few countries as well a few states in the US have currently legalized the use of marijuana, cannabis or weed, for medical purposes but there is insufficient medical research on this subject to help make a convincing argument one way or other.

The pro marijuana camp argues that this drug is not powerful enough to warrant so much attention from the authorities. They claim that alcohol and cigarettes cause far more deaths, both directly and indirectly, than this drug but are tolerated because they are used by the mainstream world. They also cite the beneficial effect that smoking weed has on certain classes of medical patients as a reason for it to be legalized for all to use.

To give them credit, there are indications that this drug is very effective against nausea and vomiting. It has been used with great benefit by people undergoing cancer treatment. Marijuana is best known for stimulating the appetite and people whose hunger has been killed off by chemotherapy and radiation therapy are seen to benefit from this drug. It is also used as a pain reliever when the body is not able to respond to normal painkillers such as barbiturates.

As a matter of fact, there are prescription medications available that contain substances that closely approximate the chemical composition of cannabis which indicates that the medical community is aware of its health giving properties.

On the other side of the divide are people who argue that none of these benefits have ever been proven. They cite the USFDA as their source of this opinion since it has yet to legalize weed for medical purposes.

These people argue that marijuana is an insidious drug that gets people hooked on to habit of taking recreational drugs. Marijuana may indeed be not extremely addictive like some of the other drugs available in the market, but it acts as a gateway drug. People start off with weed and then move onto stronger drugs in their desire for a greater buzz. This gateway theory itself sets off many new arguments and the debate is far from settled.

As it stands today, the trade in marijuana is worth billions of dollars. It may only be a fraction of the total drug trade but it dies indicate there is no slowdown in this market.

Whether or not weed needs to be legalized is not going to be decided easily. While a lot of it depends on further scientific investigation, authorities are bound to take popular sentiment into account while making decisions. The situation today is that a great majority of people distrust drugs in general because of the negative effect they have on society. By all accounts, it looks very likely that marijuana will continue to be illegal for quite

Author Bio: I am basically a graduate at the University of Hamburg and you can get awesome articles and valid information from the ones which I submit specially for you to take a look at. Check out Weed Images, Weed Graphics or WeedPictures.

Category: Legal
Keywords: weed, marijuana, cannabis, legalized, medical purposes, drug trade, recreational drugs, legalize wee