Argumentative Speech

Cindy Perez

McKoy

English II

14 May 2013

Medicinal Marijuana

“When you smoke the herb, it reveals you to yourself.” (Bob Marley) Many people believe medicinal marijuana is helpful, but they are not aware of the effects it could bring to someone. Our system is widespread; smoking or ingesting Cannabis can have various effects, it can also influence on the mind.  If the person using medicinal Cannabis is not careful when using cannabis, the effect of the drug can be the opposite of what they expected the drug to do. It can harm your system because of the distinct neurons in our system. Medicinal marijuana is not medical; it is actually the opposite of what it is because medicinal marijuana can give you chronic diseases, it can decrease your mental health, and it can put you in a bad condition of health.  Have you ever imagined someone smoking Cannabis to feel better but instead it destroys them?

There are many reasons why marijuana is not medicine because it needs to be approved by the FDA (Food and Drug Administration).(Myth of “medicinal marijuana”)  Marijuana comes from cannabis, it has many chemicals. Most of those chemicals have an unknown effect, due to this reason that is why it has yet to be approved.  When something is going to be considered medicine,  it needs to have all known side effects and the amount of dosages a person should take. When marijuana is put into the human system, there are many harmful effects it can cause to a person.

Medicinal marijuana can cause a chronic disease. The chronic disease someone could get from inhaling marijuana can lead to a chronic cough. From that chronic cough it may lead to bronchitis.  Bronchitis is inflammation of the mucous membrane in the bronchial tubes. You can get a bronchial attack once a year.  From the coughing and irritating your air way, you begin to wheeze. Therefore, Cannabis may be helping you with one disease, while creating another.

Even though it affects your lungs, it can also affect your mental health.  When a person is using Cannabis, the user is losing their ability to learn the way you usually learn. It impacts their intellectual capacity to the brain. “…marijuana causes panic attacks, delusions, and hallucinations, paranoia, depression and ‘uncontrollably hostility’”(Helen) With that being said it is putting you in risk of blending your emotions and sensory experiences. 

People who consistently use Cannabis are wrecking their short- term memory.  Marijuana plants contain 400 chemicals and 60 of them are cannabinoids, which are psychoactive compounds that are produced inside the body after cannabis is metabolized or is extorted from the cannabis plant.   Those chemicals in the marijuana has unknown effects. The most psychoactive cannabinoids chemical in marijuana that has the biggest impact on the brain is tetrahydrocannibol, or THC.  Psychoactive means effecting the brain. “Some compounds in cannabis, including THC (tetrandro cannabinal) and cannabidiol, interfere with a natural signaling system throughout our brains, nerves and immune system. (Helen) THC can harm your signaling system and it could cause major effects; most of those may remain unknown.  THC is the main active ingredient in marijuana because it affects the brain by binding to and activating specific receptors, known as cannabinoid receptors. These receptors control memory, thought, concentration, time and depth, and coordinated movement.  

Medicinal marijuana is not all medical if it effecting your brain. It effects it many ways, so why it considered medical if it is destroying your brain? Cannabis is actually harming you, while you believe it is helping you. If cannabis has unknown effects and people are not aware of what I could do to you, then why should it be approved by the FDA, if it is not even considered medical. We need to be more educated about the risk of cannabis use, which also includes the abusers knowledge capacity.  We are not aware how cannabis is affecting our system. Our system is widespread, anything inhaled or put into our systems will have an effect to it. “The problem with cannabis is that there’s no way of targeting the drug to any particular place,” (baker).