Cannabidiol (CBD) and tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) are the active chemicals in marijuana that give medical benefits. Marijuana can be used to prevent the eye disease glaucoma, which increases the pressure in the eyeball. According to the National Eye Institute, “Studies in the early 1970s showed that marijuana, when smoked, lowered intraocular pressure (IOP) in people with normal pressure and those with glaucoma.” With these positive effects on glaucoma it can slow the progression of the disease and prevent blindness.
Epilepsy is one of the most common neurological conditions. About one percent of the American population has epilepsy and about 30 percent is resistant to the anticonvulsant drug treatments. Marijuana can be used to help treat epilepsy and decrease the amount of seizures. Robert J. DeLorenzo performed a study in 2003 on rats with epilepsy. The rats were then given marijuana extract and synthetic marijuana which got rid of the seizures in the rats for about 10 hours (The Endogenous Cannabinoid System Regulates Seizure Frequency and Duration in a Model of Temporal Lobe Epilepsy, …show more content…
Many cancers are treated with chemotherapy. Cancer patients that are treated with chemotherapy suffers from side effects such as nausea, vomiting, and the lose of appetite. These side effects can cause additional health complications. These side effects from chemotherapy can be counteracted by marijuana. Marijuana can decrease the nausea, alleviate pain, and stimulate appetite.
Marijuana may have many medical benefits but it also has many harmful side effects. Many people believe that you cannot get addicted to marijuana. The prevalence of use for marijuana peaks in the late teens and in the early twenties. The lifetime dependency risk for marijuana is 9% which is small compared to 32% for nicotine, 23% for heroin, 17% for cocaine, and 15% for alcohol(Blurred Boundaries: The Therapeutics and Politics of Medical Marijuana, 175). Even though marijuana has a small percentage for lifetime dependency it still disproves people’s ideas of how it is not