In 1972, the US Congress placed marijuana in Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act for the circumstance that they considered it to have “no allowed medical use.” Since then, 16 of 50 US states and DC have legalized the medical usage of marijuana.

Proponents of medical marijuana argue that it can be a safe and practical treatment for the symptoms of cancer, AIDS, multiple sclerosis, pain, glaucoma, epilepsy, and other conditions. They cite dozens of peer-reviewed studies, prominent medical organizations, major government reports, and the usage of marijuana as medicine all through world history.

Opponents of medical marijuana argue that it is too hazardous to use, lacks FDA-approval, and that various legal drugs make marijuana use unnecessary. They mention marijuana is addictive, leads to harder drug use, interferes with fertility, impairs driving ability, and injures the lungs, immune system, and brain. They mention that medical marijuana is a front for drug legalization and recreational use.

Marijuana, whose botanical name is cannabis, has been utilized by humans for thousands of years. It was classified as an unlawful drug by lots countries in the 20th century. over the recent two decades, there has been an increasing movement to legalize marijuana, primarily for medical purposes.
 

Medical marijuana use has surged in the 16 states and the District of Columbia that facilitate its use. But states and cities are in addition wrestling with the question of what medical marijuana is, or should be.
 

Marijuana’s use has specifically increased among teenagers. in line with a December 2011 government report, one out of every 15 high school students smokes marijuana on a near every day basis, a figure that has reached a 30-year peak even as usage of alcohol, cigarettes and cocaine among teenagers continued a slow decline.
 

The popularity of marijuana reflects what researchers and drug officials tell is an increasing perception among teenagers that habitual marijuana use carries small risk of damage. That perception, experts tell, is fueled in part by wider familiarity with medical marijuana and bigger ease in accumulating it.
 

Proponents of marijuana have argued for years that the drug is safer than alcohol, both to individuals and society.
 

In Colorado, a proposition to legalize possession of marijuana in little amounts is probable to be on the ballot in November 2012, urging voters to “regulate marijuana like alcohol,” as the ballot proposition’s caption puts it.
 

The aim of legalization is not to make access to marijuana easier, but rather, told one supporter in Colorado, “to make our communities safer by regulating this substance, taking it out of the underground market, controlling it and better keeping it away from youthful people.”
 
The discussion in Colorado is premised on the idea that marijuana has turned, if not quite mainstream, then at least no longer alien to the average voter. Medical marijuana is earlier legal here. Medical marijuana dispensaries, mainly in Colorado, have exploded in number in the past few years, and more than 88,000 Colorado residents have medical marijuana cards.
 
Supporters of legalization agree that medical marijuana has led to abuses, and that, they tell, is the extremely problem that legalization would restore. Banning or improperly regulating a substance that large amounts of people will use anyway failed in the 1920s with alcohol — with the spread of speakeasies and corruption throughout Prohibition — and is failing now with marijuana, they tell.