Marijuana: the dried leaves and flowers of the hemp plant that are smoked as a drug.

Commonly known as weed, marijuana is used recreationally by many people in order to obtain a natural high. The purpose of the high is to forget ones problems, relieve pain, or just for plain old fun.

Marijuana is the third most common drug in America, behind tobacco and alcohol, which are both legalized. Three out of every four Americans have smoked marijuana by their twentieth birthday.

Four out of every ten people who have tried Marijuana by the time they are twenty, abuses the drug and smoke it on a daily basis.

People don’t usually go to work or to school while being high. But why? The answer is simple; it’s against the law, and if they got caught, they would be screwed.

As recognized by using Marijuana recreationally, smoking it relieves pain- both physically and mentally.  Marijuana is found to medically help some people, and is used as a pain reliever.

I think it is easy to say that no one deserves to be in pain. However, is getting high off of medical a good option?

For cancer patients, people believe that marijuana should be used medically in order to relieve pain. Marijuana is also found to increase a person’s hunger, which would help a cancer patient gain an appetite and weight. Art teacher Mrs. Lees believes, “Medical Marijuana should only be used for cancer patients. They deserve to truly feel less sick.”

Librarian Mrs. Costello also agrees that marijuana can be used to medically treat cancer patients. “The marijuana will make them hungrier and will improve the rate of survival of cancer patients.”  Many other teachers, such as Mr. Ruland, Mrs. Merritt, and Mrs. Lynch, believe marijuana should be used for cancer patients only.

A poll was taken on the Class of 2015 Pentucket High School seniors. They were asked two questions. The questions were, “Do you believe in the use of medical marijuana,” and, “Do you think marijuana should be legalized in the United States?” 78.9% of the students reported yes to both of the questions, and 8% of the students reported no to each question. 15.8% of the students said they believe in the use of medical marijuana, but it should not be legalized in the United States.

Vice Principal Mr. Evans, has an extremely interesting outlook on medical marijuana. He believes in the use of it for patients with life threatening diseases. However, he also believes it can be easily abused and can be used when other drugs can easily be prescribed to relieve pain, but do not make a certain person high. “If a person has cancer, and is hospitalized due to their weakness, and medical marijuana is the last resort, then yes, the patient should most definitely use it. However, if somebody has back pain, and is prescribed with marijuana to take away the pain, the patient could easily become addicted. And even more, it would be dangerous for public safety. Somebody on medical marijuana could get into a car accident, because they are high, and get away without a consequence because they have an excuse for being on marijuana.”

Mr. Evans, not only a public safety teacher, is a paramedic.  Being a paramedic, he is drug tested monthly. If one of his workers was on medical marijuana, they could not be on the job anymore because if they were in the comfort of their home, taking marijuana to relieve their pain, and got a call, they could not show up and drive a truck because they would then be high.

Medical Marijuana can easily be abused by people who can use other drugs to relieve their pain. However, under certain circumstances, medical marijuana can be the only option.

NBC news broadcasted a news clip about a boy named Zaki Jackson. Unfortunately, he was diagnosed with Epilepsy, which caused him to have about 250 seizures a day.

17 medications later, doctors prescribed Zaki with medical marijuana. The family and doctors of Zaki were extremely hesitant to give Zaki marijuana, due to his age. However, the eighteenth prescription changed Zaki’s life forever.

Zaki then went through eight months before having another seizure, and then he did not have another one for an entire year. Marijuana was truly a miracle for Zaki, which is definitely not anything the family or doctors expected.

Going back to what Mrs. Costello said about cancer patients, yes, medical marijuana can extremely help cancer patients- but not only these types of patients. After Zaki has tried so many other options, medical marijuana was one of the only options left.

Mr. Evans also believes, “Medical Marijuana should be prescribed if it is a life or death situation, or if the patient has tried many other options and nothing else has worked.”