Can Cannabis Really Be Helpful?

(This is an opinion essay regarding the Fourth Paper of More Module practice papers E,F,G: "A New Image For Cannabis?" )

Cannabis is a drug, known for its ability to ease pain and suffering among seriously ill patients. However, this drug is also a very addictive drug, making it banned for medical use in a lot of countries. The drug has recently been reclassified as “not very harmful”, and that represents a shift in attitude towards the usage of this drug.

It may seem that the ban was tactless, and that cannabis should be used in order to ease the patients’ pain. In spite of that, after looking closely at the details, it seems as though allowing the usage of such an addictive drug, may not be so helpful. A recent trial on MS patient showed no difference between patients who received the drug, and those who did not. Some argue that the patients in the experiment did report a relief in symptoms, but I still believe that those results justify the fact that the use of cannabis is not essential.

Furthermore, it appears that the use of cannabis is not only less essential than it is commonly thought to be, but might be even more harmful than it is helpful. A lot of ill patients, who were given this drug for pain relief, became addicted to it afterwards. The addiction to this drug may be extremely dangerous since it might seriously damage the user’s health and sanity.

To conclude, I do believe that when a patient is suffering from a tremendous pain, cannabis may help, but generally speaking, allowing the use of cannabis seems to be more harmful than helpful. I believe that we should try and find a substitute for this drug which will not be as addictive and problematic as cannabis.

Excellent

100

Daphna