Medical Marijuana to Governor Rick Perry: In Essay

Medical Marijuana

To Governor Rick Perry:

In the state of Texas, the use of marijuana for medical reasons is illegal, but I would like you to reconsider this issue. I have a personal interest in this issue as I am terminally ill with colon cancer. By the time this issue is resolved in Texas, it will likely be too late for me, but being ill has made me wish to be proactive so that I can help others to alleviate their pain and suffering. Medical marijuana has proven to help cancer sufferers and other chronically or terminally ill people in a myriad of ways. I hope you will consider this information and, after reading this letter, promote the use of medical marijuana in the state of Texas so that people in my position will be happier and healthier in the future.

Medical marijuana has been proven to alleviate the symptoms of chemotherapy, including the crippling nausea. People with cancer often have to undergo chemotherapy, which is a very aggressive form of medical treatment which results in most patients losing their hair, quite a bit of weight, and having a plurality of other complications. Often, the side effects of the chemotherapy can be more traumatic to the body than the cancer itself. If medical marijuana usage can help patients who are undergoing this process, then it seems cruel to deny them this. Additionally, there has been research which proves that medical marijuana may even be able to prevent the spread of cancer throughout the body of the patients (McAllister 2007,-page 2921). Both breast and brain cancers have been retarded and treated through the use of medical marijuana.

Marijuana can also help people by stimulating hunger. AIDs patients and cancer patients can become easily malnourished. The symptoms of their conditions deter their hunger and make it difficult to eat. Research conducted at Columbia University were able to determine that medical marijuana and cannabis are able to increase hunger in AIDS patients and allow them to intake larger quantities of food without any negative effects on…