subject: Finding That Legal High With Medicinal Marijuana [print this page] For centuries, marijuana has been one of the most controversial substances in the world. While addiction is a very real and very serious problem, there are those who maintain that marijuana does have positive effects. To them, marijuana can induce an altered state of being, often required in many religious traditions all over the world.
Marijuana is also often referred to as weed. It is one of the many ways to prepare the Cannabis plant, which is known to be the major ingredient in most psychoactive drugs. Its applications have existed for centuries. In fact, ancient Egyptians have been known to use the Cannabis plant for both medicinal and recreational activities.
In modern times, Cannabis products such as marijuana have been traditionally used for religious, recreational, and medicinal reasons. Using, producing, selling, and even simply possessing marijuana has been illegal in many countries including the United States since the early twentieth century, although different countries have had varying penalties and laws against marijuana use, sale, production and possession.
Because marijuana is generally illegal in many places in the United States, various organizations have come out to support marijuana legalization. Not just for the legal herbal high, marijuana endorsers claim that the substance provides relief in the treatment of many clinical conditions. There are places such as California where marijuana is conditionally legal, although possession over the prescribed amounts can lead to heavy civil fines and incarceration, along with a stringent drug education program.
Some of the medically recognized conditions where medicinal marijuana is reputed to have positive effects are nausea for cancer patients and AIDS. Some patients who fail to respond to conventional medication often turn to marijuana for pain relief. Medical marijuana is often used to relieve pain in patients and not to induce legal herbal highs for recreation. Some doctors have been known to actually prescribe marijuana in cases where patients require more than the traditional medication.
Those seeking legal herbal highs will have to look elsewhere, because marijuana can only be legally acquired for medicinal purposes. Because the distribution of marijuana is strictly controlled in places where it is legal, the chances of individuals getting hooked or developing an addiction to marijuana are very low.
