Public Policy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Public Policy - Essay Example ulted to the enactment of the Marijuana tax act, and later the Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970 that contained CSA establishing the ban for marijuana use, not even for medical reasons. In the late 1990s, states began legalizing marijuana use for medical purposes, which challenged the congress to develop other accommodating laws over the issue of medical marijuana. The last one decade has been a struggle, with every amendment being rejected, at most five times in the Hinchey-Rohrabacher Amendment (2003-2007) of the federal drug enforcement administration (DEA). Towards the end of the decade, some light has been shed for marijuana use through the approved reforms, showing a congress relaxation trend towards medical marijuana. Marijuana has been known as a pain reliever for intensively suffering patients, but the use has raised so much controversy in the public and occupational domains, due to issues of legitimacy and morality in the society. According to historical records, the cannabis sativa plant (marijuana) has been used for healing purposes, for a wide range of ailments more than 2000 years ago, within America and beyond its boundaries. People could grow and use marijuana under the legal federal and state laws in America between the 18th century and early 1930s, from which it declined following the development of other alternative drugs (aspirin, morphine, and opium derived medication) in pain treatment (Eddy, 2010, p. 1). However, even after the congress and legal federal law classified marijuana as an unsafe drug, medical practitioners have held its benefits that are high in pain treatment, leading to several states having to legalize marijuana only for medical purposes. Initially, state of California was the first to legalize its use, from which others followed bravely. Although there are cases of illegal users of the drug taking advantage of the medical marijuana law, the patients with conditions or symptoms such as chronic pain, cancer,