Tanner L.

 

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Alternate Intro(Using this one): Hello, my name is Tanner Lebo, and I am a student here at Lincoln Lutheran. I am here to talk to you about marijuana.[]The great Tupac once said, “Stop killing each other man. Let’s just smoke a blunt.”[]Love or hate it, marijuana is one heck of a drug. It can take you anywhere, or make you feel on top of the world. Getting high is the one of the best feelings ever. The high exemplifies everything that you do. It’s truly marvelous. Yes, marijuana is amazing, but today I won’t be talking about that marijuana. I will be talking about this marijuana. []This is medical marijuana. I am going to be explaining to you today why medical marijuana should be legal, and especially taken off of the banned drug list for the NBA. I’m going to convince you of how medical marijuana, not recreational, should be allowed as a medication for those in need. I have done lots of research, looking at pros and cons, and have determined that the substance should be legalized. Once you understand the difference between recreational and medical, and see the benefits, you will see why it should be allowed.

 

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Point #1: Difference between Recreational and Medical Marijuana

-First, you must see the differences between recreational and medical marijuana

-2 main cannabinoids, CBD vs. THC

-the Drug Rehab website explains this difference

-THC, or Tetrahydrocannabinol, is the cannabinoid that produces euphoric psychoactive effects

-CBD, or Cannabidiol, the beneficial part of the plant, the one used for medicine

-recreational as more THC, to get more of the high effect

-medical has more CBD, making it more beneficial therapeutically

-means that there is less THC, and research comes to the conclusion that the CBD may calm or reduce the psychotic effects of the THC

-so, the medical marijuana is much safer for you, and has all the medicinal benefits, without much of a high

 

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Point #2: Benefits

medical marijuana has many benefits

-PT in motion, a magazine written by APTA (American Physical Therapy Association), wrote an article in February of this year, detailing a 486 page study put on by the National Academies Press, called The Health Effects of Cannabis and Cannabinoids: The Current State of Evidence and Recommendations for Research. Here are some highlights:

-“In adults with chronic pain, patients who were treated with cannabis
or cannabinoids are more likely to experience a clinically significant
reduction in pain symptoms.”

-“In adults with chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting, oral canna-
binoids are effective antiemetics.”

-Peter Grinspoon writes on the Harvard Health Blog about other benefits.

-he says it is a very effective painkiller, especially for chronic pain.

-it eases the pain of multiple sclerosis, lessens tremors in Parkinson’s disease

-on the Newsweek magazine website, Donald Abrams, a Professor of Clinical Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, says, “”A day doesn’t go by where I don’t see a cancer patient who has nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite, pain, depression and insomnia. [Marijuana] is the only anti-nausea medicine that increases appetite.”

-According to the magazine, it eases many side effects of chemo, including the nausea and vomiting, with the loss of appetite

-just to imagine what a cancer patient could be going through, and have this right here to help them through it, and be happier, I don’t know why we don’t use it.

it’s just stupid to not use it, because those people that aren’t in favor if medical marijuana are just making chemo harder for children.

 

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Point #3: Substitute for Opioids

-marijuana can be used as a substitute for opioids

-opioids are painkillers such as morphine, that as you take them, you have to start taking more in order to get the same effect

-on Scientific American, it says that “Opioid overdose, which claimed celebrities including Prince and Heath Ledger as victims, contributed to more than 33,000 deaths in 2015, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.”

-It talks about how America is currently suffering through an opioid crisis.

-people are taking these for chronic pain, and just have to keep taking more and more, to the point where it becomes an addiction

-we should be using marijuana instead of opioids, because on Scientific American, it pointed out that marijuana is far less addictive than opioid, if it is addictive at all, and you cannot overdose on it. The web site says “Multiple studies have shown that pro-medical marijuana states have reported fewer opiate deaths and there are no deaths related to marijuana overdose on record.”

-in states that have legalized medical marijuana, the deaths by overdose on opioids have decreased

-if marijuana can save lives like this, I think we should be using it

if we just legalize it, we will reduce many unnecessary deaths and make the world better

 

Rebuttal:

 

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-Some people believe that smoking the medical marijuana will cause lung cancer and other throat problems

-on the ProCon web site, Gregory Carter says “Cannabis has no known lethal dose, minimal drug interactions, is easily dosed via oral ingestion, vaporization, or topical absorption.”

-you don’t have to smoke it, it can enter your system through other safer ways

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-some people believe that patients may abuse the drug and try to get high off of it.

-first of all, because of the high CBD content, the high will have little to no effects, and would not be worth it

-it would be so much easier just to get it at a dispensary or off of the street, where they sell it much cheaper, with much more THC content, so they can get a better high effect then trying to get it off of prescriptions

 

Conclusion/Connection to NBA:

 

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Now, at the beginning I mentioned the medical marijuana being allowed for players in the NBA to use. They want to use it as a more effective painkiller.

 

-David Stern, the former NBA commissioner, used to try to put away the topic of marijuana.

-now that he is retired, he is in favor of the drug.

-the New York Post website, says “Studying up on the physical benefits of using the drug, the 75-year-old Stern said, “there’s universal agreement that marijuana for medical purposes should be completely legal.”
– he is now pushing for the current commissioner, Adam Silver, to legalize it.

-the website also writes a quote of Stern, that says “I think all of the leagues are now appropriately focused on player training, structuring of the right parts of their body, player rehabilitation in the case of injury, player nutrition, player this, player that. This should be a part of that conversation. Can you imagine if we could create a situation where every superstar was able to play one additional year?”

-for players to play another year would be huge, and medical marijuana could be a big part of that.

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-Karl Anthony Towns, who plays for the Minnesota Timberwolves, also advocates for medical marijuana as he says on the NBA website, “Some of us have conditions that could use [medicinal marijuana] to our benefit for everyday living, just taking care of our kids and our families.”

-If the NBA players want the drug, then it should be allowed, as superstars like Towns advocate for it because it could really help with pain.

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In Conclusion,

 

I think that medical marijuana should be allowed in the NBA, and could benefit many players over the long 82 game season. It should also be legalized in all 50 states, as it could help many people, especially dealing with chronic pain. The drug could serve as a better substitute to opioids, reducing many deaths, while providing a more effective and not as dangerous drug. I think medical marijuana is a drug that is needed in our society, that could be very beneficial to a lot of people. I hope I taught you more about this drug, and I hope it changed your minds about the common stereotype of marijuana.

 

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