Medical Marijuana Should Not Be Legalized.

Firstly, I am not arguing that medical marijuana should never be legalized. I am arguing that it should not be legalized yet.Argument 1: Safety Concerns.Many studies have indicated that marijuana has no safety issues and some even claim it is healthy. Not every study agrees though. Some indicate major health concerns regarding marijuana and tetrahydrocannabinol (THC, a major component of marijuana.) A study in the Journal of Immunology shows that THC in marijuana can promote tumor growth (1: Medscape). According to the study, the components of THC and marijuana smoke can harm the bodies anti-tumor response.Most studies that claim marijuana can slow down tumor growth involved the injection of THC (not marijuana, just the THC chemical.) Not only is medical marijuana not injected, but marijuana wasn't involved in the studies claiming THC slows tumors. The people responsible for the study even made clear that smoking cannabis will not fight cancer, "It absolutely isn't the case that men might be able to fight prostate cancer by smoking cannabis..."(2: Reuters). My first listed study, that showed marijuana can increase tumor growth, used actual marijuana. It also studied the smoking of marijuana instead of just injecting it. Another study showed that the use of marijuana can most definitely increase the risk of Lung Cancer (with a 97% confidence interval.) Every joint smoked a day can increase the chance of lung cancer by 8% (3: European Respiratory Journal.) While some studies show no connection between smoking cannabis and getting lung cancer, others show that every 3 joints a day increases the risk by the equivalent of 20 cigarettes a day (4: BBC News.) Other studies indicate an increase in the risk of Schizophrenia. How many studies? Schizophrenia.com cites over 30 (5: Schizophrenia.) Others even link Cannabis to Anxiety and Panic Attacks (6: Anxiety Public Hub) and another shows that, after the first hour, the risk of heart attack increases five fold (7: National Institute of Drug Abuse.) For every study that shows no connection between marijuana and health problems, there is another study that says otherwise. With the lack of solid consensus, it would be wrong to say marijuana is, without a doubt, safe. Many studies indicate some harsh side effect of using marijuana, and without a definite answer regarding the health concerns of the drug, it would be gravely irresponsible and dangerous to legalize the product for medical use. Until we know for sure what the full effect of smoking marijuana is, we shouldn't legalize the product.Many high-end studies show the side effects as being more grave than smoking plain cigarettes. We can't say for sure that marijuana is vastly dangerous, but it's the fact that we can't say for sure that makes legalizing medical use of the drug such a terrible and irresponsible move. But what if another manner of usage was applied? The injection of marijuana can cause Intravenous marijuana Syndrome (8: NCBI.) Injecting marijuana has been known to kill test mice (9: Guardian.) The injection of a chemical like THC is highly dangerous.There are too many studies linking marijuana and THC to serious health issues to conclude it's safe enough to legalize. The lack of definite Information means that marijuana for medical use should still remain illegal. Of course many medical drugs come with health concerns, few as major as what many studies link to marijuana. Although claiming that medical marijuana should be legal because many unhealthy drugs are legal would apply faulty logic, assuming that those bad drugs should be legal as well. 1: http://www.medscape.com...2: http://www.reuters.com...3: http://erj.ersjournals.com...4: http://news.bbc.co.uk...5: http://www.schizophrenia.com...6: http://www.panicattacks.com.au...7: http://www.drugabuse.gov...8: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov...9: http://www.theguardian.com...2: Rate of Addictionmarijuana is, in fact, addictive. It has been suggested that as much as 30% of marijuana users can develop an addiction, while 9% will develop a severe addiction (10: Psychology Today.) Those numbers are far higher than the average rate of addiction for other drugs. This argument rests on the premise that no medical drug with a high chance of addiction should ever be legal.10: http://www.psychologytoday.com...3: Poor Prescription MethodThe method of prescription in the US is dirt poor. Adam Tod Brown, an author at Cracked.com, wrote an article describing how easy it is to get medical marijuana in California (11: Cracked.) The ease of getting medical marijuana is too great. This isn't a black market issue either. The largest problem regarding the ease of obtaining the drug is on the prescription side of legalization.Most people can obtain a prescription without needing a serious condition (like cancer), or even having a slightly above-average condition at all. Half of all prescription usages aren't regarding any form of cancer but are instead for small conditions that would hardly get a person normal medication (12: NORML.)The method of obtaining a prescription for the drug is dangerously flawed. Until major reform takes place, medical marijuana should remain illegal. The method of obtaining the drug promotes black markets and illegal usage. The flawed process also promotes illegally obtaining the drug. The process makes illegally obtaining the drug (which, without taxes, and regulations, is much cheaper) easier than when medical marijuana was illegal. 11: http://www.cracked.com...12: http://www.mapinc.org...Conclusion: Because of the vastly lacking sum of information regarding the safety of marijuana and THC, the large sum of surveys that indicate gravely negative side effects, the rate of addiction, and the terribly flawed method of obtaining a prescription, it would be irresponsible to make medical marijuana legal.Until these major issues are fixed, medical marijuana should remain illegal.