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Plain and simple: medical marijuana should be legal in all US states.

Known as perhaps the most common 'street drug' in the United States, nearly 15 million people use it at least once every month.

According to a recent report by CNN, only 13 states have laws that permit the use of medical marijuana, those states being: Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Rhode Island, Oregon, Vermont and Washington.

Unlike most prescribed medications, doctors do not issue the usual prescriptions for medical marijuana; instead, they write a recommendation in the aforementioned states where it is legal.

In any case, the legalization of medical marijuana itself tends to raise controversy.

Is it worth the risk or the side effects? Those who have used this unconventional treatment for medical conditions, ranging from breast cancer to anxiety, have reported it had indeed worked for them.

Two testimonial examples of medical marijuana being effective came from both a woman described by a friend of hers as a very prim and proper woman in her 40s/50s, who used marijuana as part of her breast cancer treatment (and now swears by it), as well as singer Melissa Etheridge, who also said it worked for her in her own breast cancer battle. Marijuana has also been used successfully to treat some forms of glaucoma.

A close friend of mine, in a stressful, high-risk (and somewhat high-profile) business, has also used marijuana for medical purposes to treat his anxiety disorder and has reported he had done better with it than traditional anti anxiety medications; it is much easier for him to focus, concentrate and improve his job performance.

The Institute of Medicine released a report in 1999 addressing the possibility of medical marijuana increasing the use of marijuana in general. The study found that at this point, there are no convincing data to support this concern. The existing data are consistent with the idea that this would not be a problem, if the medical use of marijuana were as closely regulated as other medications with abuse potential.

This question is beyond the issues normally considered for medical uses of drugs, and should not be a factor in evaluating the therapeutic potential of marijuana or cannabinoids.

The report added that, "Marijuana is not a completely benign substance. It is a powerful drug with a variety of effects. However, except for the harms associated with smoking, the adverse effects of marijuana use are within the range

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