Ingraham, Christopher. “’How medical marijuana could literally save lives’.” Washingtonpost.com, The Washington Post. 14 Jul. 2015. Web. 15 Jul. 2015.
Christopher Ingraham is a blogger for the Washington Post and former employee of the Pew Research Center. In his article “How Medical Marijuana could literally save lives” published by washingtonpost.com in July 2015, Ingraham argues that by legalizing marijuana for medicinal purposes, the US could avoid many deaths due to prescription painkiller overdoses.
Ingraham first illustrates the benefits of medicinal marijuana in painkilling by describing a study in which there is a “30% or greater improvement in pain” when the use of medical marijuana is involved. This is important to keep in mind especially due to the large amount of prescription painkiller related deaths in the US. To further support this claim, Ingraham states that “drug overdoses kill more people than suicide, guns or car crashes.” Overall, Ingraham’s own research showed him that prescription painkillers “killed more than 16,000 people in 2013.”
Ingraham then explains that states that allow medicinal marijuana have “a significant decrease in both prescription painkiller abuse, and in overdose deaths from prescription painkillers.” According to the author, “the availability of medical marijuana through licensed dispensaries” is what truly contributes to the use of the drug as beneficial. Meaning that states that allow the drug medicinally see less deaths being caused from prescription painkillers. Ingraham then explains that some of the research found which paints marijuana in a bad light when compared with prescription drugs is not completely accurate due to the accuracy in which studying users of the drugs requires.
Ultimately, Ingraham is arguing for the serious consideration of marijuana being used for medicinal painkilling purposes instead of prescription drugs. Ingraham believes that because of the high death rate attributed to prescription painkiller abuse, “it’s worth taking a serious look at the use of medical marijuana for chronic pain patients.”
This summary and source is valuable for anyone looking to argue the legalization of marijuana for medicinal purposes. The article uses plenty of links and credible research as well as statements from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and researchers from universities such as Stanford. With this information, author Christopher Ingraham effectively conveys his viewpoint that medicinal marijuana should be legalized for the sake of avoiding death from prescription painkiller overdoses and addictions.