By Jenny Blackham, left, a pupil at Honley High School on work experience at the Keighley News this week

The question of whether or not cannabis should be legalized has been an issue for quite a while now.

It is now known that cannabis could be useful for medical purposes. It can be used as an anti-nausea drug in chemotherapy and to relieve intra-ocular pressure in glaucoma sufferers. It could also be a symptomatic relief for patients with diseases like MS.

Next year there is going to be a trial use of the drug to investigate how successful the drug really is in relieving pain and muscle spasms. If this trial proves to be successful then I think that it should be legalized for medical use.

Recreationally, cannabis is usually smoked but can also be eaten. It is believed that nearly a quarter of people aged 16-29 have tried cannabis and it features in 90% of all drug-related offences.

The risk of taking a fatal overdose of cannabis is very low. Users do not become physically dependant on the drug, although they may become psychologically reliant on it. There is some evidence that long-term heavy smoking of cannabis may lead to lung disorders such as bronchitis.

Patients taking the drug for medical reasons would not be asked to smoke it. In the trials they will be asked to inhale the vapours through special inhalers and the amounts will be carefully controlled. This means there is less risk of them damaging their lungs.

The effect of cannabis is normally similar to the effects you get from alcohol. It causes the user to feel relaxed and possibly a bit giddy. They often feel an enhanced appreciation of senses like sight and sound.

However users can also sometimes feel anxious and nervy after taking the drug.

I think that extensive tests should be carried out into the effects of using cannabis for medical purposes and if it is legalized then dosage should be very carefully controlled to make sure that patients do not get any of the bad side-effects of the drug and that the feelings of giddiness are minimalised.

There are some fears that the legalization of cannabis, even just for medical reasons, would lead to it being more widely available to the general public, but I think that if the proper security measures are taken with it and doctors don't prescribe huge amounts to a patient at one time then that won't be a problem.

Provided that cannabis is used sensibly it could become a very successful and effective relief for symptoms of difficult diseases such as MS.

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