Colorado and Washington both passed legislation that legalizes the recreational use of marijuana on Tuesday.

While recreational marijuana is controversial, many people believe that the drug should be legal, especially for medical uses.

See the good side of pot >

Psychiatrist Tod H. Mikuriya, who helped develop Proposition 215, the state ballot that allowed doctors to recommend marijuana for patients in California, began researching marijuana's therapeutic possibilities in the 1960s.

He believed the symptoms of over 200 ailments could be treated with marijuana including stuttering, insomnia, premenstrual syndrome, and writer’s cramp. Even the National Cancer Institute agrees with Mikuriya — specifically the use of marijuana for treatment of side effects of chemotherapy, preventing nausea and vomiting, increasing appetite, relieving pain, and improving sleep.

While the benefits and risks of smoking pot may be overstated by advocates and opponents of marijuana legalization, the new legalization will help researchers study the drugs' medicinal uses, and better understand how it impacts the body.

