The Obama administration, following through on a campaign pledge, issued a memo to select United States Attorneys providing clarification and guidance to federal prosecutors in states that have enacted laws authorizing the medical use of marijuana. This memo basically stated that it will not be a priority to use federal resources to prosecute patients with serious illnesses or their caregivers who are complying with state laws on medical marijuana. But they will not tolerate drug traffickers who hide behind claims of compliance with state law to mask activities that are clearly illegal. This is a huge step forward for all medical marijuana patients. Even though medical marijuana is legal under state law in certain places, it is still totally illegal under federal law. So basically the law system has been doing a huge circle within itself and wasting millions of tax dollars in the process.
Almost every voter under 65 in this country has either smoked cannabis or grew up with people who did. Among its erstwhile users are the last three presidents, one Supreme Court justice and the mayor of the nation’s largest city. The pot leaf’s image pervades popular culture, from Bob Marley T-shirts to billboards for Showtime’s “Weeds”. These are also the same people who may have an urgent need for the medicine. In a way I think that the popularity of cannabis has also hurt its users. Take for example, regular prescription drugs: There is absolutely “NOTHING” cool about these drugs at all. They aren’t glorified through mainstream media like radio, television, and the Internet. Therefore they are talked about much less and the users of these drugs are usually older people who don’t set off red flags anyway. The thing about regular prescription drugs is that they have side effects. These side effects can be very dramatic at times depending on what the drug is. Has anybody really stopped to pay attention to some of these prescription drug commercials on television lately? It is amazing how the list of side effects they must address sometimes takes up more time than the actual advertisement for the drug! I was watching a commercial for a drug that was supposed to help patients with depression. But, the possible side effects were loss of sleep, explosive diarrhea, and loss of appetite, erection difficulties, and psychotic breaks! Now you tell me, who in their right mind would want to take a prescription drug that had the possibility of making them have a psychotic break or explosive diarrhea??? If you were depressed before taking this, just wait till some of these side effects kick in!
Marijuana is a plant that comes from the earth put here for anybody to enjoy how they see fit. Fortunately marijuana also has many medicinal uses. Patients who suffer from everything from depression, glaucoma, insomnia, cancer, muscle pains, and many other sicknesses can get a prescription for marijuana instead of the typical prescription drug. Marijuana is all-natural; regular prescription drugs are made in factories and have all kinds of different substances in them. Nobody knows everything that is in that pill and, if they did they probably wouldn’t take it. Medical marijuana is usually used the same way that the majority of the world uses it, by being smoked or inhaled in some kind of way. This is one of the biggest reasons why many critics think it’s so dangerous. They compare it to smoking cigarettes. There can be some complications due to actually smoking cannabis. But there are a wide variety of ways to take cannabis other than just smoking it.
Medical Marijuana users with the proper documentation from a doctor can go to marijuana dispensaries located in the states where medical marijuana is legal. In these dispensaries they have a wide variety of cannabis to choose from that can be smoked, and access to other forms of cannabis that aren’t smoked. For example, a patient suffering from lung cancer probably wouldn’t want to smoke anything else since that’s probably how they got cancer in the first place. They sell products with medical marijuana in cookies, brownies, truffles, chocolate, seasonings for cooking, dressings for salad, even drinks! The variety is mind boggling and for anybody that chooses to go this route I’m sure they can find something that will fancy them. The other wonderful thing about medical marijuana is that it is much cheaper than regular prescription drugs. If a patient doesn’t have the proper insurance, the cost of his medicine can be easily in the hundreds and maybe thousands of dollars. Marijuana products are cheaper, more user friendly side effect-wise, and aren’t as dangerous and addicting as some regular prescription drugs.
Many states aren’t making medical marijuana legal due to the fact that it is so popular with young people. The people most likely to get busted for cannabis are the ones who “don’t have a political voice” — basically young people of color from poor neighborhoods. And for the majority this is true. But everybody takes cannabis. It’s just that law enforcement only looks for it in these places so the chances of finding it are very high. It is really hard to have a strong political voice about something that isn’t legal or very taboo. It can lead to you getting into a lot of trouble. People are justifiably fearful about writing a letter, showing up on a mailing list or even sending an email with the word “marijuana” in it. They have to be very careful about their jobs, their driver’s licenses and the kids in school whose parents will talk. But put them in the privacy of a voting booth, and stand back! So many people would love to have access to medical marijuana. It doesn’t really make sense to keep something away from the people that you want to vote for you, that can make them not only happy but physically and emotionally better.
Now of course there will be people that will break the rules and use cannabis that do not really have any medical illness at all. But America has been doing that with regular prescription drugs forever. Just like regular people want to get high on cannabis, regular people also want to get high on regular prescription drugs. Prescription drugs have been killing people since there very beginning. But there is not “ONE” case of anybody overdosing on cannabis. The worst thing that will happen to a person who takes too much cannabis is they will probably just fall asleep, eat all the food in your fridge, or have slow reflexes and a bit of a scattered memory. I would take that over explosive diarrhea or psychotic breaks anytime!
The point is medical marijuana will continue to be a very touchy subject due to the fact it plays both sides of the fence. It’s glorified in pop culture and by terminally ill patients as well. Often when something gets the best of both worlds it is usually not accepted by the masses. Popular things are loved by the youth and the youth love edgy things. Just the way the hippies loved cannabis in the 60s we love cannabis now too and even more actually. Those same bare-foot hippies that were smoking like freight trains are now older, productive members of society and I feel that they should be trying to help us more than hurt us. Those hippies may now even be politicians! It’s wrong that they deny us our right to take cannabis if we really need it, and I feel we “ALL” need cannabis. Sick or not sick, rich or poor, black or white, cannabis is right. Stop wasting time harassing and jailing consumers of medical marijuana while they are abiding by the laws and regulations of their state. There are a lot more important things to worry about than busting the guy holding three joints for medicinal use. Why not target real criminals and stop taking the easy way out by harassing happy stoners and sick people holding cannabis. The end of prohibition and discrimination on medical marijuana will be the fall of America’s Berlin Wall. If the government would just legalize medical marijuana throughout the entire country, America would be a much better place. LEGALIZE IT AND STOP CRITICIZING IT!!!!
