PROPOSAL 1: WHAT'S THE WORST THAT COULD HAPPEN?

Everyone's excited for the election this Nov. 4, but there's a lot
more to it than picking who our next president is going to be. The
state of Michigan has two proposals on the ballot, and the first one
is about medical marijuana. Hardly anyone I talk to knows what
Proposal 1 is about, it seems as though the people who like marijuana
don't like politics and the people who like politics don't like
marijuana. But either way, people need to be informed about all the
issues on the ballot.

At the moment medical marijuana is already legal in 12 states and
helps with quite a number of diseases, including glaucoma, arthritis,
Tourette's syndrome, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, AIDs, cancer and
Crohn's disease, which is a gastrointestinal disorder that has
symptoms such as bloody diarrhea. I don't know about you, but if I had
something like Crohn's disease, I'd try to take any treatment I could
get. There are people who report that medical marijuana may have saved
their lives.

Of course, if medical marijuana does pass, there is always a chance of
doctors going a bit overboard and writing prescriptions for far too
many things. In California, a girl was prescribed medical marijuana
for having high heel pain. But the U.S. federal government has never
reported a single death of a marijuana overdose.

Basically, Proposal 1 would change Michigan law and make it so
seriously ill people could seek authorization from a doctor to grow up
to a dozen marijuana plants and possess up to 2.5 ounces, strictly for
personal use. Patients who are allowed to take medical marijuana will
have identification cards that say that their doctors allowed them to
possess it.

Am I the only one who finds the mental image of cancer patients
tending to marijuana plants incredibly amusing? I don't know why, but
I keep on imagining all these terribly ill people running around with
their twelve pot plants and trying to water them all.

Proposal 1 would also protect the primary caregivers who handle
marijuana for or administer marijuana to their sick friends or family.
Of course, people taking medical marijuana wouldn't be allowed to
drive under the influence of it or smoke it in public or near prisons
or schools. So when you vote this election try to think about all the
sick people out there who are searching for whatever treatment they
can get. It's not like medical marijuana kills anyone, so what's the
worst that could happen?