GOVERNMENT SHOULD CONSIDER LEGALIZING MEDICINAL MARIJUANA

Why can't we smoke dope . when we are sick?

In 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Gonzales v. Raich 545 U.S. 1
(2005) that the federal government may ban the use of marijuana, even
for medical purposes, under Article 1, Section 8, Clause 3 of the U.S.
Constitution (a.k.a. the Commerce Clause) which allows the federal
government to "regulate Commerce.among the several States."

The bench used the Commerce Clause to say that the marijuana trade
(even though illegal) is just that - trade. Therefore, Congress can
pass laws that regulate the use and control of marijuana.

Since that decision, the advocacy for the use of marijuana for
medicinal purposes has been somewhat quiet. That is until of late.

In the small town of Cliff Village, Mo. (on the outskirts of Joplin),
Mayor Joe Blundell proposed a city ordinance allowing the use of
medicinal marijuana. He himself was hit by a train eight years ago and
uses the drug to relieve the pain of the screws and brackets that have
been drilled into his spine.

According to the Joplin Globe, that proposal was passed just two weeks
ago.

The significance of Raich is that now federal officials can raid
Blundell's home if he is using the drug, regardless of the new
ordinance that has been passed in Cliff Village.

The real question we should ask ourselves is what is the harm in
smoking marijuana for medicinal purposes?

I am sure there will be some people out there that would take
advantage of the situation and try to "score" some dope for
recreational purposes if it were legalized, but doesn't that already
happen with prescription drugs today?

In the aforementioned Gonzales v. Raich, the woman in question, Angel
Raich, suffered from life-threatening illnesses and allergies, which
prevented her from taking prescription drugs. Since her options had
been severely limited, Raich relied upon medicinal marijuana to ease
her pain.

Most of the cases that I have heard of that deal with medicinal
marijuana involve debilitating illnesses and/or elderly patients that
use the drug because of its lack of side effects as well as non-habit
forming traits.

I am not too worried that ol' grandma is in risk of becoming a drug
addict or will start playing video games all day. Nor am I worried
that she will eat a half-dozen frozen burritos using Doritos as some
sort of spoon just because she smokes a few "jazz" cigarettes to ease
her chronic back problems or help with her glaucoma.

Why then is the federal government so hell-bent on demonizing this
drug? Do they realize the potential for revenue that marijuana would
generate if legalized?

Aren't we in some sort of economic crisis right now? Not to mention,
if marijuana were legalized across the board (not just for medicinal
use) it would be safe to assume that the quality of product would
improve greatly (if any of you college kids care about that kind of
stuff).

I am not saying that we should all travel to the Capitol steps and
protest for our right to get baked all day in our parents' basement,
but we should sit back and ask ourselves . what's the big deal?

It's not like a lot of us aren't already smoking the stuff, and we are
not asking them to legalize methamphetamines (however, I do hear that
stuff does wonders for weight loss).