The Question: Why is Marijuana not legal in every state, especially for medical use?
Over the past 10 years or so, I have watched as state after state is legalizing Marijuana, also known as cannabis or pot. Hell, whole countries are making it legal. And then there is the United States. So, I must ask why not? Why is the U.S. government not making marijuana legal? This product can help with so many things, from the opioid crisis to cancer. Yes, I called it a product cause that’s what it is, just like every other drug or drug therapy used in the medical profession. It’s funny, not funny ha ha, but funny in the hypocrisy that radiation is legal, chemotherapy is legal, opioids are legal, but not marijuana. Does this make any sense to you the reader? I just can not wrap my head around the idea that it is legal to give people therapy that literally kills you a little with every use, but not a drug that I have never heard of it killing a person just by using it like marijuana.
Marijuana has been used for thousands of years for many purposes, from simply getting high to stopping pain. When you consider how many diseases marijuana can help with or fix, it makes no sense why I even need to ask the question. At my last count Marijuana was legal in 33 states and D.C. with 20 of the being legal only for medical use and a Gallop poll showed that legalization was supported by 64% of Americans of which a majority was Republican, surprisingly enough. Also, when you consider that 91 people die every day in the U.S. from opioid overdoses, I believe that if marijuana was prescribed or legal to buy that the number would go down across the U.S. Now consider that opioid prescriptions have quadrupled since 1999 it makes even less sense that marijuana is not legal across the country by federal law. It is true that fewer doctors are so quick to prescribe opioids as a first line of treatment for most diseases now due to education of the effects it was having on patients. The number of people becoming addicted and overdosing. Yet, the number of over doses and use of opioids keep rising. I have seen firsthand where people who were on opioids for pain due to a multitude of different issues have given up using opioids all together in favor of marijuana and are quite happy with the choice.
The effects have some similarities between opioids and marijuana, such as euphoria relaxation, decrease in pain. However, marijuana is no where near addictive as opioids nor are the side effects as bad as opioids and I am talking specifically about addiction and death by overdose. Have anyone that is familiar ever seen anyone smoke so much weed that they die, no as far as I can tell the average person will fall asleep way before that can happen. The positive effects of marijuana are pain reduction, suppression of nausea and vomiting, appetite stimulation and reduced pressure in the inner eye. These are just a few issues it can be used to treat. It has been successfully used in treating Cancer, chronic pain, all types of arthritis, Multiple sclerosis as well as glaucoma. It has also been used to treat depression, anxiety, insomnia, hypertension eczema and epilepsy. All these diseases have shown positive effects when treated with marijuana and done so without addiction. It has also been shown to less dangerous when used by drivers when compared to alcohol, however you should still not operate a car or any equipment other than maybe the remote control to the television when using marijuana.
The positive effects of marijuana have been known for thousands of years, just look at the charred remains found at a burial site in Romania that have been dated to the 3rd millennium B.C. Marijuana is also the most widely used illicit drug in the western hemisphere and has been for decades. Now consider that the murder rate in Denver dropped by 52% the first-year marijuana was legalized, and opioid overdoses are down by 25% across the board when averaged over all 33 states. I have also read that Doctors believe the legalizing marijuana will lead to a down turn in binge drinking and related deaths by college students. When you consider all of this, I can’t understand the issues the opponents have to making marijuana legal. It has shown mostly positive effects and I did not even go into the predicted 11 billion in tax revenue it would bring to the table. Colorado made 98 million the first year in taxes. Yes, it was less then predicted, but still yet it was 98 million dollars in taxes. Now understand that all of this should be considered my opinion and not fact, but you can just as easily find all this information with a search of Bing ©®or Google ©® and looking at sites such as the CDC, Gallop, or any of the news sites. But if you do not want to do that just remember that this is all my opinion. All I hope to do is make people ask the questions and look for the answers themselves. I hope this is exactly the type of Blog post that makes you do just that. Until next time, Goodbye and enjoy life.
blaneodell 