Medical Marijuana- Should it matter?

The ACLU reports that a Department of Justice Judge is going to recommend that the DEA end its ban on supplying marijuana for medicinal studies. Currently, the DEA will not supply the weed docs need for proper study.

Sounds like a logical move. Medical marijuana has been routinely dismissed as a “trojan horse” by the Bush Administration.

I wish this trojan horse wasn’t necessary. The argument against prohibition should win on the logic of allowing free markets and free people to make decisions that do not harm others.

Marijuana should not be legal because it could possibly be medicine. It should be legal because we are free.

Alcohol isn’t medicine. Tobacco doesn’t cure anything. We tolerate these “drugs” because of tradition, not science.

The idea that cancer and AIDS patients are going to be arrested for pot smoking is something most Americans find revolting. Medical Marijuana generates an emotional response that other anti-prohibition arguments can not match. Americans want to help patients who are suffering. If only the suffering caused by prohibition was as compelling.

I spent so much time as a prosecutor on POM cases. I always wanted to give “deferred” so that it wouldn’t destroy the defendant’s chances for student loans etc.

I remember reading POM Police Reports and always asking “And?” at the end.

For example, the report summary would say “Pulled suspect over for speeding, 56 in a 45. A consent search yielded a small quantity of a green leafy substance believed to be Marijuana.” And?

This is valuable law enforcement time and effort being documented for my prosecutorial review. Who is safer because of this arrest? What was accomplished?

That being said… I hope they allow these studies. Arresting recreational pot smokers is stupid, arresting cancer patients who smoke pot, is evil.