The medical art of healing is for the purpose of relieving discomfort and pain. The AMA said in 1997 that the federal government should consider legalization of medical marijuana for this very same purpose. They are an authority on medical issues, even so late in the game, even after so much corporate gaming. However the US government refuses to reclassify marijuana from the Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act. Governors have asked, police personal have asked, even members of the medical profession have said what the hell.
Sixteen out of fifty states plus the District of Columbia have legalized medical marijuana. It is a progressive notion, at once frightening and witchy. Nonetheless, the feds keep making raids and laying down the law, the federal law. Law is a precious thing, full of rights and honor, whether lacking in common sense or not. Also apparently, federal law is more potent than state law. How dare those state lawmakers think they can out-law the federal government?
Natural medications have always proved difficult for the medical community, the government, and such. But the regular citizens or any who have ever benefited from using aloe vera gel on a burn knows that sometimes the simplest remedies cure. To ease pain is a miracle, a miracle of healing.
Federal law is not a gift from the gods. It is instead a bloated, unwieldy thing, unable to change, and not wanting to change. Law is a living thing that must grow and sway; it must move as all living things must move. A rigid entity cannot meet new expectations, new methods, or new ways without cracking a few eggs. Federal law is known for its rigidity and breaking eggs or heads is not a problem. Finger-pointing about brutal federal behavior blows away in the wind, like so much insignificant dust.
Marijuana gives relief from glaucoma, arthritis, and cancer, to name only a few serious health problems. Depression and other mental disorders are more health issues that are helped by marijuana. Epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, and fibromyalgia are a few of the central nervous system diseases aided by this drug. Also weight loss due to loss of appetite can be alleviated by marijuana use. When marijuana can ease some of the pain and stimulate the appetite, why on earth should it not be available to those patients who need it?
Although overwhelmed by evidence to the contrary, the United States keeps spending money on police, courts, and prisons to keep this natural medication out of the hands of the people. Further, civil disobedience counts for nothing. The United States continues to criminalize people who smoke marijuana. Those who are sick, in pain, and dying are denied the relief of marijuana. Is not relief from pain not only common decency but an inalienable right?