Ohio Lawmaker Wants To Legalize Medicinal Marijuana

sunshine4u - Actually, no. You’re severely misinformed about the benefits of cannabis and medical use is NOT only an excuse to consume pot legally.

By your reasoning, alcohol should be prohibited again. And we all know how well that worked.

How many people do you know of who come home after a long day of work and have a drink to relax? Many, I’d bet.

So what is wrong with someone coming home and enjoying a safer alternative of mood enhancement? Nothing.

The fact is, cannabis IS safer than alcohol. And the fact is, cannabis has almost no side effects. And, the fact is, a person CANNOT overdose on cannabis. No one has EVER died from using cannabis. Fact is, cannabis has been shown to reduce head, neck and throat cancers, as well as showing to be beneficial for prostate cancer.

And your primary argument about other “legal” drugs is awful and misleading. Just because a drug is legal does NOT make it better than the natural cannabis plant. In fact, you could down a bottle of Bayer right now and kill yourself. You couldn’t ingest enough pot to do anything but make you sleepy. So don’t dole out the lie that there are other “legal” drugs out there that are better than pot. Truth be told, 99.9% of the pharmaceuticals on the market come with a plethora of nasty side effects, most of which are compensated for by MORE drugs with MORE side effects.

What this world needs is for people to stop shoveling the proverbial you-know-what and look into the facts about the cannabis plant and its history of use, why it was prohibited in the first place (racism), and read the results of studies showing its benefits.

My question to you is this: Why on Earth would you prefer to put someone in prison and ruin their life and family solely because they want to use a milder, and arguably safer mood enhancer at the end of a long work day?

Wake up, America! It’s way beyond time to legalize, tax and regulate cannabis and stop the hypocrisy, lying, and deception of our government policy… and most importantly, give back people their human rights.

I do not condone drug use, but never the less if it is legal or not people are still going to use it. I have heard many reports of Medical Marijuana helping people with pain. I am a diabetic with neuropathy. My feet and legs feel like they have been charred by burning. I have trouble working 8 hours a day and It keeps me from sleeping. I do take pain medication prescribed by my doctor. I am at my maximum limit and it is not helping. I do not use Marijuaua but if it would take my pain away in order for me to keep my job and not have to go on disability at 44 years of age, then I would surely try it. The one comment someone made about something like an inhaler or aerosol type of dispenser sounds like it would be a good idea to me. All the medications I am on can cause liver and kidney damage, everything you take can cause some other kind of damage, but in order to manage our pain, we need to take them. I have never heard of Marijuaua causing liver or kidney damage, now I may just not know about it if it does…I am just saying I have never heard of it. My mother and father use to own a pizza shop in Buckeye Lake when Legend Valley or the music center or whatever was over there. One night the Grateful Dead were playing there and they called and ordered a bunch of pizzas for after the show. Mom said she could deliver them after she had closed up. She took the pizza’s and said when she got out of her car after a few minutes she had never felt so good in her life. She got a “contact Buzz” and didn’t know it. I had never heard my mother say she felt good. Never. She had developed Diabetes in her 30’s and had nerve damage and heart problems and all kinds of other problems and just never felt good, until then. She never got another contact buzz and never used marijuana after that, and never felt good again in her life. She died at 56 in great pain. I never feel good anymore and haven’t for years, so if it would help with pain, I sure would try it. Walk a mile in someone else’s shoes. The Government could get thier tax money and if it is prescribed it is controlled if the people follow the directions. Pot will always be around illegally, ALWAYS, so why not help people who have chronic pain with a little quality of living? Any drug that is out there, legal or illegal, will always be abused by people who abuse drugs. Not everyone abuses them. I get prescribed Vicodin when I get a tooth pulled or when I get Phenomonia for the cough and pain…I do not abuse the Vicodin, in fact I don’t like them and probably only take 1 or 2 out of the whole prescription, but does that mean since it is prescribed to me that I will abuse it? The same goes for Medical Marijuana…legalize it and let those of us that are responsible adults have some quality of life left. Oh, I also don’t drink but I do smoke cigarettes. I need to quit those, but people who have never smoked do not know how hard that is…Cigarettes and alcohol are much worse than pot.

This gate way drug theory can be true of alcohol as well as cigarettes. Most people smoke a cigarette before they smoke weed. So lest we outlaw cigarettes and alcohol, it makes no sense to retain our laws against marijuana. Of course it CAN escalate. Much like eating cheeseburgers as a child can cause you to gorge yourself as an adult to the point of dangerous obesity. So, under your theory it would also be wise of us to make cheeseburgers illegal. You’ve seen an angry stoner, I haven’t. So between the two of us we can account for one. I’ve seen at least thirty angry drunks in my life.
Let’s also consider this: Next year our country will spend at least $16 Billion on the “war on drugs.“ 100,000 Americans are arrested each year on drug charges (think of all those tax dollars).(Robert Dreyfuss, Rolling Stone) Now, I am not saying that all of this money should be cut off or that no one should go to jail for drugs. But lets say that half of this is related to marijuana (according to a number of statistics I’ve found, that’s very conservative). That means we can cut that money in half and what does that equate to math majors? That’s right, $8 billion!!! Exactly what it would cost to implement a gov’t funded option for healthcare that would allow those who cannot afford healthcare or have pre-existing conditions to not go broke or die because they are ill.
I feel like you have given two examples of why it shouldn’t be legal and I have given around six reasons why it should. I’ve even provided for what we could do with the money we waste attempting to regulate and punish for its use. What amazes me about this issue is that it really does speak to our country’s inability to be logical in its law making. The arguments for so greatly outnumber those opposing but still that has changed nothing for decades. Time for our law makers to act intelligently and financially responsible.

I have had people very close to me die from cancer and other terrible things. They did suffer. It is heart breaking. But NONE of them smoked pot!!!! Fact is, most drug addicts don’t start with the hardcore drugs (meth, heroin, etc.), but the stuff that is so “mild” that it should be legal…marijuana! Then it escalates! And, for the record, I have seen an angry stoner…when he does NOT have his weed but his body tells him he needs it! Quite a bit diff from Benadryl and Nyquil (which you should not drive or operate machinery when you take these!) Just step back and look at all of it! Not part of it! Not gonna argue this out all day. Just my brief opinion. I’m going back to work now! Everyone have a good day!

BoDuke, you said “Like alcohol[,] pot does alter brain function and slows the body’s response’s and brain activity, proven fact” That is true. So do nyquil and benadryll, and I’ve yet to see the public outcry on those particular drugs.  The amount of marijuana-related collisions is astronomically low compared to collisions due to alcohol (and cell phone use for that matter). Also, marijuana does not affect the personality like alocohol. The growing adage is “I’ve seen plenty of angry drunks but I’ve never seen an angry stoner.“ Smoking cigrettes causes lung cancer, but those are legal too. As far as the slippery slope worry (that is if we legalize this it’s a path to legalizing everything), that too is flawed. There are hundreds and thousands of drugs out there that are legal (be they over the counter or with perscription) and a handful that are illegal. You would think if the “if you legalize one you will legalize them all” theory were true, all drugs would have been made legal decades ago. The fact that you don’t understand why somebody would do something is no reason to justify a law against them doing it. I have no idea why someone would wanna make a sport out of driving a car in a circle a hundred times, but I don’t feel like it ought to be illegal.

The truth is marijuana has a much milder effect on people that a massive number of perfectly legal drugs. We have just attached a ridiculous stigma to it. Now granted, if we legalize it, the pious will take one on the chin. But fear not - We have plenty of evidence to suggest that you can be incredibly judgemental of things be they legal or illegal.

Re: healthcare. $800 Billion is nothing compared to what we have spent on wars. Our #1 priority is to maintain life here in America. I want my gov’t to work towards defending us against Healthcare providers who abuse us. I want my gov’t to ensure that nobody loses their money or their life for profit gain or due to “pre existing conditions.“ This is where our money should be going more than to anything else in our country. There is no point in spending money on war or education or roads when our people are going broke and dying because we allow corporate greed to disclude them from a basic human right: healthcare.