Writer's Block: 420 friendly?
Mar. 9th, 2010 09:51 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
holly_evolving[Error: unknown template qotd]
I wholeheartedly agree, for a variety of reasons.
First, I don't believe in victimless crime. If a competent legal adult makes the decision to use marijuana in a way that doesn't harm anyone else, why should the law or anyone else care?
Second, marijuana has been proven beneficial for a number of medical situations in which the legal treatment alternatives cause more harm than marijuana would. Nausea from chemotherapy and intraocular pressure from glaucoma spring to mind. Research from the University of Israel (where THC was discovered) has also shown that in at least some cases, marijuana use can ease the body's acceptance of a transplanted organ. Vaporized (not smoked) marijuana is in many cases the least harmful treatment available for chronic pain disorders like fibromyalgia. Denying medical marijuana in 2010 is tantamount to forcing doctors to violate the hippocratic oath.
Speaking of marijuana being less harmful, it doesn't cause cancer or cirrhosis of the liver. Vaporized marijuana doesn't do much more to the lungs than scented candles. Far fewer accidents can be attributed to marijuana than alcohol. And yet, cigarettes and alcohol are legal and marijuana isn't.
Marijuana "by-products" are also valuable products in and of themselves. Hemp rope and paper are both more durable and easier to produce than their natural counterparts. Hemp seed oil is wonderfully theraputic for a variety of skin damage. Hemp lotion is the best treatement for sunburn that I've ever used (there's no cure save time, but it does speed up healing quite a lot). Though medical grade marijuana requires specific growing conditions to achieve maximum benefit, cannabis sativa is a weed that grows under almost any condition. Poorer grade plants would still be perfectly fine for non-chemical uses, and if legally cultivated, could be quite cheaply produced.
It's not 1950 anymore. Taxpayer money shouldn't be wasted on the criminalization of marijuana any longer.
I wholeheartedly agree, for a variety of reasons.
First, I don't believe in victimless crime. If a competent legal adult makes the decision to use marijuana in a way that doesn't harm anyone else, why should the law or anyone else care?
Second, marijuana has been proven beneficial for a number of medical situations in which the legal treatment alternatives cause more harm than marijuana would. Nausea from chemotherapy and intraocular pressure from glaucoma spring to mind. Research from the University of Israel (where THC was discovered) has also shown that in at least some cases, marijuana use can ease the body's acceptance of a transplanted organ. Vaporized (not smoked) marijuana is in many cases the least harmful treatment available for chronic pain disorders like fibromyalgia. Denying medical marijuana in 2010 is tantamount to forcing doctors to violate the hippocratic oath.
Speaking of marijuana being less harmful, it doesn't cause cancer or cirrhosis of the liver. Vaporized marijuana doesn't do much more to the lungs than scented candles. Far fewer accidents can be attributed to marijuana than alcohol. And yet, cigarettes and alcohol are legal and marijuana isn't.
Marijuana "by-products" are also valuable products in and of themselves. Hemp rope and paper are both more durable and easier to produce than their natural counterparts. Hemp seed oil is wonderfully theraputic for a variety of skin damage. Hemp lotion is the best treatement for sunburn that I've ever used (there's no cure save time, but it does speed up healing quite a lot). Though medical grade marijuana requires specific growing conditions to achieve maximum benefit, cannabis sativa is a weed that grows under almost any condition. Poorer grade plants would still be perfectly fine for non-chemical uses, and if legally cultivated, could be quite cheaply produced.
It's not 1950 anymore. Taxpayer money shouldn't be wasted on the criminalization of marijuana any longer.