The Straight Toke - THE Marijuana Blog

Last week, Bill Richardson, governor of New Mexico and a 2008 presidential candidate, announced his support of medical marijuana in New Mexico. There are already 11 states in the United States that allow the medicinal use of cannabis -- and Richardson hopes to add a 12th.

Of course just because a state allows medical cannabis doesn't mean that all marijuana is legal. It's quite likely that recreational marijuana users will find their pastime just as arrest-causing as before -- and that probably won't change for some time. Instead, allowing medicinal cannabis is but the first step towards legaliztion. The more legitimate medical uses an herb has, the harder it becomes to claim that herb causes "insanity, criminality, and death" (as Harry J. Anslinger once claimed.)

To be realistic, medical marijuana will likely be used only in cases where the patient is facing a life-long (or life-threatening) disease or in cases where marijuana can alleviate extreme or chronic pain. From a medical standpoint, cannabis isn't really a big deal. Legalizing medical cannabis isn't going to save 1,000,000 lives. Heck, it probably isn't going to save 100 lives. What it will do however, is prove that cannabis can be used safely. And that is a big deal.

If you'd like to read more about Bill Richardson's decision, please see the full Yahoo! News story.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 19th, 2007 at 4:51 am and is filed under Philosophy, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.