The time has come to end this drug madness.
In the United States, the simple possession of marijuana is now punishable by enormous fines and huge prison terms. These laws supposedly exist for our own protection. Marijuana has never been demonstrated to be addictive, nor to have any serious long term health risks. Alcohol, however, is known to be addictive, is known to cause health problems, and remains legal.
Who is this law protecting?
Confronted by these facts, advocates of Marijuana Prohibition claim that because the drug is illegal, it leads to other illegal drugs, and therefore, should remain illegal.
The absurdity of this argument is clear even to a child of five.
A rising number of American scientists are discovering what other countries and cultures have known all along: that this substance can greatly enrich a person's quality of life. (Consider where we would be if such restrictions were placed upon the use and study of quinine, hops, aspirin, penicillin, or other less exotic substances!)
If any unknown health risks associated with the use of this drug exist, we need to discover them using the Method of Science.
Marijuana can be used to aid those who suffer from the nausea caused by chemotherapy, lack of appetite, nervous disorders and other complaints. Positively, it is celebrated by oriental physicians and traditional doctors as having beneficent properties when used properly. It continues to be celebrated in such repositories of wisdom as Liber Aleph as "De Herbo Sanctissimo Arabico." Maybe this venerable collection of sages are somehow all wrong... but don't we owe it to ourselves to find out for certain?
Let there be no suspicion of hypocrisy on my part. I don't suffer from chronic nausea, eating disorders, or any health problems whatsoever. Nor do I take gin and tonic to ward off malaria. (Do you?) I want to take marijuana to get high. I want it because it feels good, but even if I didn't, I would resent it being forbidden to me for such flimsy reasons as are presently given for its prohibition, as mentioned above. If it is harmless, then scientific research into marijuana will hasten its legalization.
The war on pot is a waste of tax money.
Even if you hate smoking pot, even if you hate people who do, even if you hate me, let yourself be heard to lessen the suffering of the sick, and to permit rational, legitimate scientific research to put aside the superstitions of all this reefer madness. Support legislation to permit marijuana to be studied and to be used for medicinal purposes.
Click here to receive a letter to support H.R. 1782, legislation to allow individual states to choose whether they want to have medical marijuana legalized. Send this letter to your Representative, urging him to support this Act.