Monday, June 28, 2004

medical marijuana case going to supreme court

what a fun day.

I'm not really sure what John Ashcroft's beef w/ medical marijuana is. I'm not sure where in the bible it says "though shalt not smoke the herb, but it's ok to take claritin." Probably somewhere in Deuteronomy, right after women are required to have their hands cut off if they touch the genitals of another man while their husband is having a fight.

I've never smoked pot, simply because I've never had the guts to do so. And the distinction between "medical use" and "recreational use" seems a bit ridiculous to me. Let's face it. We're all in chronic pain. We're alive, and that's enough to cause chronic pain. Now, as a society, we have formed mores over whose chronic pain matters and whose doesn't, and that's probably a good thing, socially if not economically. Even if its fundamentally appropriate, it seems kinda nuts that a doctor can just hand out a license to toke. Considering the number of crooked docs out there, I doubt it would be hard to get a "recommendation" for marijuana, and I'm sure that's why Ashcroft is freaking out. He doesn't want to find out that when his boys bust some 17 year old for smoking weed that his pediatrician father gave him a note that said it was fine and dandy for his "depression."

Now, for these people with an inoperable brain tumor the size of a softball, it feels like a different story, and I don't think anybody in their right mind would want to deny these people painkillers. I mean, docs use morphine and oxy all the time, what's wrong w/ pot?

Fundamentally, I don't care about pot. Until I can buy it behind the counter at Meijer, then maybe. That'd be pretty sweet.

No comments: