Rick Raw: Pot Goes Mainstream as Medicine–One Small Step to Pervasive Legalization

By Rick Grant Commentary rickgrant01@comcast.net

Just as the gangsters of the 1920s didn’t want Prohibition to end, the licenced medical marijuana growers of California didn’t want Proposition 19 to pass. It mandated legalizing pot for recreational use.

If Proposition 19 had passed, it would have brought in the agribusiness conglomerates to grow pot on a big scale. The mom and pop growers couldn’t compete with agribusiness’ capital.

So, ironically, the growers sided with law enforcement in the Proposition 19 initiative. Medical marijuana has become a multi-billion dollar business in California. Anyone with a prescription can buy marijuana legally in California and selected other states.

Florida (the penis state) is still the epicenter of the Bible belt and ultra-conservative philosophies to make even medical marijuana legal. Floridians would rather have a known crook–Rick Scott--as governor than legalize pot. Dumbasses!

Pot is such a hot topic, a marijuana joint was featured on this week’s "Time Magazine" cover.

The benefits of medical marijuana are well known to chemotherapy patients. It relieves the nausea and boosts the patient’s appetite. Hip women have always known that pot relieves the symptoms of premenstrual cramps and PMS.

More significantly, marijuana has been linked clinically to relieving the onset of depression, anxiety, and schizophrenia. Pot also relieves migraines, insomnia, back pain, and for what ever reason, lack of appetite–the well known muchie factor. And, of course, pot relieves the pressure on the optic nerve of glaucoma, from which I suffer.

Other symptoms of common maladies that marijuana relieves are irritable bowel syndrome, Tourette’s, muscular dystrophy, herpes, diabetes, gonorrhea, eczema, and weight loss for eating disorders. Presently, there is a study that THC (the active chemical in marijuana) slows down the progress of Alzheimer patients.

In California, it’s easy to get a prescription for pot. Just make an appointment with your primary care physician and complain of pain, and presto, go to a marijuana boutique and buy pot. There is a limit for each customer.

In contrast to pot’s wondrous medicinal properties is its high or buzz that regular smokers of the "evil" weed seek. The legal marijuana boutique owners of California tout the different types of high that each variety of buds (the most saturated with THC part of the plant) to give the customer. There is the spiritual high; the psychedelic high; the creative high; (musicians like that one) the sexual high, et al.

Medical marijuana patients use sophisticated methods to get the most out of their supply of weed. They use bongs or breathing bags that blow up with smoke then the smoker can hold the smoke in the bag until he or she wants another hit. This way, no smoke goes to waste, like in a burning joint.

Patient testimonials can be accessed at http://www.montanacargiversnetwork.com/Yes, this would imply that in legal medical marijuana states, there are legions of happy pot smokers. But what’s the downside? Nothing serious. As any pot smoker will tell you, loss of short term memory is no biggie. No one has ever ODed on marijuana–it’s impossible.

However, anything done in excess has negative effects. Serious pot-heads tend to be unmotivated couch potatoes. But not always.

Willy Nelson chain smokes joints all day and into the night. He’s a heavy user and he still functions normally, performs concerts, and remembers his lyrics. He told Larry King he had smoked pot right before going on his show.

In Willy’s case, his body has built up a tolerance and his sensitivity to getting high has stabilized at a certain level. If a non-pot smoker did that, he or she would be out-of-it for a couple of days.

So the nationwide legalization of marijuana debate rages. Yes, I’ve inhaled a lot of pot smoke in the past and enjoyed it. But in my book "The Mind further Out," I advocate a drugless high from meditation which is a more satisfying spiritual experience. But, if someone gave me a joint today, I’d smoke it.

As for marijuana’s medicinal properties, if I needed pot to relieve symptoms of a major illness, I wouldn’t hesitate to get it anyway possible. But the "killer" weed has come a long way from the documentary "Reefer Madness." In some states, like Florida, marijuana offenses carry heavy sentences. It just depends on what state in which you’re inhaling.