DRUGS: When you think about it, marijuana really is the true winner of this year’s election.
Opinion
December 14, 2017
The legality of marijuana has remained a hot topic for decades, with equal fervor on both sides.
2017, however, has seen the decriminalization of marijuana championed across the nation.
West Virginia allows seriously ill patients to access medical marijuana if their doctors recommend it.
New Hampshire became the last state in New England to decriminalize simple possession of marijuana.
Vermont has legalized the cultivation and possession of marijuana by adults.
Across the nation, penalties for marijuana users have been eased. Medical marijuana programs are adding more disorders that qualify for receiving the drug.
Twenty-three states and Washington D.C. have either legalized and regulated marijuana in some way, or have taken up the issue.
In Athens, Ohio an ordinance will soon decriminalize low-level cannabis possession, cultivation and gifting. Two new governors in New Jersey and Virginia are pro-legalization, reflecting the voters’ desire for decriminalization. Two bills passed in Detroit will essentially allow more room for marijuana dispensaries.
This whole year has seen marijuana dominate and win in state legislatures across the nation, and this is great.
People are sick of the same old FDA-approved prescription pharmaceuticals that cause horrible side effects, increasingly realizing the effective healing powers of cannabis.
The big, powerful pharmaceutical industry will lose significant profits when people start growing their own medicine, which they’ve tried to prevent by buying-off legislators, but sooner or later, they will lose. People don’t trust pharmaceutical companies or their high prices.
If used responsibly, marijuana does not harm anyone. Seeing prisons fill up with non-violent drug users is a waste.
Besides, the government should not interfere with anyone’s personal business. People should simply have the freedom to make their own choices.
History has taught that prohibition will fail. A lesson that should have been learned during the 1920s when alcohol was illegal.
It does not work.
The move towards the decriminalization of marijuana is truly for the greater good.
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