The U.S. federal government declared on Friday that marijuana has no accepted medical use and should remain in the same class of drugs as heroin. The decision comes nearly nine years after marijuana supporters asked the government to reclassify the drug. 
Oh, Barry, I voted for you, but this is wrong on so many levels.
First, what’s with the delay? Even potheads work faster than that. Secondly, who are they kidding? The medical benefits of marijuana are proven and well known. Doctors prescribe it regularly.
Here’s an experiment that anybody can do: visit the home of the biggest stoner you know, and then visit the home of the most prudish, fanatically anti-marijuana person you know. For many people, these two extremes can be found within the same extended family.
The stoner’s bathroom will have toothpaste, maybe mouthwash and some eye drops if they work someplace where showing up high as a kite is frowned upon, and little else. The stonerbasher will have so many pills, sprays, ointments and weird little devices that they have a hard time fitting everything in.
Marijuana not only has medicinal value, it is practically a panacea. If a stoner has a headache, a stoner smokes a joint. If a stoner has an upset stomach, a stoner smokes a joint. If a stoner has a rash, or a sore throat or a zit, a stoner smokes a joint. Whether or not it has any direct bearing on the medical problem, it does stop you from worrying obsessively about it, which is often a big part of recovery.
You see, marijuana reduces stress. Or at least it would, if people weren’t trying to arrest you and throw you in prison for smoking it.
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I accept it’s medical use, as do many others, so the government is wrong in saying it has no accepted medical use. But I do have a few other things in my medicine cabinet for headaches and various other things.
The obvious weakness in my argument is age. Fanatically anti-pot people are old, and therefore have full medicine cabinets. This is changing. (see us, for instance)
I still think, though, that the argument holds. You smoke pot, you don’t need as many other drugs.
that the government’s ruling is absurd is beyond question. many of marijuana’s medical benefits were described and scientifically documented by NORML 20 years ago. there are also anti-hemp laws, which are equally ridiculous, as hemp is ineffective as a drug (for the most part) but has numerous and significant agricultural benefits (for instance: the cellulose derived from hemp can be processed into paper more cheaply and recycled more times than wood pulp from trees). hemp is an extremely hardy plant, and will grow in a wider range of climates and soils than just about any other species known; therefore, barren tracts of land could be cultivated with hemp, which, if nothing else could inhibit soil erosion and catalyze CO2 to O2.
in short, there are easily provable, manifold reasons for the legal production of both hemp and marijuana — medical, agricultural, ecological, and so forth. but until it becomes a cash crop for major tobacco companies, which can then use their immense wealth and influence to counter-lobby those other self-serving bastards in the AMA, it looks like countries in europe will remain the only ones enlightened and non-hypocritical enough to let thinking individuals choose one drug over a host of others that are far more hazardous, yet fully legal (alcohol, tobacco, etc).
Europe is more tolerant than the states, but it’s still illegal, unfortunately, in most European countries.
All the founding fathers loved the ganja. George Washington once gave a nationwide mandate prompting all citizens to grow more pot and Ol’ Glory was originally made of hemp, as was most all else. Too bad they didn’t make possession a Constitutional Right… (or did they?)