Marijuana Policy Project

Why deprive chronically ill and hurting patients a drug that could make all the difference in their health?

I'm always up for a good, therapeutic buzz, especially a legal one. Isn't everyone? It's high time the country faces facts, and puts marijuana in that category.

Now, all you morality huffers and teetotaling purists, don't hyperventilate. I am not talking about making pot legal across the board (though plenty of others are). Not yet anyway.

But is there really any credible argument out there for not legalizing marijuana for medicinal purposes, prescribed by doctors the same way far more dangerous narcotics and other drugs are? If so, I haven't heard any.

You've heard all the facts. Marijuana is scientifically proven to ease pain and discomfort, increase appetite and dissipate nausea. So why deprive chronically ill and hurting patients a drug that could make all the difference in their health? To me, that's just cruel.

Those of you, like John Sununu, who want to blow smoke and hard-line against legalizing what should be called medicine, you're losing ground. Twelve states already sanction medicinal marijuana, and the Obama administration has signaled that it may finally end a legal quandary exacerbated by his predecessor over federal laws outlawing marijuana for any use. Attorney General Eric Holder announced that the federal government will no longer prosecute marijuana dispensers as long as they are selling the weed in compliance with state law. And a recent Supreme Court ruling clearing the air in San Diego and San Bernardino counties paves the way for medical marijuana patients to finally receive ID cards in accordance with California's 13-year-old medical marijuana law.

Hallelujah for some common sense and humanity.

Next step: Congress, pass a law legalizing it everywhere, and tax it. Maybe Obama could help pay for his universal health care initiatives. It's not as unpopular an idea as you may think. Recent polls suggest more than 40 percent of Americans support legalizing and taxing marijuana.

Hey, Sununu, put that in your pipe and smoke it.