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Medical marijuana use threatened in Los Angeles

                The legalization of marijuana has been a controversial topic for many years now. It remains to be illegal in much of the country, but California is one state in which it is legal for medical purposes, as long as patients have a note signed from their doctor and buy the marijuana from a dispensary that is regulated. But this is upsetting to some government officials, including the federal government who regularly raid the dispensaries, and some local government officials who say 800 dispensaries in one city is too many. One city council member said that a dispensary near a high school looked “like an ice cream shop from the 1950s” with the amount of teenaged kids crowded around it. 

                Maybe a high school isn’t the place for a dispensary or any other avenue to sell drugs, but the use of marijuana by responsible adults should not be a criminal activity. Medical marijuana can be used as a viable treatment for cancer, Glaucoma, Depression, PMS, lack of appetite, Crohn’s Disease, migraines, Fibromyalgia, Multiple Sclerosis, Tourette’s syndrome, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Alcoholism, Attention Deficit Disorder, Lou Gehrig’s disease, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Autism, Bipolar Disorder, Hypertension, morning sickness (though no one will endorse the smoking of marijuana, or any other substance, by pregnant women), Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, staph infections, Sickle Cell Anemia, Parkinson’s, and Sleep Apnea (snoring). Many more without a medical condition that would warrant their doctor to write a note specifying a need for the drug, feel that marijuana relaxes them after a hard day at work and one dispensary even set up a movie theatre in the shop where the patients could unwind and meet new people. There is even a dispensary selling marijuana online on social marketing websites like Twitter and Facebook that will deliver the drug free to Los Angeles residents who may not want to venture outside. 

                Marijuana is a relatively harmless drug and one that is a lifesaver to the many people who use it in its proper form. While there is always potential for abuse, alcohol used in an irresponsible way, as many people in the United States use it, is more harmful than marijuana used by responsible adults. Barney Frank and Ron Paul introduced legislation earlier this summer to legalize small amount of marijuana by adults, whether they would like to use it for medical or recreational purposes, and hopefully it will start to put an end to the billions that we spend on the drug war each year and the lives and businesses lost in the process of government nannyism.