This is not going to be an article that will concentrate on a specific state and its intention of legalizing medical marijuana. Instead, lets take a step back and view the entire marijuana legalization wave from a different, almost national perspective. First, lets compare the U.S. to the U.K. You see, in London, if you end up in a hospital with obvious heart attack symptoms, if it’s really severe (and which heart attack isn’t?), you will most likely receive a combination of aspirin and nitroglycerin. If the pain persists, in the U.S. you would get treated with morphine. However, in the U.K. you are most likely to be treated with something called diacetylmorphine. In layman terms, that’s heroin, ladies and gentlemen. Of course, in the U.S., heroin is classified as a Schedule I substance so that automatically removes it out of the picture.
Regulations Vs. Common Sense
However, guess what else is classified as a Schedule I substance? That’s right – its marijuana. Therefore, according to the DEA, marijuana has no clear clinical use, even though it helped thousands of patients with their symptoms. Now, in a country that has been emphasizing its healthcare system, its people believe that the government has been doing all it can to provide those in need with necessary medication. However, if that is the case, why don’t they harmonize their legislation efforts? Why does the federal law classify marijuana as a Class I substance, yet states are allowed to legalize not only medical marijuana but marijuana for recreational use as well? That has been and still is the core problem of this entire “green wave” that has been sweeping across the country. Despite the fact that a lot of states have legalized medical marijuana, the DEA still insists that it has no clinical use. In fact, even the FDA approved some of marijuana based oral formulations. The discrepancy is insane and this illogical gap is getting bigger with each state that pushes a legalization bill.
Physicians Heavily Exposed
However, the biggest problem lies on physicians. Are they allowed to prescribe the drug even though they are licensed for it? Are they liable for prosecution or arrest even though the state finds marijuana legal but the country doesn’t? Or, what about banks? We know most of you don’t really care about them but for the sake of this argument, roll with us on this one. Would a bank accept a deposit from dispensary even though it knows that under federal law, the money could be confiscated? That’s a lot of questions right there, and the government doesn’t seem to be answering them. However, what the government does seem to be doing is getting involved where it shouldn’t. Imagine if you were a surgeon and at some point during an operation, the government steps in and says: “Sorry, Doc, even though you believe that artery could save the patients life, we say you cut it anyway.” Our point being, why do we have doctors if the government decides what they should or shouldn’t do?
