Medical Marijuana Is Not a Libertarian Cause

“Medicine by regulation is better than medicine by referendum.” U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer said that during arguments in the much-watched medical-marijuana case, Ashcroft v. Raich. Breyer, in other words, prefers that any change in the government’s prohibition of marijuana use be accomplished by an appeal to federal drug-enforcement authorities rather than by a public vote in the states, as occurred in California.

But what he is really saying is that medical oppression by an elite is better than medical oppression by the mob. Are those our only choices? Why must we have medical oppression at all? Why not medicine by free individual choice, or self-medication? The fact that this is not even on the table shows how far our society has moved from its individualist foundations.

America: the land of the “free”. They’re ‘free’ people but not free to make their own decisions about how they wish to be medicated. The way I see it, they have two choices if they need some sort of medication. They can take it the government’s way and pop pill after pill, whilst mixing medications, and then suffer the negative side affects. Or, they can go against the government and smoke weed. While weed also has side effects, these are fewer and they are not nearly as dangerous as most of the drugs that the government declares legal.

Another example of the oppression of medical marijuana is to do with a woman who lives in America. She has many diseases and disabilities. So many problems, in fact, that there is no medication that will work for her sickness. No medication except marijuana that is. The American government decided that what she was doing was illegal and she is now undergoing many court hearings because the ‘man’ wants to send her to jail. She can’t eat unless she has some THC in her body because it acts as an anti-nausea drug. The pain that she feels is also unbearable unless she’s vaporised some ganja.

Meanwhile, America is being hypocritical; as Cypress Hill would say: “They’re slinging sacks behind our backs”. There are 5 people who currently receive marijuana for medicinal uses from the US government. Just another example of how the USA doesn’t make sense.

by The Budman