To Kalika and All about medicinal marijuana

[Guest guest]

Kalika wrote:

 

>> I'm not quite sure of what I think about legalizing the use of

>> marijuana for medicinal purposes (because of the possibility of some

>> people using that as a way to promote or glamorize addictive or

>> unhealthy mind-altering drug use). However, for those who are

>> suffering with medical problems, using marijuana for medicinal reasons

>> seems just as justified to me as taking an aspirin for a headache to

>> relieve the pain or taking anti-depressants for relief from severe

>> depression.

 

Dear Kalika an All ~ I very much appreciate your compassionate words about

the use of medical marijuana. I'm not sure legalizing marijuana would lead to

glamorization, except in a similar way that alcohol and cigarettes are

glamorized. Once something becomes a commodity, it is glamorized as part of the

selling process. This is true of everything that is sold, from clothing to

cereal (otherwise, why would well-known sports figures show up in the

commercials).

Alcohol is significantly addictive, perhaps more so than marijuana, as are

cigarettes. Both are unhealthy. Alcohol kills brain cells, impeded judegement,

and is a factor in a large percentage of criminal activity.

 

In any case, illegal or harmful activities become glamorized by word of

mouth, by the "underground" counter-culture, even by movies and television. The

latest craze among teenagers, and even some who are younger, is to strangle

themselves (usually another person does the strangling) to the point of

unconcsciousness, and then, at just the right moment, to stop the strangling.

This

produces a high that is free of charge. Some teens do this frightful activity

on their own, and these are often the ones who end up dying, because there is

no "watcher" to pull the plug at the right moment. To me, this activity is

terrifying, and thank God/dess for Dr. Phil, for having a program about it and

at least making people aware that it is going on.

 

Once having become an alcoholic, it is very difficult to quit. I saw this

with my father, with my sister, and with others, as I began to attend AA

meetings with and without them, to support them and to better understand the

impact

my father's alcoholism had on my life. One person came drunk to her own AA

"birthday" (which occurs for each anniversary date of the first day of

sobriety). I even dated several "recovered alcoholics" that I met through AA

meetings ... A recovered alcoholic may be sober, but it takes hard work and

many

years to change the behavioral patterns that alcoholism contributes to, one of

which is verbal and physical abuse. I am not lauding marijuana over alcohol or

cigarettes, just pointing out that all are damaging to the individual and,

in many cases to other individuals. (I was hit by drunk drivers twice, and

this is probably one of the factors in my developing Fibromyalgia.) Certainly

the damage caused by alcohol and cigarettes is quite costly to society in terms

of disability, lost wages, etc. The personal costs are hard to measure, but

as they say in AA, "alcoholism is a family disease."

 

In my mind, it does not make sense to allow the free and abundant use of

alcohol and cigarettes and prohibit marijuana. Our powers that be's fear of

drugs is so all encompassing that it is even difficult for people, like me, with

severe chronic pain to get the pain medications I need to be functional. Big

Brother is watching the pharmacies. In my own mind, our tax dollars would be

better spent, instead of fightiing an uphill drug war, which isn't working

very well, and instead be spent for more rehab centers, more support for those

who are in recovery, more education about the effects of these habits, etc.

There are people waiting in line to get into recovery facilities, and often

it is only those with money who manage it. For the poor, except for AA and

AlAnon, which are free, there's not a whole lot in the way of resources for

sobriety and recovery.

 

 

 

Geeze, I didn't mean to make a speech. I'm going to let this be my last post

on the subject.

Jai Ma ~ Linda