Why we need to legalize marijuana

Okay, folks. Given my generation I know a lot of you won't believe this but the truth is that I have never smoked (or ingested in any other way) marijuana in my life and I have absolutely no desire to do so. But I want it as an option if I get cancer. And I think people should be able to use it recreationally as long as we legalize alcohol and tobacco - both of which are way more harmful than weed.

Well, it seems that Bush's FDA has just up and lied about the medical benefits of marijuana - completely contradicting the current science:

The Food and Drug Administration said Thursday that "no sound scientific studies" supported the medical use of marijuana, contradicting a 1999 review by a panel of highly regarded scientists....

The Food and Drug Administration statement directly contradicts a 1999 review by the Institute of Medicine, a part of the National Academy of Sciences, the nation's most prestigious scientific advisory agency. That review found marijuana to be "moderately well suited for particular conditions, such as chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting and AIDS wasting."

I also want to show you a very moving comment off of AMERICAblog on the subject:

My late lover of 13 years died in 1992 at age 33 of AIDS. He was from a fundamentalist family from Eastern Tennessee. They hated me for "breaking up" his two year marriage to his high school sweetheart which had produced a child (it was really his walking in and finding his wife in bed with his "best friend"!).

For years, I would get icy remarks over the phone from his family. They would include Christian tracts in greeting cards to us warning about our sinful ways.

However, when his family saw how I didn't run off when he was diagnosed with HIV in 1985, and essentially became his nurse for the next 8 years, they began to accept our relationship, maybe because it was no longer sexual.

Anyway, I had to watch him wretch daily due to being on chemotherapy for his Karposi's sarcoma. He wasted away due to not being able to hold down food. On his 33rd birthday, I bought some pot from the boyfriend of our home healthcare nurse and we served it on top of a giant, decorated chocolate-chip cookie.

My love only lived 31 more days, but he quit throwing up his food, began putting on weight, and best of all got his sense of humor back, a joy for living, spending many hours phoning old friends and family and laughing with them.

He and his family had decided to have a closed casket as he was so skeletal. When I shipped his body back to Chattanooga, they were amazed how good he looked again and had an open casket for the wake. They said their church had a prayer chain that had been praying for him and they gave credit to Jesus. I never have told them about his smoking marijuana daily that caused the real "miracle".

BTW, I still hear from his family, and twice visited his grave on Missionary Ridge and they always insist I stay in their home, not rent a motel room! Best of all, they never preach at me about my lost soul.

The fundies are so sick. They believe everything pleasurable is sinful. That's fine if they want to abstain themselves but whatever happened to freedom? They're determined that nobody else gets to use marijuana even if it makes someone's final few days bearable instead of unbearable. Personally, I think they're monsters.