More and more states are legalizing medical marijuana lately. With each election, it seems like one or two more pass a medical marijuana bill. This is commonly seen as a good thing by people who are against the prohibition. And I can see why. It shows a greater acceptance of marijuana by the general public and that their efforts are actually accomplishing something rather than just amounting to piss in the wind.
To me, it seems like medical pot is just distracting from the larger issues the people affected by the prohibition face. Rather than actually facing the issue head on, the medical marijuana movement seems more content to try to "take down Big Pharma" (something I commonly hear from people who buy into other horseshit like homeopathy or naturopathy - but that's a post for another day) and make excuses for self-medication in an attempt to legitimize it by trying to make the law regard it as "real medicine." The problem is, thanks to its potential for abuse, the difficulty of controlling dosages, and the rather underwhelming medical literature on its supposedly beneficial effects, most real, professional doctors would never, ever recommend that people use weed for anything. It would be extremely unethical to prescribe marijuana when something else would be better suited to a person's condition. This would open the door for less scrupulous doctors to prescribe weed to pretty much anyone, which isn't that bad for most people, but is actually horrible in cases where it would actually be harmful for their patient to not be on a real medication, and these doctors would make a lot of money just from saying what their patients want to hear. "Alternative" (non-scientific) medicine would be allowed to thrive, and at the end of the day, I see it doing more harm than good.
On top of that, I don't really see what legalizing medical pot would change for the rest of us. Even if pot was changed from a schedule I drug to a schedule II (which, thanks to the potential for abuse, is where it would likely end up, alongside other commonly abused prescription drugs like oxycodone), it would still be a crime to have it without a prescription. While the penalties would probably change, due to the rescheduling, there would still be penalties, and to remove
those would be to start the whole fight all over again. My main problem is that the medical marijuana movement ignores the wider issues of prohibition. Mostly the issue of whether it's any of the government's business what a responsible adult puts in their body (it's important to distinguish between responsible adults and irresponsible adults, the same way we do with people who drink alcohol), but also the problems caused by prohibition itself. Would crime decrease because of medical pot? I don't think so. Recreational users will still be buying from criminals (or friends on medical marijuana who would then become criminals). Drug gangs will still thrive. The legal system would still be dealing with lots of harmless individuals, who, on the other hand would sometimes have to be forced to deal with actual criminals just to get high.
The problem here is that marijuana
isn't harmless. All psychoactive substances need to be treated with due respect, and spreading the myth that marijuana will never cause any health problems or that it's equivalent to any medicine specifically made for a given purpose is in pretty direct violation of that respect. As of right now, the only really respectful or honest use of marijuana is recreational (hemp, however, is another story entirely). The legalization movement has been pretty terrible about spreading misinformation about weed, and in the end it's hurting the entire movement. I support legalization on the grounds that it's none of the government's business what responsible adults put in their bodies, on the grounds that it's (probably) not any more harmful than recreational drugs that
are legal, and on the grounds that enforcing prohibitions is a waste of time and money that could be spent fighting real crime. I also think it's a waste of
our time to fight for medical marijuana when we should be trying to put decriminalization bills on election day ballots or pushing for legalization in general. Until then, I'm all for looking into medical applications that are actually more legitimate. But it should never distract from the larger issue.
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