Privilege for Illness and Injury: Marijuana Speech #11

11 ^th speech in this series to the Josephine County Commissioners, August 12, 2009.  

Today, we continue with the 11^th speech about A Resolution Regarding Marijuana.  Although we are already free to possess and smoke God’s herb, some of us feel more free to do so than others.  The citizens of this county need to hear more of the reasons for passing this Resolution.  Not all of them, though—that could go on for many months, and would unnecessarily delay justice.

This week’s reason is:  “WHEREAS medical marijuana statutes create a privilege based on ill health.”

Under the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program, a patient can get permission from a doctor to grow, possess, and use marijuana, based on one’s opinion and that of the doctor that it would relieve symptoms of one’s chronic illness or injury.

The rest of us, who simply like to use it because it makes us feel good, are left scrambling to obtain our cannabis from the black market at outrageous prices.

This could also be said for the prescription of drugs from pharmacies, which is also a system of converting the rights of all to the privilege of a few—based on ill health.  Like the ban on marijuana, the prescription drug system maintains high prices for drug suppliers.  

Indeed it appears that cheap generic narcotics were banned in the early part of the 20^th Century simply to create a market for expensive new pain relievers that didn’t work half as well, like aspirin, and that the prescription system was set up to maintain high prices for new drugs.  People go to Mexico to get their prescription drugs at half the U.S. price because Mexico does not have the prescription system that keeps prices high.

But it seems especially unjust in the case of an herb given to us by Nature, not manufacturing.  We all have a right to any herb bearing seed, acknowledged in the Bible, in Genesis, chapter 1.  Our laws should not contradict the most basic laws of God and make that right a privilege based on ill health.

This prescription privilege is especially galling when one considers that, unlike alcohol, it is not possible to die by overdose on marijuana.  And also that, like alcohol, moderate use of marijuana appears to be good for one’s health.  People who drink 1-3 alcoholic drinks per day have a 40% lower risk of heart attack.  Moderate drinkers live longer, on average, than teetotalers or heavy drinkers.  Likewise, studies by the National Institutes of Health have shown that the active ingredient in marijuana, THC, and its precursor, cannibidiol, are anti-oxidants more potent than vitamins C and E.  Although there are many cancer-causing chemicals in marijuana smoke, pot smokers have no higher rates of cancer than non-smokers.  It might even help protect against lung damage from tobacco smoke.

I smoke pot to maintain my mental health; I’m an addictive personality, and this one works for me.  It is nice to know that it is good for my body as well.  I don’t consult doctors unless I have a problem that I need their help with.   I should be able to grow my pot without a doctor’s permission and without fear of arrest.

Rycke Brown, Natural Gardener         541-955-9040         rycke@gardener.com