War on Patient
Revision of marijuana laws needed

Everyday law enforcement officers fight a battle with people in their own communities. Everyday the U.S. government wages a war on its citizens. Everyday people are arrested for the possession of drugs.

Everyday many of these same people, these U.S. citizens, live with a sickness that puts them in large amounts of pain. Everyday they live with a disease that slowly kills them. In some cases, marijuana can be issued to patients to help ease the suffering they endure. But it’s not always that simple.

Under current state law, a patient can still be arrested for possession of marijuana and still may not be acquitted of possession, even if they have a doctor’s approval. On Feb. 27, a bill lessening the penalties for carrying marijuana for medical purposes was presented to the Criminal Jurisprudence Committee of the Texas House of Representatives.

Just lessening the penalties?

What good is a bill that still allows people using marijuana for medical purposes to be arrested and not carry a guarantee that they will not face any additional penalties? The bill needs to go much, much further.

It is time government officials, both in Texas and nation-wide, need to drop the pre-conceived notion that marijuana is a bad and immoral substance. Laws need to be passed protecting those who are sick from being prosecuted for using medication their doctors prescribed for them.

Who receives marijuana for medical purposes and under what circumstances they are allowed to use it are issues that need to be examined closely. But these people are still in pain, and something needs to be done to help lessen the pain and take away the penalties that may be involved.

If this means a complete legalization of marijuana, then so be it.

This is America’s war on drugs. It is more than a battle on a controlled substance. It is a way of killing some Americans’ hopes of a painless future. But this is what happens to people in the United States.

Everyday.

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