This article was originally published on the Marijuana Patients Organization site on January 13, 2013.
This past week I was traveling out of State with a friend and the topic of medical marijuana arose. My friend was full of questions. His State, Illinois has yet to enact medical marijuana legislation and is unfamiliar with the realities of medical marijuana legalization.
From his limited knowledge he recently read about cops raiding and scaring people and was interested how and why they would ever do that. A story that is all too familiar for us in Michigan, and us Michigan patients have the same question, “why won’t they leave us alone?”
Since this question has come my way before I was ready. I explained that law enforcement was simply doing what they always had and unlike his industry (accounting) they had a vested interest to prohibit medical marijuana. Then I posed this question, “if the government said no one needs to file a tax return ever again, would that impact your business?”
The answer was pretty obvious to him. He even added his industry lobbies very hard to keep the process of calculating taxes difficult so guys like him stay employed. He was starting to get it, the realities of medical marijuana that is.
Perhaps it was the second glass of wine but my friend started to further connect the dots and asked a brilliant question, “is marijuana much like slavery abolishment in the US?”
The Civil War in this country represented a small few that owned slaves and their vested interest to continue owning slaves. Fortunately the majority of the world viewed slavery as unacceptable and were willing to die to prove it. Most of the southern soldiers (the cops in our analogy) never owned slaves and most agreed that the concept of owning people is wrong yet still gave their lives to defend the ability of a small few, to continue the practice of slavery.
Even after the Civil War ended it took over 100 years for African Americans in this country to receive the equal treatment they were granted in 1865. Some say and many agree that blacks in this country are still trying to reach equality.
Will it take 100 years for us medical marijuana patients to fully receive the rights afforded by us through the 2008 Michigan Medical Marihuana Act? I sure hope not but history has a funny way of repeating itself.
No way am I waiting until 2108 for my rights. Damn government it is about the $$$. Cops are just pawns for beer companies and pharmacutile companies anyways wonder if they know that. Probably not cops are not that bright to begin with a requirement for the job.