Medical Cannabis: 21 States to Go

The prohibition and criminalization of marijuana use does more harm than good. But before I take a stance on legalizing the recreational use of marijuana, it is most important to voice my support for the critical need for the legalization of medical cannabis.

Doctors themselves have formed a national organization for the legalization of marijuana under the name Doctors for Cannabis Regulation in 2016. The physicians say that “creating a legal and regulated marijuana market is the best way to ensure public safety” (Ingraham, The Washington Post). The US Government Accountability Office noted the following conditions along with many others in their report "Descriptions of Allowable Conditions under State Medical Marijuana Laws": Alzheimer's Disease, HIV, Cancer, Epilepsy, AIDS, and many more. Marijuana is a much safer alternative to pharmaceuticals, to relieve chronic pain associated with these illnesses. Also, with medical cannabis, patients can reap the benefits of managing their symptoms without having to worry about addiction, overdose or, serious side effects that aren't worth the risk of pharmaceutical drugs.

Legalization can help societies as a whole. If medical marijuana were legalized, governments would be able to ensure that patients are receiving safe cannabis and would not have to risk the probable dangers of engaging in the exchange of black market cannabis. Additionally, they could effectively "control doses, track its use on a large scale, and place taxes on its sale in order to increase government profits" (Medical Marijuana Association). Legalization would also reduce the regulations on research so that we have more scientific studies on the subject, leading to a more firm grasp of its health benefits as a medical prescription.

Privatiza- AHHHH!

In my colleague's blog, "What Would American's Do?", Ronnie Medrano addresses the call for U.S. veterans to receive free health care due to the physical and psychological impact on a person from serving their country. Although I fully agree with Medrano who served in the U.S Navy for five years, the word "free" scares some people and will require steps to achieving this goal of health care for all veterans.
The first step, in my opinion, would be the privatization of health care for individuals that served this country. That being said, a question to consider: why in the world are we denying care from qualified private providers when those on Medicare, Medicaid, and Obamacare can? According to the New York Times, even the Veterans Health Administration's direct employees "enjoy a vast array of private health care and coverage options that are denied to the veterans they ostensibly serve" (Avik Roy, Veterans Should Enjoy the Same Health Care Options as All Americans). The privatization health care for veterans is nothing to be scared of, the Department of Veterans Affairs would improve from public resources, and providing the option for individuals who served this country the option to receive care from high-quality, private sources is a win-win.