From Byron LaMasters:

A recent Scripps Howard Texas poll showed 75 percent of Texans in favor of medical marijuana. The American Medical Association and the New England Journal of Medicine have endorsed it. Ten states have passed similar laws. And the year-old Texans for Medical Marijuana claims 7,500 members, including doctors, preachers and patients.

The bill’s author, Austin Democratic Rep. Elliott Naishtat, said the bill could also find a Senate sponsor for the first time.

“I’ve never used an illegal drug in my life,” said Rep. Suzanna Gratia Hupp, R-Lampasas, chairwoman of the House Human Services Committee and a joint author of the bill, “but God forbid any of my loved ones contract some dreaded disease, and if a doctor tells me that may make a difference in the final outcome, I’d be on the street in a heartbeat looking for it. … And how dare a legislator be willing to stand in the way of that?” […]

I’ll take this one ten steps further.

Marijuana should be legal worldwide, with the sole restrictions against its use by minors or drivers.

I have seen more lives lost due to over the counter remedies than were lost to marijuana. Seat belts have harmed more kids. Baby cribs have harmed more babies.

Legal drugs? Don’t make me laugh. All you have to do is watch the war waged to re-approve Vioxx and other medicines to understand that preserving billions in profits will supersede the safety of the public from fatal side-effects. Hospital care, mental health care? Both present risks far greater than pot has.

I’ve seen speed and crack destroy lives and harm families. But even totalling the damage of all dangerous illegal drugs together, the legal drugs have killed and harmed more. And legal booze has killed and wounded more. And government-subsidized tobacco even more.

Aspirin is more lethal. It has more known side effects than pot has. Yes, some can get addicted. Some may have an allergy to it. Some find it makes them paranoid, though it’s not clear how much of that occurs because it’s illegal.

I’ve observed thousands smoking pot. I used it frequently when I was in my twenties. I even found it useful at times, as a mild tranquilizer, as a mood lightener; unlike some, it made me more extroverted than the reverse.

I’ve read the myths, I’ve read the research through the years. I trust what I’ve seen and experienced directly, the most. Medicinal? Obviously. Who knows better than actual patients? Adults should have this choice especially. But they also should have its use available for non-medical purposes. Bush smoked pot. A pretzel put him at greater risk of physical harm.

Several very conservative states have decriminalized pot before: Nebraska and Mississippi and Alaska, at least. And many are making it legit for medical use. It’s time for an end to the Prohibition of marijuana. Its worst side effect has always been imprisonment. And as for the worst fears some have, I’ve never seen marijuana turn a conservative into a liberal or a churchgoer into an agnostic.

All it does for most is make them feel better. What grants anyone the right or reason to restrict that?