Reefer Madness

The Washington Post has a story about a 27-year-old quadriplegic who had been unable to breathe on his own since he was 4 who was sent to a Corrections Department facility for 10 days for marijuana possession. Four days later he was dead. The article goes on to talk about the negligence of the corrections facility, but I want to talk about the charge. This Mr. Magbie's first offense. He pleaded guilty but told the presentencing officials that using marijuana made him feel better and that he didn't believe there was anything wrong with using it. Some people will still scoff, but does anyone honestly believe this guy was some criminal? Some stoner who deserved to go to jail? I do believe marijuana should be decriminalized for recreational use because I believe in freedom of personal choice and that it really just doesn't make any sense that cancer-causing cigarettes and alchohal are legal, but marijuana, which has been medically proven to be harmless, is not. It's ridiculous we have drug laws that send first-time offenders to jail overcrowding our prisons and turning otherwise normal people into monsters once there. However, I don't want to get into that argument. No matter what you believe on the subject, everyone should agree we should legalize marijuana for medical purposes. It is often the only thing that can relieve symptons of Gluocoma and AIDS and other such illnesses. People who are sick who smoke marijuana aren't stoned slackers, they are often dying men and women who don't want to live the rest of their days in constant pain. How is it moral to allow this to happen? Why is it more important people to don't use marijuana than to relieve pain? What kind of society do we live in where this thinking is the norm?