Tuesday, April 12, 2011

When Politicians Joke About Medical Marijuana, They're Laughing at AIDS and Cancer Patients


http://stopthedrugwar.org/files/medicalmarijuanawheelchair.pngSomeone please help me understand what is soooo funny about the fact that marijuana increases appetite. Apparently, everyone else is having a blast with this and all I see is a tasteless cliché that gets older every time. Anyway, here we go again:
It seems everyone's a comedian when it comes to cannabis. Now a Washington legislator has added a joke pizza amendment to a bill which would expand the state's medical marijuana law.

Rep. Glenn Anderson (F-Fall City) proposed a joke amendment requiring the state to reimburse medical marijuana patients for pizza they eat while legally high. Anderson's amendment specifies it would not reimburse for more than three toppings, or for tips to pizza delivery drivers. (Toke of the Town)

Ok, I see his point about the 3-topping limit, but…no! This has to stop. It's actually incredibly unfunny that some people desperately need medical marijuana to keep them from vomiting up their AIDS medications. I've said it before, and I'll say again that public servants have no business whatsoever mocking their constituents, and marijuana policy is most certainly not an exception to the rule.

I will grant you that marijuana is interesting, important, intensely popular, and worth discussing at great length for any number of reasons, and yes there are some funny things to be said about it too. But there is nothing funny about legislative efforts to reform marijuana policy to better serve the public, and particularly the seriously ill. If the thought of passing a new medical marijuana law gives you the urge to make jokes, you are behaving like a child, not a leader.

We could all use a good laugh though, and I promise I'll do my part to lighten the mood once the DEA stops raiding medical facilities, once the President delivers on his drug policy promises, and once the number of people arrested in America for marijuana is closer to zero than a million.

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