In the case of Marijuana and naturally grown medicinal plants the government has no right to regulate them. Marijuana has been proven effective medically in many ways, and to penalize innocent people for trying to seek that relief is barbaric. Why make the people who use the plant solely for medicinal purposes into criminals or treat them as such.
Granted there will be people who take advantage of the situation, but no moreso than those who med seek from shady doctors, or those that abuse their prescriptions to legally prescribed meds, such as xanax, oxycontin, percocet, valium, etc. already.
I have always been of the belief that people who seek to abuse a drug for the "joy" will find it no matter what. Why punish the people, who use as a medicine, a naturally grown, non-formulated, non-processed plant they could grow, harvest and use self sufficiently. Marijuana falls into that specific.
The only difference I see is that Marijuana is a naturally grown plant that anyone could grow and harvest on their own, thus taking away money from pharmaceutical companies. Sadly, the reality of this world is money drives the vast majority of everything.
Opiates from poppies, Cocaine from the cocoa plant and so on do not fall into that category as they have to be processed, formulated, etc. Not many can grow cocoa or poppies and make a pain reliever. So the argument, "if you make Marijuana legal, may as well make everything legal" falls by the wayside.
We also have to look at the production of hemp and its uses. It can be made into paper, clothing and of course rope. Who knows what all hemp oil has the possibility of doing.
When one looks at how and why Marijuana and hemp even became illegal, it shows abuse of public trust, racism and thriving on people's fears.
A good link that is very informative is:
http://blogs.salon.com/0002762/stori...naIllegal.html
Finally, I would argue that when a state's populace votes and passes a decriminalization of a plant, for medicinal purposes, the federal government has no right to fight it and strike it down.
I firmly believe the past repeats itself. Anslinger led a war against Marijuana so that the Treasury Department could put teeth into the Harrison Act and fight opiates and Cocaine. Hearst had huge investments in timber and didn't want to see hemp used as paper, thuse he used his newspapers and news services to wage a war against the plant.
Much as today, some would argue if the government allows Marijuana to be legal after all they have done to demonize it, it may hurt the war on other drugs.
("Well if Marijuana is safe, after all these years of you saying it was evil... maybe Cocaine and Heroin are.") But that argument goes by the wayside because again, Marijuana doesn't need processed, the others do, anyone can grow Marijuana and use it, not so much with the others.
There are also the pharmaceuticals and the government not making money on it. If Pfizer produces an anti-nausea drug to help chemo patients and they can charge big money for it, of course they will lobby heavily against Marijuana, where they will never make anything off.
This works for the government also, how can the government tax it, regulate it, and make money off of it, when anyone can grow it?
If legal will people abuse it? Yes, but people abuse it now, I truly don't believe abuse will increase dramatically. If legal does it have the ability to help millions? Yes.
The needs and positives far outweigh the negatives.... it is time for the government to end this unjust villification.
BTW, I am not a user of Marijuana, never really liked it, and I would not presently benefit in any way from it's legalization. However, my beliefs on the plant are just those, mine and I cannot allow my beliefs to punish others who could truly use the plant in needed ways, that would eventually be far worse and more damaging to society then the plant and all of it's users and abuser would ever have the potential of being.