Marijuana is currently classified as a Schedule I drug, meaning it has a high potential for addiction and no possible medical uses. This is simply incorrect. Marijuana possesses extraordinary medicinal properties that can help prevent or ameliorate blindness, spasticity, nausea, pain, wasting, insomnia, and sometimes death. Marijuana can greatly improve the quality of life of patients who have exhausted all other conventional medical means.

Currently, federal law maintains that marijuana possession and cultivation is illegal no matter the reason. Thus the eleven states (Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington) and scores of municipalities which have legalized medicinal marijuana are incapable of fully protecting their residents from prosecution by the DEA.

It is important to note that the vast majority of medicinal marijuana patients are closeted about their use for fear of losing their children, being arrested and incarcerated, and community or professional backlash. Many Americans have neighbors, family, co-workers or close friends using marijuana every day, in fear of the law, because it keeps them functioning and healthy.

It is true that smoking anything is inherently bad for your health. Like all medications, the benefits of medicinal marijuana use must be weighed against its costs. Fortunately, there are many ways to ingest marijuana other than smoking. Effective vaporizers also now exist which can heat marijuana to a high enough temperature to release therapeutic cannabinoids without incinerating the plant material that would release carcinogenic particles. However a lack of research and unruly HMO insurance restrictions keep vaporizers out of reach for most Americans.

After decades of propaganda exaggerating the evils of marijuana it may seem odd that marijuana can actually have significant medical value for hundreds of thousands of Americans. So read on. These stories will surprise you.