[The Budmaster]

There are other people more suited to argue the actual medical validity of marijuana as far as helping cure conditions go.

I do have one question though... you talk about how your perception is that it's a bandaid over the symptoms over most of the conditions it treats.

What I don't understand is why you think that a drug that can relieve someone of most or all of their symptoms is not a valid drug just because it can also be used recreationally and doesn't cure the condition.

You do realize that people with long term conditions are not taking pharma drugs to cure their condition, but rather to make their condition manageable. Most pharma drugs out there are for applying a "band-aid" over a condition's symptoms.

For example, I grow for a couple of people who have severe arthritis. There is no cure for this. The drugs they received before MMJ caused very real and very disturbing side effects in the form of unbelievable mood swings, depression, and completely out of character behavior. Who knows what other damage is being done by taking the cocktail of pharma drugs that they are prescribed as far as actual damage to the body goes.

Now, the people I grow for are no longer on any type of pharma drug. They can completely manage their condition just with Marijuana. No drugs, no negative side effects like out of character behavior so much where you scare the people around you, and no serious damage to your body. (That's not including any actual positive medical benefits as far as curing or regressing a condition, which Crow has more info on I'm sure...)

The point is... for most people, they are specifically seeking the (safe) relief of symptoms. If you can do that without damaging your body in another way, you are practically cured. Who gives a fuck if it's only a band-aid over symptoms, it is far safer, far cheaper, and far more healthy to use marijuana than to take pharma drugs which are not only not curing the condition they treat, but are doing very real damage to your body at the same time.

Why don't pharaceutical companies get in on it? Simple... you can't patent a natural plant. Yes, you could make other drugs with it and patent those, but the fact is that sooo many people already find enough relief just by smoking it. When you then consider that it's infinitely more healthy and safe than pharma drugs, and you can see why pharmaceutical companies would not like to have to compete with it.

I have to admit though, the fact that you actually said that you can get high enough on heroine or alcohol to make you forget your symptoms... and that puts MJ on the same level as those drugs (Yeah... forget the the fact that heroine fucks up your body like nothing else and has probably killed millions by this point, and alcohol has also killed millions... and then add in that marijuana hasn't EVER killed a single human being... but yeah, somehow they are the same?)... Makes me think that this argument is completely lost on you.

-The Budmaster