Madison NORML

President Obama says he wants to move us from, "a dark and painful chapter in our history," by promising not to prosecute CIA employees for torture.

One could also say the suppression of medical cannabis also represents "a dark and painful chapter in our history". Particularly for those people in states where it is legal, like Charles Lynch, the Morro Bay CA medical cannabis provider who had the approval of state and local authorities to operate, yet is still facing a minimum of 5 years on federal charges this Thursday.

Of course it goes far beyond the tragedies of those who were persecuted for trying to help, to the actual suppression of science. After all, the government knew that cannabis shrunk tumors back in 1974, but kept it secret. That action has meant millions of tragedies, unnecessary suffering, grieving survivors. And cancer is just one subset of myriad medical conditions that can be eased with cannabis. Because of it, scientists today are only scratching the surface on the tremendous cancer fighting potential of cannabis and its cannabinoids and other components. Patients undergoing chemotherapy might have had a non-toxic alternative years ago, were it not for this “dark and painful chapter in our history”.

Harvard Professor Lester Grinspoon has said that medical cannabis will never reach its full potential until cannabis is legalized completely, and I agree.

We have a unique opportunity to correct the mistake of cannabis prohibition at this time in history. Support for legalization is at all-time highs, and numerous commentators and columnists have recently joined in support. Legalization could pacify a deteriorating Mexico, while creating a huge new green industry at home.

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt raised the nation’s spirits during the Great Depression by legalizing beer early in his Administration, a move that restored many jobs at my ancestors’ Storck Brewery in Slinger, WI and other brewers around the country.

President Obama should do the same with cannabis, as many Americans have been urging. Not only would it lift the nation’s spirits, provide millions of new green jobs, as well as fulfill Obama’s commitment to be true to the science, but it would also stop any more Americans from becoming victims of marijuana prohibition. Now that would be something to celebrate this April 20th!