Know the facts about medical marijuana
What I find interesting about whether or not medical marijuana should be legal in the State of Florida is that most people are merely concerned about someone getting “high”. To be high is to have a state of being other than your normal state of being. But what if your normal state of being is miserable? What if someone’s normal state of being is riddled with symptoms like muscle spasms, migraines, vomiting, seizures, etc? Then, being “high” would be the desired effect, right? Which mean that taking Xanax, Klonopin, Morphine, etc makes you high, but that’s okay because they are prescribed by a doctor, right? As a former Police Officer of Milton, I think doctor’s should be able to recommend marijuana for medical purposes. People should be able to manager their debilitating conditions with medical marijuana.
The really interesting part to me is that the major difference is that opiates CREATE a whole new host of medical issues that can and have led to death. Oh and one really interesting fact about marijuana, you can’t overdose on it.
Here are some other great facts about marijuana:
The plant produces trichomes. Those trichomes have been shown to be a neuroprotectorant. Meaning that it can protect your repair and protect neurons in the brain from serious injury and disease like MS, ALS, and Parkinson’s. Marijuana also lowers your blood sugar so it is great for diabetics. It treats pain without the addiction or overdosing issues. It has been shown to help those suffering from ALS, MS, ADHD, ADD, depression, anxiety, nausea, Crohns disease, epilepsy, migraines, cancer and PTSD as well as many other issues. Marijuana is a non-addictive, non-toxic and safe option for hundreds of thousands of Floridians.
Now lets talk about opiates. Did you know that you don’t have to abuse opiates in order for your body to experience withdrawals. Same for benzodiazepines. Studies are showing that people who are prescribed methadone and then taken off are now turning to heroin. We have doctors who are prescribing pregnant women methadone in our own community. I wonder how bad the withdrawals will be for the baby when for an adult it is horrendous.
These legally prescribed narcotics usually bring on more medical issues and before long you will be taking a treasure trove of other pharmaceuticals. Think about it…you take one pill for one thing and then have to take another for a side effect from the first pill, and the list keeps growing.
Did you know that the FDA has just recently approved for children as young as 11 years old to be allowed to be prescribed Oxycontin. That is a very highly addictive narcotic that has killed many adults. How is it possible kids can have this, but medical marijuana is not an option?
Our health has become big business. Why are we allowing politicians to make decisions about our health care? If marijuana has no medical value then why does our own government have a patent on CBD? CBD is what Charlotte’s Web is derived from. Our own Governor signed Charlotte’s Web into law over a year ago and doctors still cannot recommend it. This form of marijuana can help so many children yet we still can’t get it.
As a former Police Officer for the city of Milton, I want medical marijuana to be a safe, legal option for the thousands of sick and suffering Floridians. There are so many reasons why I want to see medical marijuana available.
I personally suffer from chronic migraines. I’m talking, no light, no noise, stuck in my bed for hour’s type of migraine. Again, I was a police officer, so can you imagine how staying in bed affects me emotionally? I was on a host of legally prescribed narcotics – the ones I just said can kill people- for many years to try to combat the migraines. Those legal narcotics almost destroyed me. I was not a productive member of society during those years because I could not be- my mind was so fried from legally prescribed medications. I was headed to a certain death.
As, the first female Police Officer for the City of Milton., I had the pleasure of dealing with people high on all kinds of substances. I never had someone “high” on only marijuana become violent. However, I dealt with many that were violent with alcohol and prescription drugs. Those other legal drugs can be a harm to our society. Harm comes in many forms: physical side effects, addictions, withdrawals to overdoses. I want myself and other very sick Floridians to have the option, with a doctor’s recommendation, to use medical marijuana. You can help by signing a petition. Visit www.unitedforcare.org/petition to print, sign, and mail in your petition. Signing the petition for medical marijuana will help give Floridians the right to vote in 2016.
LAUREN COOPER-DRAKE, Milton
