Pain, it doesn’t kill you, but it makes you want to die. We have all experienced pain in some form. Sometimes it’s a headache, sometimes it’s a toothache, and sometimes it feels like your soul is being shot with a nail gun. Regardless of the type of pain we feel, unless we’re a masochist, we want it to end as soon as possible. Since we have all experienced pain, there is a universal empathy for all those who are afflicted with it. Our empathy causes us to condone the drastic measures people take to make their aches vanish. These measures include organ damage pills, nerve damage shots, and death operations. Yet we are unwilling to allow people to smoke medical marijuana!

Even the states that allow medical marijuana put a lot of restrictions on its use. In many states a person has to be dying in order to have access to medical marijuana. It seems a bit extreme that the only way a person can have their pain alleviated is by getting a visit from the grim reaper. Isn’t medication supposed to be used to help the living also? Some states don’t require upcoming death to be a prerequisite for medical marijuana, but they do insist that a person has to be in pain for several years before they have access to it. This also seems a bit extreme. How would people feel if every time they walked into the drugstore, they were forced to wait three years before they could obtain some aspirin? There would probably be a lot of suicides, but perhaps some of those suicides would get botched, and the people who survived might finally get access to pain medication that works. Many might argue that people can get hooked on marijuana, and while that may be true, how can those same people approve of Vicodin?

Vicodin is a small white pill which helps with pain. Anyone who has ever broken a bone or gotten a tooth pulled has been offered this pill. It is easier to obtain than candy at a gas station. However, despite it’s popularity among patients and doctors alike, this small white pill can cause organ damage, addiction, and sometimes death. Every year several hundred people die from overdosing on Vicodin, and over 40,000 end up in the hospital because of Vicodin abuse. Not only does it cause these horrific side effects, but it’s often less effective than medical marijuana. Remember medical marijauna, it’s the drug that DOESN’T kill several hundred people every year.

Another argument against medical marijuana is that people might fake pain in order to have access to it. This is true, but it is also true with other medications. A pill by the name of Vicodin comes to mind. It seems that although medical marijuana does have side effects (social and medical), it’s one of the lesser drastic solutions when it comes to pain control. At the very least, any side effect of medical marijuana is preferable to death. It seems that the only real objections people have against medical marijuana is that it has a history of being used as a recreational drug. However, shouldn’t we be able to overcome our prejudice in order to give our fellow humans a chance to overcome pain. After all, pain hurts! Do you believe medical marijuana should be legal?