thought I'd jump in here as I am in the medical field and I have businesses in states that have legalized marijuana for medical use and states that do not.
In over 20 years of experience, I have NEVER treated an individual that has over dosed on marijuana.. however, I have treated patients that have overdosed on everything from paint thinners, to prescription in halers.
Marijuana from a medicinal aspect is effective. We get a lot of chronic pain people in my clinics. A LOT. And generally, you have that patient that has had three back surgeries, not working for years, in chronic pain... that's taking several different medications for pain Norco, Neurontin, and Effexor... with a little Cymbalta or lyrica to boot....When you see that patient, its very unlikely that they will improve to the point where they get off the medication and get back to work.
However, I have seen patients that were previously these patients, and after using medical marijuana and therapy, have managed to not only not take pain medications at all, but actually return to work. So I have gone from a skeptic to someone who thinks that there might be something in legalization.
Now.. for those that say that we can used a prescription THC instead (and I would have been one of them)... I think there is something to the control and dosing of medical marijuana that makes it more effective than prescription THC. I think that the fact that the patient has so much control of when and how much that they take,( rather than watching every pill, and hoarding them in case of need, or taking them routinely when not necessary just in case of break through pain) is one of the reasons that it seems to work better than some really strong pain medication.
And studies on personal controlled analgesics support that theory.
Another point.. legalization versus decriminalization. I think that legalization and regulation is the way to go, rather than continue the blackmarket sales and criminal activity associated with Marijuana. Yes, there is something to the fact that our country is a nanny state and if we make it legal, thousands may go out and try it because "the government thinks its safe".... However, I think that marijuana to some degree is a "gateway drug" because to get it, you are introduced to a criminal element, and it becomes easier to follow down that path. Once you figure out that lots of people use marijuana and don't freak out.. despite Nancy Reagans just say no.. then you begin to question whether whats said about meth, and crack etc is true.,
In my youth, one of my best friends' parents were drug dealers. They dealt in home grown marijuana. They were sweet people, a little bit "hard assed" but with big and generous hearts. They treated me like a member of the family, and on my 18th birthday, they declared me "of age" and let me get high with them. It was the first time I had tried pot, and it was fun just for the experience.
I did pot with them and others a few more times before I made the decision for myself that pot wasn't my cup of tea. It put me to sleep, made me feel a bit nauseous, and didn't really have any positives for me. I could achieve the same mental state by listening to music in the dark without the nausea, and I didn't get any of the benefits others talked about, like it being an aphrodisiac. Bottom line here is I tried it, but I didn't become addicted, nor was it a "gateway" into other things. Doing pot is not the gateway;
dealing it is!
A few years after that first experience with pot, my friend's father died. His mother had trouble making sales from competing dealers in the area, but she had heard about this new drug that was selling like crazy, and she had an opportunity to invest in a stash and begin turning a profit. I had never heard of meth before then (we're talking like 1995). I had stopped hanging out with her son, but remained friends with her because she was kinda like a second mom to me. She knew I didn't smoke pot and she warned me away from trying meth, even refusing to sell to me (not that I ever wanted to buy). She knew it was a dangerous drug, but she was just trying to make ends meet. Everything was fine....until she tried her product.
Meth is an evil evil evil thing. She changed almost overnight. All the sweet reasons I had loved and admired this woman disappeared as she became hostile, antagonistic, rude and deceitful. She accused me of the most ridiculous things and then kicked me out of her home because I "was too good" to buy her product. She felt I was looking down my nose at her because I wouldn't buy anything from her, and no amount of explaining that I wasn't buying
anything (meth
or pot) from anyone would appease her.
Pot is not Meth. Period. The worst thing Pot ever did was making people lazy and stupid (not that all pot smokers are lazy and stupid). Pot is natural and requires only drying to make it ready for use (unlike other drugs that require extensive processing). I've also tried two of the prescription drugs mentioned by Jaeger19: Effexor and Cymbalta. Effexor did its job, reduced my anxiety, calmed me down and allowed me to focus on my work without all the stress. Cymbalta on the other hand is a horrible drug (IMO). I see it advertised for depression, back pain and other ailments, and when I took it, I had to stop after only
two days. It made me fill uncomfortable in my own skin and exacerbated my depression further. IMO, Cymbalta is "snake oil" that pharmaceutical companies are making serious bank on.
The point, however, is that Marijuana is far less harsh on the human body and psyche than many of the prescription drugs out there, and the biggest reason it's not legal is because pharmaceutical companies want to continue to make profits on drugs they can control. Marijuana can be grown in the back yard or in a sealed room with UV lamps. Drug companies can't control its production and distribution, so they don't want to see it legalized and regulated. Fortunately, they can't argue with the voters.
This is not the kind of 'tude that we need here folks. Please refrain. 
