Imagine that you’re a parent
Imagine that you’re a parent; you have a beautiful, healthy baby girl. Now imagine that she becomes ill and begins having seizures. Seizures that can last 30 minutes, or, sometimes last hours. You watch your child suffer and you watch them hospitalised repeatedly. You listen to the doctors as they say that she’ll grow out of it. That they can’t do anything, that there are no medications that will make this go away. Dravet Syndrome entailed 300 seizures a week and the loss of Charlotte Figi’s ability to talk, walk and eat. Her parents, Matt and Paige Figi could do nothing but stand by and watch their daughter slowly die due to the brain damage caused by the constant seizures. Thankfully, in the US state of Colorado where the Figis live, medical marijuana is legal. Which allows Matt and Paige to give Charlotte a small dose of the drug to stop her seizures. From 300 seizures a week to zero, the life of a young girl was restored. That was the result of medical marijuana.
Marijuana in any form is illegal in Australia. There are no provisions for medicinal reasons, despite the overwhelming evidence that medicinal marijuana can provide incredible comfort and treatment for many diseases. In fact it can prove safer than prescription drugs. For people who suffer from chronic or terminal illness especially, marijuana can provide immense benefits including lessening of symptoms and increasing happiness and comfort levels. Legalisation of medicinal marijuana in Australia would simply enable easy access to a drug has been shown to have immense benefits. Legalisation would take the profits away from the black market and instead allow profits to be redirected to research, as well as increasing the quality and safety of the product.
Ultimately, no one loses if medical marijuana is decriminalized (except the bad guys). But so many people benefit. The patients who suffer from cancer, epilepsy, glaucoma the list goes on. Legalisation means that they wouldn’t have to fear being arrested or fined just for seeking relief from their illnesses simply because some people don’t understand that illegal does not equate to dangerous all the time.
