Medical Marijuana Laws Becoming More Prevalent in the United States, But Not the South

In some states, although not Florida, it is legal to purchase and smoke marijuana for medicinal purposes. Of course, in other states, such as Florida, purchasing and possessing a certain amount of marijuana will get you charged with a crime that carries a minimum mandatory three year prison sentence. We have discussed previously on this blog the travesty of some of the marijuana criminal laws and the financial black hole the war on drugs has created. We do feel that at some point in the future, viewpoints and laws on marijuana are likely to change.

Enacting laws that allow people who are sick and in pain to smoke marijuana to relieve their symptoms is a slow and incremental process. The laws typically have to be proposed and rejected several times before they are passed. In some states, like Florida and other states in the South, medical marijuana laws are much farther from a reality than they are in many states in the West. However, according to an article on www.Stopthedrugwar.org, medical marijuana is legal in 13 states and at issue this year in 19 other states. The article indicates that in 6 of those 19 states, the medical marijuana bill is favored to pass. Most of those 6 states are in the Northeast; none of them are in the South.

We do look forward to the day when nonviolent drug users, particular marijuana users, do not clog up the criminal justice systems, or worse, the jails and prisons, and drain the financial resources of the various states. Unfortunately, in the South, that day is still a long time coming.