The Supreme Court has ruled in a 6-3 decision that Congress has the right to outlaw medicinal marijuana, thus subjecting all patients to federal prosecution even in states where the treatment is legalized. Meaning that doctors can still give medical marijuana in states where it's legal, but the DEA can bust down the door of a person using the drug to fight off a spinal injury and put them in jail. Which makes, well, no sense at all.
You can debate this issue on and on, but the fact of the matter is...medical marijuana works. I will never cease to understand the constant struggle to have it be used to treat ill patients suffering from various debilitating diseases and injuries in which a controlled use of cannabis would greatly benefit their recovery and coping process. And just because a drug is frequently used (and abused) recreationally isn't just cause to make it illegal for those in need who could use its benefits.
After all, Ritalin, sleeping pills, Adderall and many other FDA approved drugs are frequently used and abused recreationally. Shit, even ecstasy was approved by the FDA to treat post-traumatic stress disorder in 2001! While the point can be made that you can't just grow these other drugs in your backyard, marijuana is no different from these frequently abused, yet beneficial and legal drugs.
And besides its medical use, I've never understood why the use of recreational marijuana is so harshly penalized in the United States. The negative effects over chronic marijuana use aren't nearly as severe as those suffered by chronic alcohol abuse and chain smoking cigarettes. Yet beer and cigarettes continue to be a-ok while marijuana is not. Legalizing marijuana in all forms would have similar perks that the fall of the Prohibition Era had in 1933. Violence caused by cartels selling drugs would drop significantly and our ever fluctuating economy would have a brand new business enterprise on its hands. The latter sounds insane, but who knew 80 years ago that you would be greeted at every turn with advertisements selling you various brews of alcohol.
Myself and many other young Americans have used marijuana recreationally, I can admit to that. While many have just found it to "chill" or whatever, whenever I feel positive effects from the drug, I can't help but wonder what good it could bring to the world if the government would allow it to be studied to the point where we could discover how to tinker with the chemicals it contained to possibly grow something that could have various uses. Don't get me wrong, despite any possible modifications that could be made, like any substance that can be used to modify a chemical process in ones body, marijuana must be used with great caution and great control in able to enjoy its effects, whether recreational or medical. The bottom line is that the fact that marijuana still remains such a terrible thing in the eyes of the United States Government after all these years is absurd.