Not Your Typical Tradeshow

I won't rehash (no pun intended) my views on this topic but instead will highlight insights from of a commenter on Andrew Sullivan's blog who works in a medical marijuana dispensary...

The most touching customers were, of course, those with genuine medical conditions for whom marijuana provided relief like nothing else they had tried. I remember one woman who, the first time I saw her, had the look of someone who lived with severe physical pain and suffered under the confusion and depression brought on by prescription painkillers.

She told me she was 58 and had never smoked, but was desperate and willing to try anything, and that her nephew had encouraged her to try a strong indica. I sold her some brownies and a little Purple Kush.

The next time I saw her, she wept at my counter because she had experienced the best relief from chronic pain and a sound night's sleep in many years. Over the course of a few months, I watched her face take on a more radiant and peaceful expression, and she said she wished she hadn't waited so long.

Many say that the Medicinal Movement is a silly front for more general decriminalization. I would say that this is both true and false -- that marijuana is both good medicine and good times, and that punishing good people for benefiting from it (or simply enjoying it) is always bad policy.