Prohibition is Violence

Your baby suffers from life threatening seizures 100 times or more a day. Conventional medicine is ineffective, causes dangerous or undesirable side effects, and there is not much more doctors can do. However, there is a safe, effective treatment that other children are using. Their seizures have decreased dramatically and they are doing things they were unable to do before. They are off their dangerous pharmaceutical medications. It truly is almost a miracle.

A veteran lives with PTSD. He is prescribed anti-psychotic medications, anti-depressants, or a cocktail of psychotropic pharmaceuticals. In many cases they do not help and also have some serious dangerous side effects. However, there is a safe, effective treatment that others are using and they no longer need pharmaceuticals.

A cancer patient who has opted for highly toxic chemotherapy and radiation is experiencing severe nausea, loss of appetite and pain. She is prescribed very strong anti-pain meds, anti-nausea meds, and a slew of others to offset the effects. However, there is a safer alternative that would alleviate pain, nausea, and increase appetite therefore reducing or eliminating the pharmaceuticals. This treatment has also been shown to cure some cancers.

The treatment referenced is plant based and has curative and preventative qualities. It could benefit many people in many ways, so it must be available to all, right? Wrong. It is only legally accessible to a few. It is cannabis a.k.a. marijuana. Here in Oklahoma if you possess this plant or any of its derivatives you are criminalized and if caught, your life could change in a heartbeat in a very negative way.

I recently attended a fundraiser for a little girl named Jaqie Angel Warrior. She is 19 months old and suffers from multiple seizures daily. Her life could be taken by one at any moment. She has had many hospital stays in her short life. The family is traveling to Colorado to get her lifesaving cannabis oil which has been used successfully with many other children who live with epileptic seizures. The fundraiser was created to help offset the expenses. Moving to Colorado is not as easy as simply packing up and moving. It creates a hardship for the family who has a home, mortgage, job, and support network in Oklahoma.

Meanwhile, Jaqie’s mom, Brittany, has contacted Governor Mary Fallin numerous times begging for an executive order to allow CBD oil for her baby and the countless others who could benefit from it. What is disturbing though, is that people are having to beg for permission to exercise their rights to use whatever treatment that they choose to use. Why are legislators dictating medical treatment? Why are they preventing people from using a safe, effective treatment while many FDA approved legal medications are extremely harmful and dangerous? Some people will choose to use cannabis and will obtain it illegally thus making them criminals. Some are willing to take that risk but many cannot. I met Jaqie’s family. I spoke with them personally and I saw their little girl. How could the powers-that-be (morally) criminalize these people for doing whatever was necessary to save their little girl?

Is withholding potentially lifesaving medicine an act of aggression? Are those doing so accountable for the deaths of others who have been denied access based on absurd drug policy? What is the proper role of government in this issue? Is the role of government to protect individual rights? If that is true, their actions are not supporting this.

Some believe the cannabis issue should not be a priority right now and there are more pressing issues on which we should focus. We do not agree. The Drug War in general is the single most pressing issue in our society for numerous reasons. People, including innocent children, are suffering and dying or are being locked in cages for exercising their natural rights. This is a human rights issue and an extreme abuse of power by the government. It must be addressed immediately.

The real crime is preventing peaceful people from exercising their rights and locking them up for possessing a plant that has never caused one fatality and contains many curative and preventative health benefits. If legislators such as Senator Newberry, Senator Barrington and Governor Fallin are not willing to have a conversation or stand up and protect liberties then they are not fulfilling their job requirements. Unfortunately, individuals have little recourse for reprimanding representatives. The cannabis issue is not going to dissipate and quietly disappear before their next election. It is expanding, growing louder, and gaining momentum. It would be wise for the politicians to start listening to the citizens of Oklahoma and stop harming the most vulnerable among us. The government violence must cease and we will not stop speaking out, exposing politicians, and educating the public until it does.