The Government's Secret Pot Smokers

Despite the federal government's public stance on medical marijuana, they have been hiding their own medicinal marijuana production for years. Many marijuana supporters were shocked to recently find out that there are currently four patients around the nation that receive government-grown pot on a regular basis.

Before delving further into this, we must first understand a little-known program that was created in 1976. This program stemmed from a court case involving medicinal marijuana and concluded with 14 patients being granted rights to government-provided medicine.

Of those 14 original patients, only four remain. These four patients are among an elite group that can use medicinal marijuana without fear of federal consequences. The quality of the government marijuana is unknown, but we do know that it was created as part of a science experiment to determine the effects of marijuana.

Many marijuana supporters accuse the federal government of being hypocritical and unreasonable. After all, how can they arrest thousands of people every year for doing the same thing that they are allowing, in this case?

The government defends itself by saying that this program is no longer accepting new patients, and it will die with the last patient. They also go on to say that the program is thought to be a failure, with no positive benefits discovered from marijuana use, and that they only continue to provide the medicine for compassionate purposes.

There are two things extremely wrong with this explanation. First of all, if the federal government can use “compassionate care” as a reason to distribute marijuana, why can't all of the dispensaries that are currently being attacked across the nation?

Secondly, one of the remaining four patients agreed to be interviewed and claims that the government ignores her reports of successful medical marijuana use. As a glaucoma patient, she has not experienced any pain since she began smoking marijuana. How can that be considered a failure?

When more people hear about this federal medical marijuana program, the national opinion is likely to change. Despite government attempts to “redeem” themselves, this is clearly evidence in support of nation-wide legalization.