Dear Future President,

I would like you to look into the legalization of medical marijuana. There are a lot of medical benefits for people including kids and adults who have medical diagnoses like epilepsy, autism, PTSD, and cancer. Although medical marijuana is legal in half of the states, access is limited by extreme regulations.

Take Montana for example. In Montana, medical marijuana has been legal since 2004. But there was some issues that made it to where every provider could only have 3 patients each. This leaves over 12,000 people without medication that are struggling with sleep, pain, seizures. Making many people who are suffering or dying into criminals. Just to get the medicine they need to stop suffering, or even just to stay alive.

I, along with many other people, believe that it is not fair to limit providers patients. How are they supposed to pick what patients deserve it and what patients don't? There are so many people who are suffering and in pain because of people who do not agree with the laws, but in actuality what do they know about medical marijuana? Do they just think it is the same as the recreational marijuana you buy on the streets? Do they know what it can do for people in need? Well I can tell you right now that the recreational marijuana on the streets and medical marijuana are made of the same substance, but are very different. Recreational marijuana is normally from an unknown source and has a mix of other drugs, not just marijuana. And its main purpose is to get you high using THC, but medical marijuana is to treat muscle spasms, nausea, chronic pain, etc. Instead of THc medical marijuana has CBD which is like THC it just doesn't get users high, it only has medical purposes. Many people have the assumption that you only eat or smoke marijuana, that, however is not true. Medical marijuana is usually made into oil that you rub on your feet, head, lips.

Even though some people disagree with the legalization of medical marijuana, places that it was legalized are actually doing better than places it isn't. In Denver, all the crime rates went down after they legalized marijuana. And people can get help with their diagnosis. In my opinion it is better to help people then to please other people. It just makes more sense to me, especially if you are saving a life.

My call to action would probably be to legalize marijuana in every states with less extreme regulations. I also think we should educate people more on this substance and what it can do in the right hands, because most of the things we hear or learn about is all the bad things it does to people. This is why I would like you to look into the legalization of medical marijuana.

Sincerely,

Theo H.-K., 14,

Billings, MT

Theo Harris-Kaczmarek

Montana Voter Guide, https://www.theweedblog.com/what-are-the-active-ingredients-in-medical-marijuana/ ,https://www.theweedblog.com/what-are-the-active-ingredients-in-medical-marijuana/