November 2, 2016

Dear President,

In the United States, one out of every 26 people have epilepsy. There is still no cure for this neurological disorder, but the best treatment for it is medical marijuana and it has been proven. I believe that if you legalize marijuana for medical and recreational use in all states, the outcome will be phenomenal for those who need it.

First of all, marijuana has helped over hundreds of people who have PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder), MS (Multiple Sclerosis), Epilepsy, and many other diseases. There was a reported case about a little girl named Charlotte Figi. She was 3 months old when she had her first seizure. Her parents, Matt and Paige Figi, had a million-dollar work-up -- the MRI, EEG, spinal tap -- they did the whole work-up and found nothing and sent them home. In an article that I was looking through, Charlotte had another seizure and that was just the beginning. Charlotte’s dad decided to use his time to scour the Internet and he found a video online of a California boy whose Dravet was being successfully treated with cannabis. By then Charlotte’s condition was worse and she was having 300 grand mal seizures a week. Then, the parents decided it was time to get her medical marijuana. Since they put Charlotte on cannabis, her neurological disorder started to show less and less. She now has seizures only 2-3 times a month.

Secondly, why are cigarettes legal but marijuana is not? Cigarettes have no benefits to your health. They actually increase the chance of lung cancer and other diseases. Yet, marijuana has been proven to help neurological disorders and many other diseases. Also, the policemen wouldn't have to be wasting their time catching people with a small amount of marijuana on them. I can't say that no one has ever died from it, but it is extremely hard to overdose on marijuana.

Thirdly, the states that have legalized marijuana have been making money from it. In Colorado alone, they made 1 billion dollars from the sale taxes of marijuana. I believe that if all the states legalize cannabis, the United States won't be in debt anymore. We would begin to have money and be able to focus on our country instead of paying other countries and watching our country go down because of all the stuff happening. Also, when people are prescribed pills instead of marijuana, they are slowly killing their liver and kidney. By the time they are in their 50s, they would have destroyed their liver and kidney so bad that they could die from it or have to be on a transplant list.

After all, you are the president and I believe that if you legalize marijuana for medical and recreational use in all the states, we wouldn't have to worry about some of the major diseases. We wouldn't have to worry about our kids or our kid’s kids getting horrible diseases, like Charlotte, and doctors not being able to prescribe cannabis even though it's THE best way to help. So please consider and remember that cannabis is the best medicine for Dravet's disease, PTSD, anxiety, depression, and many other neurological disorders.

Sincerely,

Luke Menge