Prop. 9 - a good time for all

Aaron Wells

Columnist

10-24-2000 Sagebrush

There's a reason to get to the polls on Nov. 7. That reason is to vote. Pretty obvious. I mean, what else do you do at a poll ­ poll dancing?

This time, however, there are a few things to vote about. A lot has already been said about Proposition 2. For my vote, I'll be voting no. But there's another important proposition coming to the ballot this November that I've heard no coverage of. That's Proposition 9, Medicinal Marijuana. For my vote, I'll be voting yes.

There's a lot of reasons to legalize marijuana. It doesn't hurt anyone, it would decrease abuse, it would eliminate drug smuggling and it would make it easier for addicts to seek counseling. And, all rationalization aside, it gets you high.

Getting high, however, is not something that most of America smiles upon, unless it's high on life (a saying that always gives me an image of Mikey grinding up and snorting Life cereal). That's the beauty of medicinal marijuana. It's about more than getting high. It's about healing disease.

The funny thing is that most of the disease-healing of marijuana is just a result of getting high. It helps with muscle spasm illnesses by relaxing the body. It relieves chronic nausea by giving you the munchies. Basically, for every effect of a marijuana high, there's some illness it can relieve. Legalize marijuana and the world will find out that getting high is a good thing, even if you somehow believe that pleasure is bad.

I can tell my parents to vote yes on 9 because cannabis could help my father's multiple sclerosis, even as I tell my pal Hippy to vote yes on 9 because unauthorized use of a prescription drug carries only a misdemeanor fine. In the meantime, I'll be voting yes on 9 and no on 2, and hopefully someday a same-sex couple will toke on their pipes after saying their wedding vows in the state of Nevada. And, for those of you who aren't so open-minded, vote no on 2 so loving couples can marry and yes on 9 so cancer patients can eat.