What's the big freakin' deal?

In case you've been sitting in your basement playing Dungeons & Dragons all week, you're probably not aware that the Supreme Court heard arguments regarding the use of medical marijuana on Monday.

Like many SCOTUS cases, the answer in this one should be simple, leave it up to the states. Unlike many cases that make it up the chain of litigation, this appears to be a good case from the standpoint of real-world application. In brief, the specifics of the case are as follows:

Angel Raich was confined to a wheelchair and unable to even hug her daughter when a nurse mentioned a medication that she had never considered. Raich, who suffers from multiple debilitating conditions, including an inoperable brain tumor, scoliosis and fibromyalgia, had tried 30 medicines, none of which had helped alleviate her pain.

Raich, 39, who calls herself a proper conservative mom, had never smoked marijuana in her life, and was taken aback at the nurse's suggestion that she try medical cannabis. But nothing else was working, so Raich finally relented and tried it. Raich can now walk, hold down food and play with her family. She credits the medicine with saving her life.

Whether or not it can be medically proven that marijuana is what has actually lessened Raich's pain, I don't know. However, when the results are this beneficial, how can any "humane" person object?

I don't know whether or not this will come as a shock to you socially conservative moralists out there, but I sure as hell don't have a problem with it.

Taken a step further, Froggy has an excellent post that brings together every-day common sense and his own experience in customs to a "legalize it" conclusion. He's not simply parroting the Libertarian view of legalize everything, but he makes a great case for taking pot out of the mix, which will likely result in positive steps in the war on drugs.

Cranky has some thoughts on it as well.

Let the states decide whether or not to decriminalize and keep the damn Feds out of it.