Marijuana has a wide range of established medical use throughout recorded history. Even recent, widely respected medical journals have published articles that support it has potential medical use. Many ill individuals, that suffer from intractable conditions could make use of an alternative to expensive and often much more dangerous pharmaceuticals. Some of these drugs aren't even as effective of a treatment as this plant that patients could produce themselves.
Nonviolent, first time offenders face strict punishment as a result of prohibition. Jacob Lavoro, a 19 year-old from Texas, with no prior criminal history, faces life in prison because of prohibition.
Marijuana prohibition is reckless, uncompassionate and un-American. Prohibition creates more problems than it solves.