Laboratories Of…

"Cannabis legalization will have concrete benefits. I know it'll help my wife & others w/ chronic pain. But it’s also hopeful b/c it’s a step away from the logic of mass incarceration which has held politicians in an apparently unbreakable grip" - @nberlat https://t.co/06xlZOmCS6

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 7, 2022

There are several states where marijuana is not legal even for medical purposes, which can be profoundly cruel for people who live there and can’t relocate.

Then again there are states like Texas which are profoundly cruel to Medicaid recipients. You have to be almost homeless to qualify for Medicaid, which come to think of it tracks with the abortion law, since a woman has to be almost dead to justify an abortion.  The closer to dead the better; the closer to homeless the better for Medicaid, but if you are homeless I presume the lack of a fixed abode would disqualify you.

It's some catch, that Catch-22.

The introduction of the abortion matter is not accidental.  Thanks to Alito we are now thrown back again on the mercy of state legislatures.  The ones that won't authorize marijuana for medicinal purposes (even Texas does that!) doom their citizens suffering chronic pain to aggressive drugs that can become far more addictive (and less useful over time) than marijuana.  The same holds for states which ban abortions.

That clip https://t.co/sddRhw9zZN pic.twitter.com/EQEh0xtRrH

— Azi™️ (@Azi) October 7, 2022

If only there was something that could be done about it! But, you know, the states are laboratories of democracy. And in any laboratory where they experiment on animals, some of the animals are expected to die; or suffer.