We don’t smoke marijuana in Muskogee
We don’t take our trips on LSD
We don’t burn our draft cards down on Main Street
We like livin’ right, and bein’ free…
— Merle Haggard, Okie From Muskogee
I’m a sucker for outlaw country music, and Merle Haggard has always been one of my favorites. Okie From Muskogee was my first introduction to the Mighty Merle.
I pulled out the old record yesterday, blew off the dust, and spun it on my turntable. My, how the times have changed since then…
That song was released in September 1969 — a time when it seemed like conservatives and liberals had absolutely nothing but hatred and contempt for one another (what a difference a few decades make?). The Vietnam War was raging, and the counterculture on the coasts was taking to the streets in droves to protest it.
But in Oklahoma, as Merle sang, “We don’t let our hair grow long and shaggy, like the hippies out in San Francisco do.”
As of this week, Oklahoma and California have at least one thing in common: they have both embraced legal marijuana…
Question 788 was approved by the people of Oklahoma by a 57% to 43% margin on Tuesday. That is a major vote for marijuana legalization in a very, very red state.
That makes it the 30th state to legalize medical marijuana.
Not only did the state begin to allow medical marijuana, it took it one step further. While some other states have passed similar laws, they typically came with a caveat that it could only be used for specific and serious ailments like epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, and PTSD. Oklahoma’s new law will allow doctors to recommend medical cannabis for any condition they see fit.
That opens up a ton of options for doctors to prescribe cannabis treatments for a variety of other ailments like anxiety, depression, and chronic pain — all of which have evidence for cannabis treatments’ efficacy.
I recently interviewed “Pennsylvania’s First Pot Doctor”, Dr. Matthew Roman. He heads up Nature’s Way Medicine in Philadelphia and Wilmington, Delaware.
“I have patients who come in to my office that have long lists of medication… and here’s the thing… almost every single one of them can be replaced by cannabis,” he told me.
Dr. Roman went on to describe the current pharmaceutical culture that treats ailments like pain with dangerous and addictive drugs like opiates. Sadly, by the time you read this article, someone likely overdosed on these destructive medications. I’ve personally seen it happen too many times over the years…
Cannabis treatments are safe, non-addictive, and best of all — revolutionary. Now that the stigma is being lifted we are going to start witnessing one of the biggest breakthroughs in medicine in our lifetime…
This comes on the heels of the FDA’s decision to approve the first medical marijuana drug. Earlier in the week, the agency green-lit GW Pharmaceuticals’ (NASDAQ: GWPH) cannabis-based product for treating epilepsy.
It’s called Epidiolex. Like Nick told you yesterday, Epidiolex only treats two rare forms of epilepsy: Lennox-Gastaut syndrome and Dravet syndrome. And when I say rare, I mean incredibly rare — according to the National Organization for Rare Disorders, Dravet syndrome affects 0.0064% of the population.
While it is the first shot fired in the coming arms race for cannabis-based pharmaceuticals, imagine the possibilities for diseases like cancer and pain.
I’ve been following a company that could lead the way to a revolution in cannabis-based medicine. It has locked down the vital patents of some major medical breakthroughs for glaucoma, skin disease, and even breast cancer. These breakthroughs could make it a monopoly once the patents clear and the federal regulations are lifted for it to proceed with its life-changing medical developments.
Oklahoma’s decision this week could help lead the way.
