By Monterey Bud
The 420 community is gaining friends in “high” places. A current cancer patient and active Brooklyn New York Supreme Court Justice [Gustin Reichbach], has become the newest voice of common sense to be heard screaming from the abyss. Judge Reichbach thinks the only rational course of actions for the Federal government is the full and unequivocal support of states that have gone through the ballot box process to legalize medical marijuana. The Judge then goes on to mention that he prefers to smoke a few hits of weed to relieve some of the side-effects from his cancer cures.
In historical context, acknowledging a fondness for medical marijuana (or the stick icky, as I like to call it) has thrown more than its share of good men off of the path of righteousness. Does anyone remember the debacle that was to befall U.S. appeals court Judge Douglas Ginsburg? Homeboy witnessed his nomination for the U.S. Supreme Court vaporize into thin air in 1987, when once confessing that he liked to smoke the chronic throughout the 60s and 70s.
Now one would think that a New York Supreme Court Justice would be smart enough not to editorialize his passions for pot, unless his conviction for its overall societal benefits outweighed its ills. So now that the Judge has admitted that he may have broken an archaic law, his history as both a person battling cancer and winning with the help of medical marijuana, and a long time respectable judge is more likely to provoke appreciation than disapproval.
When the Judge wrote that “This is not a law-and-order issue; it is a medical and a human rights issue,” he was speaking for the masses who have suffered under the same governmental oppression since the beginning of the marijuana prohibition act. The 65 year old, medical marijuana smoking Judge, spent the last 21 years of his life as a judge for the Kings County Supreme Court. I’m more than sure he has seen the damage done by our government’s refusal to even address the issues of rescheduling marijuana, thereby keeping it a schedule one classification and out of the reach of scientific recherches.
As of yet New York has still not joined the other 16 medical marijuana states, as well as the District of Columbia that allow for the use of medical marijuana. That being said, it is not for the lack of public support that they remain in the dark ages, but rather a hand full of zealots who feel that their moral understanding of god and law will not allow for such atrocious activities.
Article from Marijuana.com and republished with permission.
