Marijuana vs. Tobacco, vs. Medication

There are differences in the chemicals between tobacco products and marijuana products. I don't smoke either products, but I do have a B.S. in Chemistry, have worked with people with AIDS, cancer, MS, ALS, mental illness.

Marijuana has cannaboids, which is a specific psychoactive chemical that aids in all sorts of mood and physiological conditions. Here's a link for a brief overview via slideshow. http://www.webmd.com/brain/ss/slideshow-medical-marijuana

There are multiple ways that marijuana is used medically, and it is not always smoked. It is ingested and inhaled via vapor without smoke. For years, there's been a prescription drug called Marinol, http://www.marinol.com/  . . . which has the psychoactive ingredient, THC, that's in marijuana. This is an oral medication and totally legal.

Maybe, your preference is to have patients be drugged up on other pharmaceuticals where they cannot control and monitor their dosage and delivery. If you know nothing of psychotropic medications, many of them require daily dosing to achieve what is called therapeutic drug levels, which is quite expensive in the long-run.

Marijuana, on the other hand, is something that the medical consumer can manage and monitor on their own, determining their own need, buying their own amounts as they see fit, something that conservatives, I would think, would be more in favor of, instead of having it all be pharmaceutical company driven. Also, because marijuana stays in the bloodstream for such a long time (half-life of 20-30 days), there is little chance of withdraw.