1. Sam Shakespeare of Boca Raton, Florida is a strong advocate and proponent of medical marijuana. He
believes the disparity of laws across the nation are causing unnecessary harm to families. What some
American citizens can freely participate in, others are getting
arrested and going to jail for and families are being broken apart.
We are learning more and more about marijuana every day. The
discovery of the body's Endocannabinoid System was a major
breakthrough for the science of medical marijuana. The
Endocannabinoid System is a series of cannabinoid receptors
located throughout the brain and central nervous system that are
interconnected to the body's immune system, and only interact
with compounds found in marijuana.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endocannabinoid_system
We are finding that medical marijuana can be a safe and effective treatment for the symptoms of AIDS,
cancer, multiple sclerosis, pain, epilepsy and glaucoma. New research has been revealed that shows
how certain chemical compounds found in cannabis may help to reduce brain damage following a stroke.
Here is a study by the University of Nottingham...
http://www.biosciencetechnology.com/news/2013/12/cannabinoids-can-limit-neurological-stroke-
damage#.UtcKD7SCUtV
Here is the National Cancer Institute's website explaining how cannabis can actually protect brain cells
against the development of certain types of brain tumors... http://www.cancer.gov/about-
cancer/treatment/cam/hp/cannabis-pdq#link/_26_toc
Sam Shakespeare Boca Raton Medical Marijuana

2. This one is a little "science-ey", but it is the National Institute of Health study that finds marijuana may
provide a method of resuscitation from cardiac arrest... http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24346544
In fact, marijuana has over thousands of years of medical use in human history and not even one death
has been attributed to the herb. Simply because of the fact that there is no lethal dose makes marijuana a
much more viable and safer option for treatment to a variety of ailments and diseases. We know that the
use of medical marijuana can replace the use of certain legal prescription drugs that have serious side
effects, like accidental death from overdose, yet these legal prescription drugs remain legal even though
they are much more harmful to the human body.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more people died from drug overdoses in
2014 than any year on record. The majority of those overdoses involve prescription opioids or pain pills
(OxyContin, Percocet,. Hydrocodone, etc.) Since 1999, prescription opioids sold in the US has nearly
quadrupled, and so has the number of opioid overdoses. Many of these "pain pill" deaths could have
been prevented with the use of medical marijuana. In 2014, more than 14,000 people died from
overdoses involving prescribed pain pills.
But the real tragedy concerning medical marijuana is the United States War on Drugs. It has allowed the
federal and various state and local governments across the country to take up military arms against its
own citizens. It has justified the militarization of police forces across the country. For a country that claims
to be the Land of the Free, we incarcerate more of our own citizens than any other country in the world.
The United States of America has about 2% of the world's population, but it has 25% of the world's prison
population, most of them being nonviolent drug offenders. Over 50% of those being marijuana charges.
That's right, marijuana arrests now account for over half of all drug arrests in the United States of the 8.2
million marijuana arrests between 2001 in 2010, 80% were for simply possessing marijuana.
And the US taxpayer has been footing the bill. According to www.drugpolicy.org the US War on Drugs
cost the American taxpayer over $51 billion annually. As it currently already costs over $30,000 to

3. imprison one person for one year.
http://www.drugpolicy.org/drug-war-statistics
If the war on drugs was working, it should make drugs scarcer, hence driving prices up. In reality, drug
prices have stayed about the same over the past 20 years, showing the War on Drugs has had literally no
effect on the black market of illegal drugs. The only thing the War on Drugs has been successful at is
arresting and imprisoning our citizens at an alarming rate. The one sure way to wipe out an illegal black
market is to legalize the very thing that has been made illegal. In this way certain states are already
catching on and adding millions and millions to their tax revenues every year. While their citizens are
enjoying the true meaning of freedom.
While some of our citizens are enjoying freedom, others that get arrested for having marijuana may lose a
job or lose public benefits or lose their education funding. Maybe even worse, they go to jail and are
separated from their children and their family. What effect does that have on that family and those kids?
These children are getting shortchanged because of an ill-conceived law. Currently over 50% of the
American population supports full legalization of marijuana. It's time to legalize and stop arresting
otherwise law-abiding citizens for choosing an herb that is less dangerous than all other available options.
We know that alcohol kills over 600,000 people every year and cigarettes kill over 1 million people. As a
reminder marijuana has never been attributed to even one death. Yet somehow the authorities say "we
need more data..." We have data, thousands of years of data. What is interesting to me is why we were
not this cautious with alcohol and cigarettes.
For these reasons and many more, Sam Shakespeare, of Boca Raton, Florida remains a strong advocate
for the legalization and use of medical marijuana for all humanity. Personal freedom is a basic right.