No one admires Rand Paul more than I do.  While the country is on a decline with out-of-control spending, an executive branch assuming near-dictatorial powers, illegal aliens flooding our country, and our medical system effectively nationalized, Rand Paul stands out.  Not allowing himself to be distracted, he continues to focus like a laser beam on the most important issue that we are facing today: the need to legalize marijuana.

So with Democrat senators Kirsten Gillibrand and Cory Booker (the extremely charismatic and ineffectual former mayor of Newark, New Jersey), he has introduced a bill to legalize marijuana nationally, purely for "medicinal" purposes, of course.  Let's see how it's prescribed in California:

Will Wooton is a teen drug and alcohol counselor and founder of Pacific Treatment Services in Escondido. Wooton said he used to see one to two teenagers a month who used their medical marijuana card as a means to get high. Now he sees more than that every week. “The most common thing I hear from kids is that they go in and say they’re anxious and can’t sleep. I’m going to give that a shot and I’m pretty confident that will work,” said Glidewell.

It did work. Less than an hour later, Glidewell walked out of the first clinic with a card to legally smoke pot.

“When I saw the doctor, he smiled and had looked over my questionnaire briefly. He said ‘you have two of three main symptoms we treat here.’” Glidewell said.  “He then said that I was going to love marijuana, that he and his wife smoked it and that I was going to have the best sleep of my life.”

Glidewell used his real name and driver’s license, but lied about his trouble sleeping. He also did not have corroborating evidence about his so-called condition.

“[The doctor] believed me and had absolutely no clinical insight about my history at all and no collateral information, nothing,” Glidewell said.

There's enormous abuse as people seek out "pot friendly" doctors, and soon everyone is getting this kind of "treatment."  Marijuana is a "gateway" drug, which encourages people to use more serious drugs, like cocaine.

Here are some other effects of marijuana:

• Reduced resistance to common illnesses (colds, bronchitis, etc.)
• Suppression of the immune system
• Growth disorders
• Increase of abnormally structured cells in the body
• Reduction of male sex hormones
• Rapid destruction of lung fibers and lesions (injuries) to the brain could be permanent
• Reduced sexual capacity
• Study difficulties: reduced ability to learn and retain information
• Apathy, drowsiness, lack of motivation
• Personality and mood changes
• Inability to understand things clearly [explanation for liberals?]

And medical marijuana is not even necessary, according to medical professionals.

... there is no good scientific evidence that legalizing marijuana’s use provides any benefits over current therapies[.]

So there is no reason to support such a bill, unless you also support apathy, drowsiness, and a reduction of male hormones.

Pedro Gonzales is the editor of Newsmachete.com, the conservative news site.