Medical marijuana and legal cannabis sales are a hot topic right now.

Two years ago, 17 states throughout the South and the Midwest, passed what are known as CBD-only laws – meaning that the cannabis that’s prescribed for certain medical conditions has no mind altering high associated with it.  This seemed like an ideal solution for patients, physicians, and lawmakers alike.

But things aren’t so rosy at this point in the experiment.   This article from NBC came through our news feed recently – 

“Last year he was not taking cannabis oil and he barely went to school (because of frequent seizures),” La France said. “This year, he’s going to school much more often and for longer parts of the day. His teachers and family have noticed that his eye contact is better, he’s more responsive.”

Bottom line – these laws aren’t really helping those that need help.  They’re too restrictive, don’t account for too many factors that should be taken into account when creating a medical marijuana treatment plan, and it’s turning average people into criminals.

Criminals? How could that be?

But political opposition — often led by some of the families the laws were intended to help — has emerged in many of the states that passed the legislation.

“We’re not lawbreakers and this shouldn’t even be an issue,” said Jennifer Conforti of Fayetteville, Georgia, who gives her 5-year-old autistic daughter, Abby, marijuana-derived oil with higher-than-allowed levels of THC to control dangerous biting episodes. “It should be a medicine that doctors go to when they need it.”

Obviously there’s a disconnect between lawmakers and lawbreakers when we’ve arrived at an impasse – one that has parents and caregivers absolutely sure, on the one hand, that medical marijuana does work, is effective, and must be part of the treatment plan for their loved ones.

The flip side?  Well, that’s a no brainer.  Lawmakers, especially in conservative Christian, right wing Republican states, do not want to be seen as encouraging drug use, or being soft on criminals.  That’s just not the way of it.  Especially in an election cycle year with more vicious battles going on within the Republican party than outside of it from the looks of things.

Personally, I think a lot is riding on who wins the presidential election in November.  Democrats don’t really care about pot-smoking, pot-prescribing or pot-growing.  Republicans likely have other ideas and if they can hold Trump’s feet to the fire (or get rid of him in time to nominate someone else) then there are a number of things that are very likely to change, including the federal governments stance on prosecuting marijuana and cannabis cases in states that have legalized some form of use of the drug.