Bear with me for a bit, I DO have a marijuana point to make in a moment.

You know what IS illegal across the U.S. (BUT, if you’re white and affluent, it SEEMS to be sort of legal)? Rape (trigger warning).

So we keep building robots to take our jobs and do our work for us. Why can’t we build robots that teach people to NOT rape or sexually assault people. Like the TERMINATOR, but instead of preventing John Connor from being born, it prevents rape. I am NOT making light of rape or sexual assault. SOMETHING has to be done. I used an absurd analogy to represent the absurdity that this is still a prevalent issue.

321,500 people (age 12 and older) are victims of rape and sexual assault in the U.S. EVERY year. Since 1998, there have been 17.7 million American women that have experienced rape or attempted rape (https://www.rainn.org/statistics/victims-sexual-violence).

Out of every 1000 rapes, 994 perpetrators will WALK FREE (https://www.rainn.org/statistics/criminal-justice-system).

And according to some studies, less than 1% of domestic violence cases are reported to the police. And around 25% of women and 7.6% of men reported being victims of partner violence at some point in their lives. (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domestic_violence_in_the_United_States?wprov=sfla1).

And South Carolina (if the Carolinas were lovers, South is DEFINITELY a bottom), is one of the few states where marijuana is still illegal (save for a few specific cases involving children suffering from seizure disorders).

But you know what is apparently LEGAL in South Carolina? For a man to beat his wife on the courthouse steps on Sunday. Seriously.

I mention all of this because ONE of the long term side effects of rape, attempted rape, sexual assault, domestic assault and etc, is PTSD. And another medically beneficial aspect of marijuana is the TREATMENT OF PTSD and ANXIETY.

Naturally occurring cannabinoids, like THC, can help to regulate the system that causes fear and anxiety in the body and brain. It can help to slow down a mind that is racing through terrifying past events & stressing about constant possible future events. And, it can also help to stop an individual from dreaming, and most importantly, from having nightmares. In low doses, marijuana can actually work as a sedative, which can help an overly-anxious mind to calm down (http://www.health.harvard.edu/mind-and-mood/medical-marijuana-and-the-mind).

About 1 in 5 military personnel deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan experience PTSD (https://www.leafly.com/news/health/cannabis-and-post-traumatic-stress-disorder-ptsd). But because it’s Federally illegal, veterans can NOT get medicinal marijuana through the VA. So instead, they’re given antidepressants and antipsychotics, which don’t have much success in treating PTSD. So basically. They fight for their country, but their country won’t fight for them.

Overall, 1 in 6 Americans take a psychiatric drug (https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/1-in-6-americans-takes-a-psychiatric-drug/). Even without all the above specifics, that’s MILLIONS and MILLIONS of people. And these legal drugs can cause numerous side effects (http://www.webmd.com/depression/features/coping-with-side-effects-of-depression-treatment) which can make it hard to function on a day-to-day basis. And they’ll eventually increase anxiety (seriously, one possible side effect IS ANXIETY) because of the severity of side effects. So then these people need marijuana just to help alleviate the anxiety of the side effects from the drugs they were given instead of marijuana…

Anxiety and PTSD go hand-hand. In a country that seems eager to go to war, has an inherent rape culture, has so much abuse towards men and women, and that has 1 in 6 people needing some sort of mental health medicine, wouldn’t it makes sense to legalize the medicine that can ACTUALLY help those people instead of giving them MORE issues?

And South Carolina, you allow spousal abuse (on Sundays), but WON’T legalize the medicine that can help those victims deal with the psychological AND physical pain that your law promotes? Well the tree on your state seal looks like a dick and balls…

Figure it out!