Current Song: "No Cars Go" -- Arcade Fire
I have been writing/refining/practicing my speech for hours and for some reason now one of my ears hurts. Also I kept getting distracted because there is no privacy in this apartment so I am blasting Arcade Fire to cover up my rehearsing and I had to keep singing along. I got the music down, down, down in my heart, you know.
The speech assignment is to give a speech for 2-3 minutes on something we believe in. Everyone turned in their topics today and they range from "playoffs for college football" to "immigration reform" to "love at first sight." I'm speaking about medical marijuana and it's going to be a huge downer. I picked the topic specifically because it's something that I have an opinion on but I am not particularly emotionally invested in it, so it's not a huge personal risk to get up and talk to a bunch of freshman/athletes about it. But then today she said "Don't research the topic, talk about why you personally believe in it." So I ended up writing a speech about all the people I know who've died of AIDS and how much relief marijuana brought into their lives. Which is kind of a downer. And because I'm a glutton for punishment and also really self-involved, here's the transcript:
"Good morning, everyone. I'm going to talk to you today about why I believe that medical marijuana should be legalized.
There are several benefits to legalization. For one thing, marijuana has fewer health risks than many legal alternatives, such as prescription painkillers. Prescription painkillers can cause liver and stomach damage and are relatively easy to overdose on. In addition, when traditional remedies fail, chronically ill people often turn to alcohol to escape. Alcohol can kill a user by itself or when mixed with other medications, even over-the-counter medications. On the other hand, it is very difficult to ingest a lethal amount of marijuana, even in combination with alcohol or other drugs.
Once it is legalized, marijuana can be made even more safe by government regulation that can prevent it from being mixed, or 'cut', with other potentially lethal substances.
In addition to being a safer alternative, marijuana is significantly cheaper than prescription painkillers. For a reasonable price a user can obtain seeds, soil, and growing lights and grow their own marijuana at home for as long as they need. For chronically ill people, this can make a critical difference in their quality of life.
From 2005 to 2006, I spent the year working with men who had AIDS. Most of them were homeless or living in government-subsidized housing. Most couldn't afford their prescriptions and got help from community resources or just went without. All of them were noticeably sick. Most of them used marijuana in order to relieve some of their chronic pain and escape from their harsh realities.
Over two weeks in April, six of them died, just like that. I knew these men. I knew how much pain they were in and how difficult it was for them. I never asked any of them if marijuana made their lives easier. But I'm not going to say that it didn't. I know that in the short time they were given, it provided them with an escape from the disease that had left them trapped in their own bodies.
Disease like AIDS, stomach cancer, bone cancer, and multiple sclerosis don't just target people who can afford to buy painkillers. But escape from the relentless pain, nausea, and tremors that come with these diseases can be found cheaply, safely, in a medication that can be grown by the user at almost no cost to the user or the state. And that is why I believe that medical marijuana should be legalized."
What about you? What are you writing speeches about lately?
