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ARLINGTON -- When we hear about states legalizing medical marijuana, it's easy to picture situations like this. But for folks like Eric Espinoza, who suffers from spastic cerebral palsy, the need for daily medication is no laughing matter.

"You take 1 to3 a day of various things," Espinoza told NewsFix. "Muscle relaxers, painkillers, anti-inflammatories."

He's even spent time taking more extreme medications.

"It's a year of my life I'll never get back because there is no memory on Oxycontin."

Espinoza says his search for a better option led him to visit Colorado, where he - and others like him - have experimented with medical cannabis.

"They're not looking for a good time," said Espinoza. "They're looking for 48-72 hours of relief. I was enjoying my environment and my surroundings, I was not thinking about my condition. And it's not something that I worry about 'if I accidentally take another pill, am I gonna die?'

"It's difficult in Texas to talk about medical cannabis with your doctor. 'Well, I can't give that to you because you would just be at a Whataburger drive-thru with the munchies at midnight,'" he said mocking how a doctor might respond.

Hey, the doctors couldn't prescribe marijuana anyway, since it's against the law here. But with more than half the country now giving the stuff a green light, who knows what will happen in the future.

In the meantime, Eric says "I'm a patient, not a criminal."

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