Washington, D.C. — The evidence is undisputable. Cannabis is an incredibly beneficial plant with medical applications that humanity has only begun to explore. Its harmful side effects are nearly non-existent, and no evidence to date has shown that anyone has ever died from it.

The evidence is undisputable. OxyContin and other opioid-based prescription drugs have a small range of uses from pain management to cough relief. The harmful side effects of opioids are virtually limitless. They are highly addictive, sicken tens of thousands of people a year and kill thousands.

Of course, opioids have a place in medicine as they are used to treat severe pain. However, they are incredibly dangerous.

Cannabis can also be used to treat severe pain. In fact, cannabis has shown some incredible promise in reversing the harmful effects of debilitating, painful, and deadly seizures in children.

The main difference between cannabis and opioid medication, however, is that government agents won’t kick down your door in the middle of the night, shoot your dog, and kidnap and cage you if you have doctor-prescribed OxyContin.

So far in the US, 23 states, and Washington, D.C. have legalized cannabis for medical use. However, in all but five of those states, it is nearly impossible to obtain. In the other 27 states, police will deprive you of your freedom for possessing it.

Marijuana kills no one.

Not only does marijuana not kill people, but a study published by JAMA Internal Medicine found that states with medical cannabis laws had significantly lower rates of opioid overdose mortality. That’s right, in states where medicinal marijuana is legal, deaths from OxyContin are significantly less.

The irony here is that OxyContin is legal in all 50 states, it ruins lives, ends lives, and yet still, the government signs off on the ability of doctors to give it away like candy. Of course, no one is saying that these drugs should be illegal either, but the fact that marijuana is illegal while these dangerous opioid drugs are legal is a travesty.

The painful irony does not stop there, however.

Tens of thousands of children suffer from epilepsy in this country. Of those tens of thousands, only a very small handful have access to the potential benefits of cannabis. The rest face losing their parents to fines and imprisonment for attempting to alleviate their debilitating diseases.

However, if you are a child who wants to start a regime of deadly opioid drugs, this is now perfectly legal.

On Friday, the Food and Drug Administration announced that it has approved the use of OxyContin for children as young as 11.

According to NBC News,

Dr. Sharon Hertz, director of new anesthesia, analgesia and addiction products for the FDA, said studies by Purdue Pharma of Stamford, Connecticut, which manufactures the drug, “supported a new pediatric indication for OxyContin in patients 11 to 16 years old and provided prescribers with helpful information about the use of OxyContin in pediatric patients.”

This move by the FDA is a glaring kick to the face of parents of suffering children who could benefit from the potential effects of cannabis. To say that kids can now have OxyContin while keeping marijuana illegal, is nothing short of pure insanity!

If ever you needed proof that the state is not at all interested in the well-being of the citizens, and only engaged in enriching the special interests who profit from their corporatist ties, this is it.

This decision is shameful, and it deserves to be spread. Please share this article with your friends and family to highlight the blatant hypocrisy of a government that pretends to keep you safe, while doing the exact opposite.

Read more at //thefreethoughtproject.com/govt-locks-people-jail-cannabis-approved-oxycontin-young-children/#3RIei5U86rbwUkUt.99