cannabisnews.com: Medical Marijuana Passes Senate: Santa Fe — The state Senate on Wednesday voted to allow patients with cancer and other debilitating diseases to legally use marijuana. New Mexico would join 10 other states that allow the medical use of marijuana if a measure were to become law.

California, Oregon, Washington, Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, Alaska, and Hawaii all have medical marijuana and New Mexico is poised to join them. It looks like the West is slowly becoming the land of medipot. Another toehold exists in the Northeast, as Maine and Vermont have medipot, too. And Maryland allows for a medipot defense in posession cases.

It’s interesting when you consider that half the Western states (CA, OR, WA, HI) are so-called “blue” states and the other half (AZ, CO, NV, AK) are “red” states. New Mexico is another “red” state, though really it’s quite “purple”. It looks like medical marijuana is an issue that transcends the whole liberal/conservative, urban/rural divide. However, I’m not holding my breath waiting for Utah, Idaho, and Wyoming to pass medipot. I’ve read reports that Montana is trying, though.

I think that after California and Oregon passed these initiatives, some time passed and the programs were shown to be effective and the states didn’t experience a surge of reefer madness. The states near them realized that the pro-medipot position was politically safe and popular with the public.

And no wonder — people like politicians who help make sick people’s lives easier. When you consider that marijuana is an effective treatment for arthritis, cachexia, cancer, chronic nervous system disorders, chronic pain, Crohn’s disease, epilepsy and other seizure disorders, glaucoma, HIV or AIDS, multiple sclerosis and other muscle spasticity disorders, and help patients cope with severe migraines, severe nausea, and the side effects of chemotherapy, well, it’s hard to imagine why any government would want to withhold this wonder drug from the people.

There’s a definite difference between Western “red” states and Southern “red” states. Western Republicans have a fierce streak of libertarian “rugged individualism”. Live and let live. Southern Republicans seem to be much further in the Evangelical / moralist camp. Some Democratic strategists ought to use this schism to divide and peel off some Western Republican voters.

Between the growing number of medipot states and the Raich v. Ashcroft case, I’m sensing some better days ahead for even recreational cannabis consumers. Once marijuana is considered to be a safe and effective medicine, it’s only a matter of time before it is available over the counter without prescription (or, grow it yourself). Sort of like Rogaine or Nexium, first you had to have a doctor’s prescription, but later it became available to the public.

Whoops, I’m sorry, I was smoking some of that optimist bud again…