Marvel at the etymological grift, first.

I sometimes smoke pot and eat pot-laced cookies and so on – for basically the same reasons people have a drink or two after dinner or just because. Because it makes me feel good. It helps me relax. It helps me sleep. Is there something wrong with any of that? Adults are allowed  – sickening to have to use the word but it's necessary because it's accurate – to drink alcohol without any pretend patty-cake playing that they're drinking for "medicinal" reasons. Old timers may have used that term but it was always used in a wink-wink kind of way in that everyone understood the drinker was just enjoying a drink.

Well, I (and many others) occasionally like to smoke or eat an edible (my preference because I'm not much of a smoker). For decades, this meant I was a lawbreaker, a "criminal," even. I actually almost once went to prison for felony "manufacturing a controlled substance with intent to distribute." That sounds pretty heavy, doesn't it? Indeed it was. But it was just me growing pot plants in my college dorm room when I was 19. For that I could have been sent to prison – for years. Luckily, I wasn't – although many were and knowledge of this fact instilled in me a lifelong disgust for the so-called "war" on some drugs. Alcohol being just one exception to the "war." Imagine potentially facing years in prison because you defied a law that said you're not allowed to brew beer!

Same principle – just differently applied.

Then there are all the perfectly legal drugs "prescribed" by the medical cartel, strictly supervised (and even pushed) by the state – which we'll get to shortly. There are numerous examples of such legal drugs being far more dangerous to "health" than pot, which maybe makes the pot smoker or edible eater a little silly for awhile.

Or sleepy.

Anyhow, fast forward a few decades and now – in the same state – it is legal to smoke pot and eat edibles but if you want to buy these, you must buy them at a state-sanctioned "dispensary," as they are styled. This styling is intended to give it a patina of state-sanctioned legitimacy – as if there were something illegitimate about an adult electing to smoke pot or eat edibles for reasons that are no one else's legitimate business. And you must first get a "prescription" from a state-sanctioned doctor before you're even allowed to enter the "dispensary."

The "prescription" is obtained by phone and of course there is a fee ($100 in my case). You call up the doctor and pretend you need something for the pain – oh, the pain! (say it like Dr. Smith from Lost in Space) and maybe you really do. That is not the point. The play-pretending and state's permission-seeking is. The doctor (wink-wink) prescribes pot. Now you can enter the "dispensary" and buy whatever you like – and as much as you like – and use it however you like. Which is of course as it ought to be, just the same as it is for alcohol. You can buy a whole case of beer or several quarts of your favorite whiskey but without the pretend-play that it is for "medicinal" purposes and without having to pay a doctor $100 to get a "prescription" first.