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"Hard" drugs are much different, 100% agree.

But, can we draw a line that will hold for 100 years?

Medical pot was the toe through the door.

Despite pot not having a medical history, scientifically.

Cocaine and Opiates most certainly do have that medical history.
With certain opiates being available over the counter as recently
as the beginning of the Opiate Epidemic.
We had several pharmacies making a stomach medicine to be used
when you had the puking shïts, and sold OTC. It had an opiate component
that now requires an Rx.

Who knows about 100 years. Most likely our understanding of life that far ahead is similar to Homo Erectus’ understanding of where we are now. Societal changes and technology now progress logarithmically. A century now equals a millennium in the past. I wouldn’t fit in I’m sure.

I’ll agree medical was a test balloon for non-medical use. But I’ll hold that we really don’t know what medicinal benefits exist in derivatives of the plant. The lid has been on tight for a long long time. Pharma companies making big bucks on synthetics probably have been lobbying against legalization for decades. With federal legalization, and it’s coming, I expect research to bump up in anticipation of a new “holistic” medical market slot. That can’t be bad. There’s no doubt in my mind it is effective for maladies currently being treated with such drugs as Xanax, Valium, phenergan, and some pain meds. And addiction is way down the ladder of possibility compared to benzodiazepines and opioids.

Interesting about cocaine. Many folks don’t know there is a thing called pharmaceutical cocaine. It’s a #1 level topical anesthetic particularly for facial work. Way far back in another world I was doing service work on some anesthesia machines in the OR Suite one evening of a small town hospital. I heard one of the nurses call down the hall “I’m locking the drug cabinet, is anything still out?” Another nurse that had been buttoning up the room I was working in said “wait a minute, I need to bring the cocaine”. I said to the effect, no kidding? What do you use cocaine for? She smiled and said “The nurses ;)”

Is the opiate sold over the counter paregoric? I can remember my mother trying to give me a dose of that for something and I heaved. Couldn’t stand even the smell from then on.

“When Tyranny becomes Law, Rebellion becomes Duty”

Colossians 3:17 (New King James Version)
"And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him."