Harry Reid OK With Medical Marijuana, Partially Because He Saw It Help Sick Child of Elected Official He Knows

Harry Reid is having a
change of heart on medical marijuana, telling the Las Vegas
Sun it would’ve been easy for him to say no to medical
marijuana a decade ago because it was a gateway drug, but that now
he sees there are “some medical reasons for marijuana.” His
evolution was informed, he said, by stories he’s heard of medical
marijuana helping, on the news and in his life.
Via the Sun:

There was one case in particular, about the only son of
a Las Vegas elected official whom Reid did not specify by name, who
had severe kidney failure, losing not just one, but two kidneys
while a college student.

“He was so skinny and doing so poorly and somebody told him and his
mom, you know, you should smoke some marijuana, because one of the
side effects is … you get the munchies, you get extremely hungry,”
Reid said. “He tried it and sure enough, he was able to eat for the
first time, he got hungry. So I thought, you know there might be
some medical reasons for taking another look at this.”

Reid wasn’t ready to endorse Nevada legalizing marijuana like
next-door Colorado did, saying he didn’t know about that, but that
he did know “we [the government] waste a lot of time and law
enforcement going after these guys that are smoking marijuana,” an
increasingly popular and easy position to take in Washington, but
one that’s not yet translated to movement on the legalization of
recreational marijuana.