Meds are drugs, and the doctors that push them merely government approved drug dealers.
Marijuana is a highly beneficial antidepressant with few to no side effects aside from 2-3 hours intoxication after use. A shame our government keeps it outlawed. A lot of industries would lose revenue if we had ready access to it; big government and big business don't want to compromise that consumer spending and resultant growth.
The cannabis plant is even a viable alternative fuel:
Hempseed oil car at Ohio County Fair
Hempseed oil car in Washington D.C.
Hemp can make the equivalent of 10-15 barrels of oil per acre
Henry Ford's hemp-bodied Ford Model A
Hemp Oil fuelled chainsaw
You can make biodiesel and methanol out of industrial hemp(same species of plant as marijuana, but technically not marijuana itself. Our government still treats its cultivation as if it really were the female marijuana plant that can create intoxication.).
Industrial hemp is an excellent source of biofuels since it needs no fertilizer or pesticide inputs, and often leaves the soil in better condition than when it was originally planted. EROEI on par with sugarcane ethanol(> 2, usually 4-6). 1 hectare yields roughly 300 gallons of hemp oil per harvest, plus other parts of the plant for fabric and methanol.
It is really about the most viable source of plant-based biofuel we have. So why aren't we using it?
Back in the 1930s, DuPont had patented nylon. Hemp was proving itself a threat in the manufacture of textiles. William Randolph Hearst had heavily invested in timber, wheras hemp yielded four times more biomass per unit of land and could be renewed each year. Having no money, farmers began using it to run diesel tractors during the depression, without having to give the oil companies like Standard Oil one damn dime. People began smoking it for medicinal and recreational purposes, the former of which would normally be taken care of by prescription medications regulated by the government and monopolized by the pharmaceuticals. Henry Ford and other entrepreneurs had proven its worth in the automotive industry, building experimental cars that had hemp fabric interiors and hemp body panels which were 10 times more dent resistant than steel and rust free; this had the steel industry scared. Cotton argribusinesses understood well that their days were numbered, hemp being cheaper to produce, but also less profitable since it was so durable.
So what happens? DuPont, Standard Oil, Hearst, various agribusiness industries, the steel industry, the pharmaceutical companies of the time, all pooled in their resources to lobby politicians to get the cannabis plant outlawed. A few yellow journalism campaigns and bought politicians later, we have a war on drugs, to the expense of many of our cherished civil liberties, all to get that economy growing out of the depression by keeping more expensive and profitable conventional sources the only ones available.
Realistically, hemp could account for about 15% or so of today's oil consumption, and do so with positive net EROEI. It could make seed oil at the equivalent of $.60/gallon.
No, this won't account for a post peak decline, but when you couple the possibility of 80+ mpg diesel midsized cars by addressing aerodynamics and using composites to reduce weight, that 10-15% will go a very long way.
BUT, it interferes with big business by saving the consumer money. So just like long electric cars, electric trollies, high speed electric rail, wind energy, and the like, hemp too is suppressed.
Our founding fathers would be appauled. Hell, Jefferson even smoked MJ, and loved it!
The unnecessary felling of a tree, perhaps the old growth of centuries, seems to me a crime little short of murder. ~Thomas Jefferson