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Marijuana has been given credit for doing a lot of amazing things.

It eases the devastating side-effects of chemotherapy. It slashes the frequency and severity of seizures suffered by children with epilepsy. It relieves the chronic pain associated with many injuries and illnesses. And, most important of all, it does so without the addiction and death associated with the more socially accepted opioid concoctions.

Which is both the main reason why medical marijuana ought to be available and the main reason why making it legal in Utah, over the well-funded objections of the pharmaceutical-industrial complex, will be a very heavy lift.

But there is another malady, widespread nationally but particularly virulent in Utah, that marijuana has the potential to successfully treat, the heartbreak of LVT.

That's Low Voter Turnout.

And it's possible that one side-effect of medical marijuana here would be the flame-out of the career of one of Utah's rising political stars, Rep. Mia Love. Even though she (probably) never touches the stuff.

No, I'm not smoking anything. (Frankly, it gives me a headache.) But walk with me.

Sen. Mark Madsen was moving toward getting the limited, regulated use of marijuana for medicinal purposes made legal in Utah, as it has been in 24 other states. He fell one vote short of getting the Senate to approve it last year and this year's version, Senate Bill 73, made it through committee earlier this month.

Then The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints came out against it. Which, in these parts, would probably be enough to kill it.

Maybe just because it would be something the church couldn't control. Maybe due to the erroneous belief that THC, the chemical that makes marijuana marijuana, is a hallucinogen. Which it isn't.

Then supporters of medical marijuana started getting ready to go over the lawmakers' heads to the voters. Through a torturous and expensive process allowed by Utah law, it would be possible to put Madsen's bill before the voters in the November election.

Some well-heeled movers and shakers — folks from the zone where conservatives and liberals come together as libertarians — are ready to make that happen.

Then Madsen's bill was apparently given new life when legislative leaders realized that a voter initiative was a real possibility. Not only that, but that putting the question on the ballot could reverberate far beyond that issue.

A lot of folks — including many Mormons and Republicans — support medical marijuana. So do a lot of Democrats, independents, young people, new residents and other folks who previously have not had much influence in Utah politics.

If the medical cannabis measure were on the November ballot, voter turnout would likely skyrocket, with people moved to vote either for or against the proposition.

A lot of those new voters would be people who had previously felt excluded from the Utah body politic. Because they are excluded.

The caucus and convention system is a structure designed to allow a tiny fraction of the state's true (political, not, necessarily, religious) believers to cling to power. To baldly gerrymander legislative and congressional districts to make sure only Republicans get elected almost everywhere. To block hate crimes legislation and engage in other dead-ender efforts to oppose marriage equality and LGBT rights. To stop medical marijuana.

If the medical marijuana measure gets on the November ballot, it will coincide with the rematch between Love and her Democratic 2014 challenger Doug Owens. The larger, more diverse pool of voters drawn to the polls by the cannabis question would be, at least in theory, favorable to Owens.

The Democrat ran Love a close race last time, even though national Democrats wrote off the gerrymandered district as a lost cause and lent Owens practically no financial or logistical help. This year, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has targeted Utah's 4th District as among 21 across the country it has a chance of swinging, which means money and attention Owens didn't get last time.

A stretch. But, for Democrats, it's now or never.

Love, like most rookies, hasn't really done much. Two years is enough for some voter's remorse to settle in. But once Love has three or four terms under her belt, the power of incumbency will have basically ensured her ability to keep the seat as long as she is able to sit up and take nourishment.

Making elections competitive is a virtuous circle. When people think their votes matter, they vote. When people vote, their votes matter.

The Legislature might short-circuit all that by approving Madsen's cannabis bill, removing the possibility of a ballot initiative, keeping voter turnout down in its usual dumps, helping Love win re-election and generally protecting the power of the powerful.

It's just a matter of whether the Legislature is willing to bend so the voters won't break it.

George Pyle, a Tribune editorial writer, swears by the curative powers of chocolate chip cookie dough.