One of the nicer uses for a shotgun demonstrated by our fighting men in Vietnam

Our own Dr. Mitch Earleywine is looking for veterans to respond to a survey for his research on the use of medical marijuana to treat post-traumatic stress disorder.  Click here now to fill out the survey; you could win $250!

Investigator
Dr. Mitch Earleywine
Department of Psychology
University at Albany

Study Description
You are being asked to participate in a research study. We are examining military experiences and responses to stress. The study is being conducted under the supervision of Dr. Mitch Earleywine, Department of Psychology through the University at Albany.

Your participation in this research study involves completing several computerized questionnaires. These ask about your work in the military, exposure to combat, emotions, expected effects of drugs, and use of legal and illegal drugs. Your information is completely anonymous and stored by a subject number only.

Participation in this study is expected to take about 30 minutes, depending upon your internet connection speed. At the end of the survey you will have the opportunity to enter your email address for inclusion in a raffle for a first prize of $250 worth of amazon.com gift cards or a second prize $100 worth of amazon.com gift cards.

OTTAWA — The military may strictly forbid marijuana use by its soldiers, but the federal government has decided to pay for medical cannabis for some veterans.

Veterans Affairs has reversed a previous ban, now saying it “may provide payment in relation to the associated costs of medically required marijuana to clients who have qualified.”

Payments can be made only to veterans licensed by Health Canada to possess medical marijuana, and who buy government-certified cannabis produced on contract by a firm in Flin Flon, Manitoba.

The policy change was approved last October, but is only now being communicated to veterans who require the product for pain management and other severe medical conditions.

About eight veterans licensed by Health Canada are having their medical marijuana bills picked up by taxpayers, said Janice Summerby, spokeswoman for Veterans Affairs.

Wow, a large North American country with legal medical marijuana coast to coast, extending their government-paid Universal Health Care coverage to pay for marijuana!  How are the Canadians dealing with the inevitable socialism and teenage heroin addiction that’s sure to result?

This country was founded by Hemp Farmers!

In our Declaration of Independence, Jefferson declared to the world the right to live free is self-evident and given by a power higher than the government, and it was the responsibility of the government to protect those freedoms.

According to this Founding Father, the government’s only legitimate function is to protect our freedom. It exists only to prevent one person from intruding on the freedom of another.

Don't tread on our veterans!

Our government itself now intrudes on people’s freedom and Americans legitimately live in fear of our government every day.

This is a short commentary piece I’ve written in support of all veterans, but especially those who are returning home from war right now. As a retired military combat veteran of more than 20 years of service, I’m proud of you and welcome home!

United States Navy

You’ve come home at a good time; our country is currently in crisis, but the crisis is working to bring all Americans together in peaceful resolution. For those of you with PTSD, you are going to face a challenge. I know, most of you are going to say you don’t have PTSD. You’ll deny it until someday you’ll stop and say, “I’m tired of that train wreck of an incident playing over and over in my head.” Then you’ll ask for help from the VA, and they will give you opium.

United States Army

Yes, that’s correct, the Veterans Administration passes out anti-depressants and opium (in pill form) like crazy! The only problem is, they don’t make you feel better and in fact, you might just want to kill yourself before getting better.

Or, if you live in one of the states that has Medical Marijuana, you could see a qualified doctor to help you on your recovery and he might just recommend Medical Marijuana. The catch? You can’t go back to the VA.

MAP – Cannabis relieves pain, enables sleep, normalizes gastrointestinal function and restores peristalsis. Fortified by improved digestion and adequate rest, the patient can resist being overwhelmed by triggering simuli. There is no other psychotherapeutic drug with these synergistic and complementary effects.

United States Marine Corps

Veterans in states with medical marijuana laws are faced with an especially unfair decision, use medical marijuana and leave the VA or take the VA’s medicine and stop using medical marijuana.

Medical Marijuana is the best medicine available for PTSD, and our own laws prohibit the largest group of potential patients this product could serve.

Although the decision sounds fairly easy to make, it isn’t. For instance, a soldier who had some serious medical issues as a result of a combat injury in addition to PTSD needs attention. If this soldier were to use Medical Marijuana, they would not be allowed to use the VA for anything, not even to treat their medical issues. So their choice may help them medically, but because of the anti-depressants, they might kill themselves (it’s the highest suicide rate profession in the world).

United States Air Force

Besides this being a very sticky technical issue, the long term perception from the Veterans is playing out in ways we never thought possible. As a member of several Veteran organizations, I frequently interface with returning veterans and those who returned many years ago. The overwhelming consensus among Veterans groups is their government has abandoned them and has trivialized their sacrifice.

More than 70% of our soldiers are returning home with PTSD, with 94% of our returning soldiers having personally witnessed a violent and gruesome death of a friend or fellow service member. Out of that 70%, a measurable number of those people will take anti-depressants, others will take opiates, some with take both, others will use illicit drugs, while most will drink heavily. Many will kill themselves, and it’s likely that at least one will take their own life after taking the lives of their family first.

United States Coast Guard

We need to allow the VA to give these heroes the choice of medicating with medical marijuana. They need help, and this is a NON-TOXIC anti-depressant that doesn’t make one want to kill themselves. It helps one sleep, gain an appetite, and even alleviates some pain. Don’t our heroes deserve it?

Mr. President, do you still think this is funny?

Surprise, Surprise!

The bill, proposed by conservative President Felipe Calderon, would make it legal to carry up to 5 grams (0.18 ounces) of marijuana, 500 milligrams (0.018 ounces) of cocaine and tiny quantities of other drugs such as heroin and methamphetamines.

Mexico’s Congress passed a similar proposal in 2006 but the bill was vetoed by Calderon’s predecessor Vicente Fox, under pressure from the United States, which said it would increase drug abuse, but now is worried by the drug-related violence along its border.

Mexican President Calderon was praised by U.S. President Barack Obama this month for his military assaults on cartels during a visit to the Mexican capital. President Obama pledged more soldiers to the American side of the border to hamper the flow of guns to the cartels.

The bill, which needs to be approved by the lower house, also allows Mexican states to convict small-time drug dealers, no longer making it a federal crime to peddle drugs. Drug dealers are rarely convicted in Mexico as federal courts are saturated with bigger cases and local judges cannot interfere.

Let’s face it, our prohibition created the problem in Mexico, and our Prohibition is going to destroy Mexico. As a recent military retiree, I spent more than 7 years living in South America conducting foreign internal defense and anti-narcotic or eradication missions during the 1980′s and early 1990′s. This law will greatly improve the lives of the impoverished, and will “begin to take steps in a positive direction”.

After wearing a uniform for more than 20 years, I have little patience for ignorance or stupidity. The latter can be cured, but the former is usually terminal.

With this in mind; I direct this question to my Congressional Representative, the terminally ignorant Honorable Congressman (Dr.) Michael Burgess.

In light of all the factual scientific evidence in regards to the “Drug War” being a dismal failure, and in light of all of the medically relevant scientific evidence, patents, and science based companies researching more medical uses of Cannabis, why are you still standing on broken and irrelevant arguments?

“Marijuana is a controlled substance and legalizing or relaxing criminal penalties will only open the doors for further illegal activities.” “modern day scourge.”

Hmmmm, is that stupidity, ignorance or perhaps cowardice? I’ll let you, the reader, decide.

In the meantime, let’s educate our politicians and teach them that Marijuana is not a poison, but rather a non-toxic substance that all Americans should have the right to choose as a safer alternative to alcohol.

Letters like this one are why I put in twelve-hour days for this cause.  “If my friend was prescribed some marijuana, and not anti-depressants, I do not think I would have found him dead, hanging from a cord in his room.” The refusal of our government to allow our troops to use safe, effective cannabis instead of gut-wrenching, energy-sapping, liver-destroying pharmaceuticals is like spitting in the face of those who pledged their lives and honor to defend the drafted-on-hemp-paper Constitution of this country.

Hello NORML,

I must begin by saying your website has a lot of great information, and made me feel more like a person, than a pothead, and I thank you for that.

I have been both a Prince George’s County fire fighter and Marine. During that time I broke over 8 bones, folded my knee backwards, on fire twice resulting in ICU care, hit by a car, and involved in many war situations all at different times.

I got out of the Marines and could not relax or concentrate, or even answer a question without yelling, I went to the doc and he gave me Xanax which made me sick and tired, then Effexor which made me run in circles, and insane brain zaps after I flushed it, followed by Ritalin which made me one-minded and skinny as a stick.

I never drank or did drugs growing up but after all the stressful fire and Marine stuff I was not right, ADHD/PTSD

I smoked marijuana for the first time at age 27; I am now 34. All the meds the doc gave me had more bad effects then good. Marijuana calms me, helps me pay attention, makes me eat, sleep, and turns on a quest for self preservation.

I do not understand why something that helps me and so many others is illegal. I really want to learn more about what I can do to help my friends and people who are zombies because of manmade pills. I know Marines that are drugged up on doc’s meds and will not leave the house; kinda odd how we can smoke some marijuana and everything is fine.

The VA throws excuses and orange bottles at us, until we are so drugged up we quit trying to make sense of what we went through, while the gov’t makes their cents.

Marijuana grows in the earth, pills are made by humans, and tested on a small amount of the public, who have never seen war and death, and I really do not understand this country at all. But we can have a tobacco tax for something that is not even tobacco. Like a Camel cartoon is really affecting the kids.

If my friend was prescribed some marijuana, and not anti-depressants, I do not think I would have found him dead, hanging from a cord in his room.

Marijuana always made him happy, he was afraid of being arrested.

I joined the Marine Corps in October, 2004 where I spent my career as an infantry machine gunner. Come January of 2008, I was a Corporal with two combat tours in Iraq under my belt, and only about nine months left on my contract. Things were about to change.

After my second tour, I went back to my hometown on our post-deployment/Christmas leave for a total of 30 well-deserved days. Upon my return, we were required to take a urinalysis, on which I popped positive for THC. Now please keep in mind that, for the entire previous month, I was not working. I was not leading Marines into combat, training them for firefights, or interacting with them at all during this period. What I’m trying to say is that lives were never at stake. I am responsible enough not to do things that interfere with work. That said, I do like to enjoy myself on my off-time.

Anyways, back to the story. I tried to fight the charges since the letter of the law states that I “intentionally ingested an illegal substance”, and there is no way to prove I ingested the weed intentionally. However, it was explained to me that, in a military courtroom, the test results are enough to prove me guilty. That, rather than being innocent until proven guilty, I was walking into the courtroom guilty until I could prove my innocence. So I was court-marshaled, given a military lawyer, and found guilty of two counts of “wrongful use of marijuana”. I was sentenced to 30 days in the brig, reduced to the rank of Private, reduction of 2/3 pay for 2 months, and an Other than Honorable discharge. My lawyer told me that, though harsh, this punishment was better than the one I would have received had I tried to plea my case.

So I went to the brig. I went to drug addiction classes. I dealt with all the crap of being a Private. I was broke. But I was about to get out and get on with life, so that was good! Little did I know, my problems were just starting. Like I said, the sentence I received was rough, but it only affected me until I left the military. That is, except my Other than Honorable discharge. This, while not the worst type of discharge, has prevented me from getting any benefits that other veterans are eligible for. Basically, it’s like I never served.

I spent what little money I had to move back home – the government reimburses travel expenses for military personnel, but I found out I was not eligible for this reimbursement. I lost my G.I. Bill (which I paid for my first year in the military) and cannot receive money for school. Also, given today’s economy and the fact that I was never taught a trade in the military, it has been difficult for me find work since I‘ve been back. But when I filed for unemployment assistance, I was denied because of my discharge. Furthermore, when I tried to enroll at the veterans hospital, I was denied service. The same went for applying for military-related disabilities. And VA representatives won’t let me near them. What’s more, I received a letter from the Marine Corps stating that they had overpaid me and that I owe them $1,700. So here I am, unemployed, living with my parents, and struggling harder because of the fact that I served in the Military.

In conclusion, I think it can be agreed that this is a case where the punishment does not fit the crime. This is but one example of why the reformation of marijuana laws is a necessary and noble cause. Marijuana didn’t ruin my life, marijuana prohibition did.

Two combat tours of duty and our country leaves this man with less than nothing because he smoked cannabis.

I used to play music professionally.  One little dive bar I used to play was located in Mountain Home, Idaho*.  This town is the home to an air force base, and I used to see airman after airman come to that place on a Friday night and get sloppy drunk, start fistfights, and snort methamphetamine off the toilet lid in the men’s room.  Luckily for them, getting drunk was legal, fistfights wouldn’t get you court-martialed, and meth use is undetectable in your system by Monday morning.

I think once you’ve dodged bullets for your country, you should be allowed all the cannabis you can smoke when you return home.  Imagine the recruitment!  Serve two years, get your cannabis license!

* Mountain Home, Idaho, is the most ironically named town in Idaho, because it is in the middle of the Snake River high-desert plain, about as far away as you can get from a mountain in Idaho.  Running a close second in irony is the town of Bliss, a dying farm town also in the middle of the desert.  Bliss only gets second because of the off-chance that the christeners of the town were trying to make a statement about ignorance.