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?
anyone out there with a good letter to the va from a surgeon?
Heyo, I was an Army Stryker medic and came home with PTSD after 16 consecutive months in Iraq. Its really validating for me to see other vets on here speaking up about this miracle plant and the level of NORMLcy it affords those of us who struggle with PTSD. Welcome home Veterans and thank you for your many sacrifices. And thank you NORML for all the good work you do too. Y’all stay up. Outlaw Medic out.
I know I have PTSD, so days are better than others. I started using cannabis while I was still in, recieved an bad conduct discharge from the U.S. Marine Corps. I was active duty for nearly two years. I am a 9/11 eyewitness. I was stationed at Marine Barracks 8th & I Washington D.C.. I didn’t even realise I had PTSD until a few years after I got out. I am divorced with a three year old daughter. I’ve been using cannabis all the time. I live in California, and yes I have a medical prescription. Still, I WILL be voting YES in November on legalize Cannabis. I feel so alone. I come on these things hoping that somebody else from my duty station my be feeling the way I feel, but I guess I am the only one so far. What really caused my PTSD I think is when I realised that our governments explanation of 9/11 completely differed from what I saw, and from what I remember hearing and watching on live t.v. that day from New York. I realised that it had to have been an inside job. The security went down to nothing for at least three months after the attacks at my duty station. What I mean is, that they took our security force marines off the guard posts, and put me there instead with no weapon what so ever, and I am 0311, even though at my duty station I was an honor guardsman, picked out of bootcamp. I wasn’t the only one, there were a bunch of us doing this, and we all were wondering the samething, like how am I going to stop a terrorist with no weapon? I feel like now maybe they were planning a little “terror” at my duty station, but maybe that got cold feet at the last minute, I don’t know, but I do know is that that should have NEVER have happened, pre 9/11 always armed security force marines, after 9/11, while still at threat con charlie, I was guarding one of those posts during the following month of October, around the same time as the anthrax attack going on in D.C., with the letter with anthrax in them being mailed to people. I believe it was all a coup de tat, a lot of people died on our soil that day. I just blows my mind how much has changed. I started using cannabis because, it was easy to get in Washington D.C. area, I got it through the manager of the used Mazda dealership I bought my car at in Fairfax. I started using it I guess because I felt like I was going nuts. Its hard to talk about this stuff, most people don’t care. It kinda blows my mind how much people don’t care. I”m sorry for you all that had to go to war over 9/11, I was directly effected by that day, and I remember when they were bombing afghanistan with B-52′s, and it made me sad, because I knew that a lot of innocent people were going to die. I”ve read that Bin Laden is been dead for a while, at least thats whats been reported in the rest of the world, especially the muslim world. I thinik the whole world at this point just thinks were all nuts, and know that were just lying about everything.
Anyways, I write this stuff so maybe I can wake up somebody else to this info. I know that I deal with it everyday. Anyways, I need to go back to bed now…………..peace.
Operation Iraqi Liberation(OIL) vet here. VA treats me for PTSD, and pays me based on that and other service connected disabilities.
Getting treatment from the VA is not easy, it takes patience to get the system to do ANYTHING, and patience is not something most who have PTSD have a lot of…
The VA counts on vets getting frustrated and dropping out of the system. Some of the folks that need treatment the most get absolutely none because of this institutional policy.
I get all my medical treatment thru the VA.
They also “treat” me for my mental health. The VA is VERY variable depending on the LOCAL staff at your clinic… if they are experienced, you might actually get some help…. if not, you wont get jack…. Expect to get jack, you wont get disappointed that way.
Their general approach to mental health issues is pretty straight forward…. If pharmaceutical drugs cant fix your problem…yer screwed. And they LOVE to roll pills at ya…. The more the merrier….
If a modern SSRI wont help, they dont mind using the old ones…who cares about the side effects…. and if one drug doesnt do it, lets try four or five…
The policy appears to be to drug a vet till he is numb, physically and emotionally…. Drug him till he stops complaining, or drops out of the program.
If you jump thru enough hoops, you can get into some group sessions with other vets, they might actually help some folks….
and, if you lose it altogether and hold off the swat team for about six hours with a gun made out of a bar of soap (and swat doesnt shoot you) you might be able to swing a lovely stay at the Club VA, for an intensive 3-6 month PTSD rehab…. a program with about a 20% success rate…..
Oh, and GOD FORBID you should ever mention MMJ at the VA…. after all they are a FEDERAL institution, and we all know how the feds feel about real medicine… as opposed to the poison they sell…
The costs of war are immeasurable. We can all see and understand the blown up buildings, and the dead and wounded people…. We can see that every night on the news if we look for it…
But the cost to the service member just begins with his/her time in uniform. A vet will spend the rest of their lives trying to put the experiences of war in perspective, trying to be able to live among folks that cant understand what they have seen, felt, and done, just to survive another day.
That search for the proper perspective on their experiences will involve their entire family, their friends, their communities.
The search isnt always passive, and it isnt always peaceful.
Too many wives and girl friends end up paying the price of a vet’s experiences, too many kids grow up with a parent who is struggling to deal with the baggage they picked up in the service.
And, the suicide rate among returning vets is going thru the roof.
I am moving from NY to Cali not only for school but also for MMJ.
Sorry if i seem bitter, but its like nobody else gives a fuck. thank you vets, non-vets that are on here, and everyone else that is behind this common sense cause.
Hey I’m an Iraq vet. I smoke and wish i could get medical pot in my home state. I find its the only thing that makes me feel normal , happy , and able to sleep. and thank you for you service to our country and working for reform of these stupid nosensical laws.
Joe
I am a disabled vet, and I have been using medmj for over ten years, with the knowledge of my doctors at the VA in Denver and the VA in Battle Creek, MI.
I told all of my doctors and social workers, nurses, and have never been told not to, never been tested, never signed a pain contract.
Medmj is now legal here in MI. but VA docs will only sign for terminal cancer patients.
at the Des Moines rally last weekend, a veteran took the mic and spoke on this subject. She did a great job and I hope she reads this.
Puff, Puff, Pass… :)
Dude…
Thank you for your service…
I wish I could do more than just thank you..
Michael…
Wow, excellent piece, Dudemaster. Please keep writing and sharing your thoughts. And thanks for your service.
I have PTSD. I am managing it myself by self medicating…
is when I need to keep those vivid memories from running my life and it doesn’t matter what the clock says.