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FROM THE MAGAZINE

Don’t Ask, Don’t Toke

Supporting The Troops Except When It Comes To Medical Marijuana

BY DEAN CHRISTOPHER, THE420TIMES.COM

Incredibly, the Veterans’ Administration is withholding medical cannabis from veterans — the very people they are in business to help!

Picture yourself in this scenario: you were patriotic enough to enlist in the military. In order to serve your country, you endured the rigors of training. You did the drills, you learned the skills. The non-coms shouted and harassed you into shape. Then the brass shipped you out to some distant land, where you knew you’d be in harm’s way.

One day, in that distant land, harm did come your way. A jihadi bullet smashed your rotator cuff, forever disabling your shoulder. Or you stepped on an IED alongside some parched mountain road, blowing away your foot. Or you caught a deadly Middle Eastern fever that took you down for months.

You lived the nightmare. But you never dreamed it was destined to continue.

You were treated in the field, and back home, by excellent military medical personnel. You got your life back; well, most of the way back. Eventually, you became a civilian again — that special civilian we call a “veteran.”

But you’re a veteran who needs ongoing health care. So you visit your local VA hospital for recurrent post-op pain. Or to get a new prosthetic foot. Or to relieve your combat-induced Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

Like millions of Americans, you know that medical marijuana alleviates a great many miseries, from chronic pain to glaucoma to chemotherapy sickness. You want cannabis to improve the quality of your life.

But the joke is on you.

Because the VA forbids its doctors toprescribe medical marijuana for the veterans who most need its healing power! Not only that, VA doctors are — under Federal Law — not allowed even to recommend it, or provide information about it! This means that returning veterans — many in acute, persistent distress – are forced to turn to civilian medical resources that are often unaffordable.

This policy, allegedly designed to “reduce substance abuse among veterans,” is clearly a reaction to threats from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to criminally prosecute any doctors who aid and abet the distribution of marijuana. Doctors can lose their licenses, and be subject to arrest, even in states wheremedical marijuana is legal. Indeed, the DEA would even prosecute doctors who help veterans fill out forms needed for a civilian, non-VA-issued Medical Marijuana Card, in the 14 states where medical cannabis is legal!

Veterans’ rights in action? We think not.

The Department of Veterans’ Affairs was created to provide, among other services, health care for those who serve in the armed forces. But sadly, some of the most serious health problems affecting returning war veterans are not being properly addressed by VA facilities. Chief among those ailments is PTSD, which the Veterans’ Administration defines in these terms:

“Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is an anxiety disorder that can occur following the experience or witnessing of a traumatic event [such as] military combat, natural disasters, terrorist incidents, serious accidents, or physical or sexual assault… Most survivors of trauma return to normal… However, some people will have stress reactions that do not go away on their own, or may even get worse over time.”

This is a seriously disabling condition that requires serious treatment.

And it is widespread. Of the nearly 1,000,000 veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, over 40% depend on VA facilities for health care. And more than a quarter of them — some 115,000 — have been diagnosed with PTSD. Of those, about 53,000 have already had their disability claims approved.

Well, in a real sense, only partially approved. Those 53,000 veterans are being refused the best antidote to their disability! They are denied medical cannabis — despite overwhelming scientific evidence of its therapeutic benefits. Marijuana helps alleviate PTSD (among other ways) by helping patients maintain normal sleep patterns. Many prescription drugs do not do that. Indeed, some actually disrupt normal sleep patterns.

Some courageous physicians speak out in favor of medical marijuana, and against various “legal” treatments they consider of dubious benefit. As Dr. William S. Eidelman writes: “Clearly, cannabis is by far the safest, most effective treatment for PTSD, when compared to pharmaceuticals.” Elsewhere he has written: “The pharmaceutical drugs used to treat PTSD are harmful in themselves.”

“In severe cases, veterans are given anti-psychotic drugs that are not appropriate for them, and which carry a high and potentially terrible side effect profile. Even in less severe cases, pharmaceutical drugs are addicting…and while they may help somewhat, in many cases they are not effective at all.”

“Not effective at all!”

VA doctors must surely be aware of this. Yet they are forced to prescribe drugs that, at very least, they know will not help — and which may, in fact, be harming the veteran who has no other options available!

TV talk show host Montel Williams, who has suffered from Multiple Sclerosis for 10 years, uses medical marijuana to ease his pain. A former Marine, and a 1980 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, he is outraged that fellow veterans are prevented from getting relief.

“I find it egregiously offensive that we can send our children off to die for our freedom, and then so callously turn our backs on their freedom when they return home…How dare we turn our backs on those who did not hesitate to put themselves in harm’s way to support and defend our Constitution?”

Former Senator Bob Kerrey of Nebraska, now President of New School University in New York, is a Vietnam veteran (a Navy SEAL) who lost part of his leg while winning the Congressional Medal of Honor for exceptional bravery. He calls the VA’s “no cannabis for vets” policy “counterproductive and harmful.”

President Obama has commented:

“If it’s an issue of doctors prescribing medical marijuana…that should be appropriate because there really is no difference between that and…prescribing morphine or anything else. [3.22.08]”

In this time of crisis, we hear much about “honoring our men and women in uniform,” “supporting the troops,” and “taking pride in those who sacrifice” for our country. Yet the shocking reality remains: the country for which they sacrifice is withholding a safe, efficient and undisputed medical remedy from the men and women who make that sacrifice.

What can be done to make things right for our vets?

One activist organization, the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA), is trying to convince Congress to take a range of actions, legislative and otherwise. One good start, they believe, is to remove the current DEA Acting Administrator, Michele Leonhart, whom they accuse of having “dangerously backwards ideas” about medical marijuana.

The organization is also working to influence lawmakers to enact more enlightened cannabis regulations, on the federal and state level. Jason Flom, a prominent music industry executive now on DPA’s board, advocates a broad-based program including treatment — not incarceration — for veterans who commit the “crime” of possessing or using medical marijuana; improved access to drugs other than cannabis that are of proven therapeutic value; lobbying for insurance coverage of certain costly meds known to help conditions suffered by many veterans; and more.

Readers can learn more about how they can help by checking the DPA website at: www.drugpolicy.org.