Showing posts with label medical marijuana. Show all posts
Showing posts with label medical marijuana. Show all posts

Sunday, August 6, 2017

Daytona Beach Commissioners Blowing Smoke on Medical Pot?

Daytona residents, city commission at odds over pot dispensaries

Daytona Beach News Journal
By Eileen Zaffiro-Kean
Posted Aug 5, 2017
“I think that’s ridiculous,” said 37-year-old Josh Whitney, an Iraq war veteran who was tormented with post traumatic stress disorder for 11 years until he started using cannabis oil every day.
 “I don’t want people walking out and lighting up,” said City Commissioner Dannette Henry, who worries about pot smokers hanging around businesses and places kids could be.

The vast majority of Daytona Beach voters approved allowing more people to get medical marijuana. But a majority of city commissioners are leaning toward banning dispensaries in the city.

DAYTONA BEACH — Last fall, 71 percent of state voters supported making medical marijuana available to more Floridians battling excruciating illnesses like cancer and Parkinson’s disease. In Daytona Beach, the support was even stronger. Twelve of the city’s 15 precincts had 76-90 percent of their voters backing the proposal to make pot legally available for far more medical reasons. The other three precincts weighed in with yes votes from 69-74 percent of voters.

A total of 22,040 Daytona Beach residents checked the “yes” box, more than three times the 6,104 who checked “no.”
Commissioners haven’t taken a final vote yet. But if at least one of the four commissioners opposed to dispensaries doesn’t have a change of heart by the time they do vote in the next month or two, people fighting everything from multiple sclerosis to epilepsy will have to road trip to other parts of Volusia County to get their medical marijuana.
read more here

Sunday, July 23, 2017

POTUS Against Veterans Fighting for Pot Instead of Pills

As administration wages war on legal marijuana, military veterans side with pot
Tribune Washington Bureau
Evan Halper and Lauren Rosenblatt
July 23, 2017
"We were hearing these compelling stories from veterans about how cannabis has made their lives better," said Joseph Plenzler, a spokesman for the American Legion. "That they were able to use it to get off a whole cocktail of drugs prescribed by VA doctors, that it is helping with night terrors, or giving them relief from chronic pain."
WASHINGTON (Tribune News Service) -- The Trump administration's attack on legal marijuana, already stymied by large states determined not to roll back the clock, is increasingly confronting an even more politically potent adversary: military veterans.

Frustrated by federal laws restricting their access to a drug many already rely on to help treat post-traumatic stress disorder, chronic pain and opioid addiction, veterans have become an influential lobbying force in the marijuana debate after sitting on the sidelines for years.

The 2 million-member American Legion this spring got involved in a big way by launching a campaign to reduce marijuana restrictions, which it says hurt veterans and may aggravate a suicide epidemic.

The move reflects the changing politics of marijuana, and of a conservative, century-old veterans service organization facing new challenges as its membership grows with those who served in Iraq and Afghanistan.
read more here

Monday, July 10, 2017

Minnesota PTSD Patients Get Medical Marijuana

Minnesota's medical marijuana clinics open doors to PTSD patients
Tribune Content Agency
July 9, 2017
Millions of Americans suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder. Minnesota is the latest state to offer medical marijuana as a possible treatment option.
Marine Corps veteran Ed Erdos tried medical marijuana to ease his pain, and found that it also eased his mind.

He enrolled with the Health Department’s Office of Medical Cannabis last year in search of relief from the pain and muscle spasms caused by injuries he suffered in a helicopter crash. But along with pain relief came relief from the anxiety, intrusive thoughts and fear that haunted him for years as a result of service-related post-traumatic stress disorder.

“It works,” said Erdos, who spent five years “bunkered,” barely able to leave his home. Now, when he visits the bright, airy lobby of the LeafLine Labs patient care center in St. Paul (there is also a location in St. Cloud), he wears a big smile under the brim of his Marine Corps hat. He no longer takes any of his old anxiety meds. He has the confidence to get out and visit his buddies at the American Legion and VFW.

The cannabis prescription the pharmacist hands him each week, he said, “has improved my quality of life to the point where I can function on a daily basis.”
Minnesota runs one of the most tightly regulated medical cannabis programs in the nation. State law limits who can buy, sell and grow the drug, and in what form it can be dispensed. PTSD is the 11th condition added to the program, along with cancer, seizure disorders and intractable pain.
read more here

Friday, May 26, 2017

Marine Veteran With PTSD Gets Justice and No Jail Time

Marine vet takes plea deal in PTSD pot bust
KSWO News
By Rhiannon Poolaw, Digital Producer
Friday, May 26th 2017

LAWTON, OK (KSWO)- Kristoffer Lewandowski, the Marine veteran charged with possession of multiple marijuana plants in Comanche County, has accepted a plea deal. The plea agreement with the Comanche County District Attorney's office resolves all pending charges filed against Lewandowski.
According to Thomas Hurley, the retired Marine's Oklahoma-based attorney, in the plea deal, Lewandowski, who served ten years in the U.S. Marine Corps deployed in Iraq, Afghanistan and the waters off of Somalia, will serve no jail time and plead guilty to a deferred felony charge for marijuana cultivation. If he does not violate the law during a five-year period of probation, no felony will be placed on his record.

"Tens of thousands of people around the country who have remained steadfast in supporting Kris throughout this ordeal have shown we can make progress even in states like Oklahoma that have not yet recognized the many medical benefits of cannabis." Michael Minardi, a medical cannabis attorney based in Tampa, Florida who is serving as part of Lewandowski's trial team commented, "the decision by Oklahoma to go from seeking years of prison time to no jail time at all and just a deferred felony is a huge victory for all of us in this country who are fighting for medical cannabis patients' rights."

In 2012, he was diagnosed with severe Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) following his service tours in Iraq and Afghanistan and, after a cocktail of 14 different pharmaceutical drugs proved ineffective for treating his PTSD, Lewandowski began using medical cannabis.
read more here

Tuesday, April 18, 2017

PTSD On Trial: Desert Storm Veteran

Veteran with PTSD goes on trial
Written by Silver City Daily Press
April 18, 2017

A decorated Silver City veteran goes on trial today in U.S. District Court in Las Cruces for allegedly growing marijuana and having an unregistered firearm.

Trevor Lee Thayer, a 46-year-old father of three and decorated U.S. Army veteran with the 82nd Airborne, was charged in 2012 after a SWAT-style search of his residence by the DEA and ATF, according to a news release from his defense team at the Bowles Law Firm in Albuquerque. At that time, Thayer was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress syndrome and was in possession of a medical marijuana license, his attorneys said.

Thayer, a Desert Storm veteran, had applied to renew his medical marijuana license and paid a renewal fee, but had apparently not yet received the card at the time of the search. According to his defense team of Bob Gorence and Jason Bowles, further investigation had revealed that the state had cashed Thayer’s check but the equipment for printing the cards in Santa Fe was broken and that delayed the mailing of his card. The charges allege that Thayer did not have a valid medical marijuana card at the time of the 2012 search.
read more here

Saturday, April 1, 2017

Was Pot Study for PTSD Designed to Fail?

Hopkins was ready to test pot as a treatment for PTSD. Then it quit the study
Washington Post
By Aaron Gregg
March 31 at 3:43 PM
One of the lead researchers from MAPS recently did just that, in a PBS report that said the government-grown marijuana provided for the study was of poor quality and contaminated with mold. Hopkins quit the study two days later.
Marijuana provided by the federal government to a team of researchers studying whether the drug should be used to treat veterans with PTSD. (Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies)
Eighteen months after joining a study on using marijuana to treat post-traumatic stress disorder, Johns Hopkins University has pulled out without enrolling any veterans, the latest setback for the long-awaited research.

A Johns Hopkins spokeswoman said the university’s goals were no longer aligned with those of the administrator of the study, the Santa Cruz, Calif.-based Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS). A spokesman for MAPS said the dispute was over federal drug policy and whether to openly challenge federal rules that say medical cannabis research must rely on marijuana grown by the federal National Institute on Drug Abuse.
read more here

Friday, June 24, 2016

Pot for PTSD Veterans Cut From Bill

VA medical pot gets booted from budget bill
Stars and Stripes
By Travis J. Tritten
Published: June 24, 2016

Veterans are also looking at it to treat post-traumatic stress disorder, which might affect about 20 percent of the 1.8 million servicemembers deployed to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to the National Center for PTSD.
Marijuana, along with nine other substances, is specifically prohibited under Article 112a of the Uniform Code of Military Justice and penalties for its use can range from a general discharge to dishonorable discharge (for positive results of a urinalysis) and even imprisonment for possession.
DEFENSE DEPARTMENT
WASHINGTON — A proposal allowing doctors at the Department of Veterans Affairs to prescribe medical marijuana to veterans appeared close to becoming law until Congress removed it this week from the agency’s annual budget bill at the last moment.

The legislation, sponsored by Oregon lawmakers, had cleared prior votes in the House and Senate but was nixed late Wednesday night during final closed-door negotiations on the VA bill. It would have lifted a prohibition on the VA recommending the drug to patients in states where it is legal.

The move was a blow to advocates of medical pot who have been trying to get the measure through a divided Congress and lowers the chances that a law might be passed this year.

“It’s outrageous that it was removed” from the annual VA budget bill, Rep. Earl Blumenauer and Sen. Jeff Merkley, both Democrats from Oregon, said in a joint statement Friday. “To add insult to injury, the legislation was released in the middle of the night, not even giving members of the House an opportunity to review the language before voting on it.”
read more here

Sunday, May 22, 2016

Rhode Island State Senate Passes PTSD Medical Marijuana Bill

RI Senate Passes Medical Marijuana Bill for PTSD Patients
WLNE ABC News
By: Kainani Stevens
May 20, 2016

PROVIDENCE (WLNE)----Medical marijuana for patients suffering from post traumatic stress disorder is one step closer to happening in Rhode Island. The State Senate unanimously passing the bill that would add PTSD to the list of debilitating medical conditions that qualify a patient to use medical marijuana

"PTSD has so much to do with anxiety that medical marijuana is a great treatment,"said Patrick Rimoshytus, a Care Coordinator at Green Cross RI. "There are so many different strains at this point, they all give different effect. It's almost like wine."

A significant portion of PTSD patients are military veterans, making the timing of this local bill even more relevant. Nationally, Congress voted to allow V.A. doctors to prescribe medical marijuana to their patients. Senator Jack Reed, a combat veteran, voiced his support of any safe and viable medical treatment for PTSD patients.
read more here

ABC6 - Providence, RI and New Bedford, MA News, Weather

Saturday, May 21, 2016

Members of Congress Actually Paid Attention to Veterans on Medical Marijuana?

I have talked to VA doctors across the country for years and they say they want to be able to give veterans medical marijuana but their hands are tied because as Federal Employees, they have to obey federal law. Most want the ability to base medical care based on the veteran in front of them as it should be.

There is no "one size fits all" in treating veterans but even within standard practices, there are many choices on programs doctors can suggest like service dogs, physical activity, different types of therapy and a long list of drugs they can give. 

This is one more weapon to help veterans fight the wounds of their bodies and minds. We know that there have been too many debilitating side effects to most of the other medications they are able to write scripts for and veterans find things get worse on many of them. It is refreshing to know that some members of Congress have actually heard them.
Congress pushes VA to recommend pot for patients
The Denver Post
By Mark Matthews
POSTED: 05/21/2016

"Veterans whose doctors believe that medical marijuana will help them address medical issues such as PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) or chronic pain should be afforded that option," U.S. Rep. Jared Polis
WASHINGTON — In two separate actions, the U.S. House and Senate this week moved to make it easier for military veterans to access medical marijuana — efforts that were largely, but not unanimously, supported by Colorado's congressional delegation.

The first step was a House vote Thursday on an amendment to a budget bill for the VA and military construction that would allow doctors with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to recommend pot as treatment to veterans in states where medical marijuana is legal, which is roughly half the country.

The Senate took a similar approach in its own version of the spending measure by neutering a VA policy that had prohibited this practice.

Both measures easily passed their respective chambers.

The House approved the marijuana amendment by a 233-189 vote and the Senate on Thursday passed its spending measure, in which the pot policy change was included, by an 89-8 margin.

Five of Colorado's seven lawmakers in the House supported the amendment, including U.S. Rep. Jared Polis, D-Boulder, who co-authored the provision.

Another supporter of the House amendment was veteran and U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman, R-Aurora.

He said in a phone interview that the marijuana provision wasn't an easy vote but — given the number of combat veterans dealing with PTSD — that he's willing to give it a try.

"I tend to be more open on alternative therapies," he said.
read more here

Thursday, May 19, 2016

Marijuana use is up 53 percent with the 55-and-over crowd

Seniors are filling their prescriptions -- at a pot shop
CBS NEWS
May 19, 2016

The 55-and-older crowd is now the fastest-growing demographic of pot users in the country. Between 2013 and 2014, the number increased from 2.8 million to 4.3 million.

In California, where medical marijuana is legal, seniors are learning how to fill their prescriptions -- at a pot shop. They want to know the highs and the lows of marijuana use for the aches and pains of growing old, reports CBS News correspondent Barry Petersen.

Eva Aguillara, 80, uses it to help with mobility.

"Every medication has a risk. I've made my choice," she said.

Seniors account for only 14 percent of the nation's population, but they use more than 30 percent of all prescription drugs including some highly-addictive painkillers. So pot is fast becoming a pill alternative. Marijuana use is up 53 percent with the 55-and-over crowd.
read more here



Saturday, May 7, 2016

First Time Ever PTSD Study Happened A Long Time Ago

This morning my email box is full of claims that "For first time, medical marijuana to be studied as treatment for vets' PTSD" and it seems like everyone is talking about this but no one is even bothering to figure out if that claim is true or not.

"For the first time, the Drug Enforcement Agency has given the green light to a controlled, clinical trial of medical marijuana for veterans suffering from PTSD."
"The proposal from the University of Arizona was long ago cleared by the Food and Drug Administration, but researchers had been unable to purchase marijuana from the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The agency's Mississippi research farm is the only federally-sanctioned source of the drug."
As with everything else, too many people think PTSD was just invented and all the research is brand spanking new.  While it all may seem like news to them, it is far from new to veterans.  Ask any Vietnam veteran and you'll get a clue how long it has been used.
In a letter last week, HHS cleared the purchase of medical marijuana by the studies' chief financial backer, the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, which supports medical research and legalization of marijuana and other drugs.
When did that happen? 2014, so no, all the claims of "first time ever" are wrong because the research had already started long before now and even before 2014. By 2013 Washington and Colorado got the green light from the Department of Justice to use marijuana because research had already shown benefits of it. But it went back even further.
State Passed the Law, but Never Used It
New York Times
By RICHARD PÉREZ-PEÑA
Published: April 20, 2001

ALBANY, April 19— It seemed so revolutionary.

In 1996, California and Arizona legalized the medical use of marijuana. Six states and the District of Columbia followed. A new movement, it appeared, was sweeping the country.

Not so new, actually. New York beat them all by a mile.

In 1980, the Legislature and Gov. Hugh L. Carey, to little fanfare, enacted a medical marijuana law in New York, the first of its kind. But the mechanism needed to make the law effective was never put in place, and it was largely forgotten.

In fact, many of the people involved two decades ago had to have their memories jogged. ''I had forgotten all about this,'' said James R. Tallon, now the president of the United Hospital Fund, who was an assemblyman and chairman of the Health Committee when the panel approved the bill.
read more here

Sunday, April 24, 2016

Oregon Pot Growers Massive Give Away to Veterans With PTSD

Oregon Growers Are Giving Away Free Cannabis To Veterans
Green Rush Daily
HEALTH
By Drew Jameson
APRIL 23, 2016

Roger Martin, a U.S. Army Veteran and the group’s founder and executive director, is also calling on Veterans to band together, “like we did when we were in the service.” He believes this strength-in-numbers approach help bring about the changes needed, like making cannabis a legal and accepted part of a Veteran’s medical treatment.
While the national spotlight was focused on the festivities of this year’s 4/20 celebrations, a group of Oregon growers are organizing an event to give away free cannabis to Veterans.

Headed up by the Portland, Oregon chapter of Grow For Vets, the groups are preparing for their latest cannabis give-away event. Their idea is to bring positive changes to Veterans’ lives through cannabis.

On Sunday, April 24th, Grow For Vets will be giving away free cannabis gift bags to its members who register online for the event. Veteran non-members and civilians can join the event as well.

The give-away, at Portland’s Refuge PDX center, is just the latest in a series of national events organized by Grow For Vets and meant to draw attention to the dilemma of America’s military Veterans.
read more here

Saturday, April 9, 2016

Sisters of the Valley Push For Pot Higher Power

These Cannabis Growing Nuns Answer To A Higher Power
Photographers capture the mind-altering heroines known as the Sisters of the Valley.

Huffington Post
Priscilla Frank
04/06/2016

The sisters are driven by a desire to relieve. “We disagree with the concept that suffering is normal and a part of life,” Sister Kate explained in an interview with The Daily Beast. “We think that’s bullshit. Suffering isn’t a part of life; they’re making it so when they criminalize plant-based remedies.”
When photographers Shaughn Crawford and John DuBois heard about two feminist nuns growing cannabis, they knew they wanted to get it on camera. The photographers tracked down Sister Kate and Sister Darcy, who graciously invited them to their central California “abbey” to watch the magic in action.

Before we say anything else, Sister Kate and Sister Darcy are self-ordained nuns who created their own order. So, although they wear white robes and call themselves highly spiritual, they are not Catholic, nor are they abstinent or subordinate to any priest.
read more here

Thursday, March 31, 2016

Raymond Schwab ends 17-day hunger strike

With Los Angeles-based lawyer in town, Raymond Schwab ends 17-day hunger strike
Suit seeks injunction against Kansas Department for Children and Families
Topeka Capital Journal

By Phil Anderson
Posted: March 30, 2016

In what has become a public battle against DCF, Schwab, a military veteran, contends his children were removed by authorities and placed in foster care because of his use of medical marijuana to treat chronic pain and post-traumatic stress disorder. He and his wife, Amelia, live in Colorado, where his marijuana use is legal.

With a lawsuit written by a Los Angeles-based lawyer ready to be filed at U.S. District Court in Topeka, Raymond Schwab was finally ready Wednesday afternoon to end a 17-day hunger strike.

As he stood at 12:15 p.m. on the steps of the Statehouse, a beaming Schwab proclaimed, “Now I can eat! Maybe we can figure out how to get a barbecue up here.”

A few minutes earlier, Schwab spoke at a news conference attended by about 35 supporters to provide an update on his appeal to regain custody of five of his six children, who in 2015 were removed from his custody by the Kansas Department for Children and Families.

read more here

Friday, March 25, 2016

Gulf War Veteran With PTSD Arrested Trying To Get Kids Back

Capitol Police arrest man holding hunger strike at Statehouse 
WIBW 13 News 
By Melissa Brunner 
Mar 24, 2016
When he launched his hunger strike March 14, Schwab said DCF used unsubstantiated allegations to take his and his wife Amelia's five children out of the home. The couple also believes Schwab's use of marijuana for treatment of pain and post-traumatic stress disorder is a factor. Schwab is a Gulf War veteran and the couple lives in Colorado, where use of medical cannabis is legal.
TOPEKA, Kan. (WIBW) - Day 11 of Raymond Schwab's hunger strike against the Kansas Department of Children and Families ended in handcuffs and a trip to the hospital.

Capitol Police arrested Schwab around 1 p.m. Thursday, as he prepared to begin a round-the-clock campout on the north steps of the Statehouse. As Schwab set up a chair, a Capitol Police officer approached and informed Schwab there was a warrant for his arrest. Schwab said he was weak and the officer allowed him to sit for a few moments before then placing him in handcuffs, walking him down the stairs and ushering him into a law enforcement vehicle.
read more here

Saturday, February 27, 2016

Medical Marijuana ID Not Good In All States

If you have the right to use medical marijuana in your state, that's great but check the other state before you enter it. Just like gun laws change from state to state, so does this.
Veteran plans to sue Villa Rica police over arrest
WSB-12 News
February 26, 2016

CARROLL COUNTY, Ga. — A veteran told Channel 2 Action News he's planning to sue local law enforcement for what he's calling a "traumatic arrest." The man has a medical marijuana card from Colorado, but he had marijuana with him in Georgia.

"It was probably one of the most horrific things I've ever been through and I've been through a lot," veteran Bill Clanton said.

On Feb. 9, Villa Rica police spotted Clanton exiting I-20 eastbound onto Highway 61. Police say Clanton was pulled over, because the officer couldn't clearly see his license plate.

The officer smelled marijuana in Clanton's car and took him to jail.

Clanton says he's still shaken by his recent arrest in Carroll County. The Colorado resident served in the Persian Gulf War and suffers from post traumatic stress disorder.
read more here

Friday, January 22, 2016

SWAT Raided Pot Growers in Colorado?

Roommates sue Denver, Jeffco after military-style marijuana raid
The Denver Post
By Jennifer Brown
January 22, 2016

Three roommates in Conifer are suing Denver police and JeffCo sheriff's after a SWAT raid on marijuana operation
Derek Smith and Shannon Riley, who are engaged, and their roommate Eric Hepper grew medical marijuana and sold it to Vietnam War veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder as well as cancer patients, their lawsuit says.
Three roommates who grew medical marijuana are suing two law enforcement agencies after their rural Conifer home was raided "military-style" with armored vehicles, machine guns and flash grenades.

A year after the raid, none of the three has been charged with a crime, and they have received minimal response from Denver police and Jefferson County sheriff's officials about why they confiscated $70,000 in cash, 28 firearms and a pickup truck, their attorney said.
Heavily armed SWAT officers knocked in doors and threw flash grenades during the Jan. 23, 2015, raid, according to the lawsuit filed Thursday. Officers "assaulted" dogs at the "peaceful mountain home" and destroyed more than 350 marijuana plants.
read more here

Friday, January 15, 2016

PTSD Veteran Lost Kids Over Medical Marijuana

Disabled Navy veteran’s children taken away because he treats his PTSD with legal marijuana
Free Thought Project
William N. Grigg
15 JAN 2016

Disabled Navy veteran Raymond Schwab moved to Colorado last year to free himself from addictions that grew out of the pharmaceuticals prescribed by the VA to treat his service-related physical and psychological injuries.

As Veterans for Medical Cannabis Access points out, medical cannabis is an effective treatment for veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), where other drugs fail. Veterans are successfully treating themselves despite the federal government’s prohibition.

Because Schwab is legally using medicinal cannabis in Colorado, officials in prohibitionist Kansas have abducted five of his children, ranging from 5 to 16 years of age.

The ransom demanded by the Kansas “child protection” bureaucracy is a promise that Schwab will refrain from using cannabis, and four months of “clean” urinalysis test results.

“They’re basically using my kids as a pawn to take away freedoms I fought for,” Schwab explained to the Denver Post. “It’s a horrible position to put me in.”
read more here

Thursday, December 10, 2015

Disabled Veterans Going a Long Way for Relief

Marijuana Refugees: Wounded Veterans Willing to Move for Medicinal Pot
Military.com
by Rebekah Sanderlin
Dec 09, 2015
Two Army doctors even suggested that their family move from North Carolina, where medical marijuana is not legal, to a state that allows use of medical cannabis. Those doctors said that marijuana would likely be a safer substitution for his myriad prescriptions.
In this photo taken Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2015, marijuana is measured in 3.5-gram amounts and placed in cans for packaging at the Pioneer Production and Processing marijuana growing facility in Arlington, Wash. Elaine Thompson/AP
Last month, the U.S. Senate passed legislation with a provision that would allow Veterans Affairs Department doctors to recommend medical marijuana to patients in states where the drug is legal.

The language, which hasn't yet passed the House, would not change existing laws that prevent possessing or distributing marijuana on VA property, nor does it do anything for veterans in the states where medical marijuana is not legal. But for veterans and their caregivers pushing to make the drug a legal option for all, it's a welcomed start. And for some, like the spouse of a retired Army Green Beret, it's a reason to become a "marijuana refugee."

Her husband served 26 years on active duty before he was medically retired because of the mental and physical injuries he racked up during a career that included more than 50 combat missions. Like other sources interviewed for this story, the woman requested that Military.com withhold her name so she could speak freely about the issue.
read more here

Saturday, November 21, 2015

DEA Head Idiotic Statement Calls Medical Marijuana a Joke

Medical Marijuana Patients To DEA Chief: Pot Is No 'Joke,' And You Should Be Fired
Chuck Rosenberg's comments are "unacceptable," advocates said.
The Huffington Post
Ruby Mellen
Posted: 11/20/2015
"There is nothing funny about suicidal thoughts. Using medical marijuana not only directly helps with my medical condition, but it has the added effect of making me a better father and husband." T.J. Thompson
THE HUFFINGTON POST
WASHINGTON -- Medical marijuana patients and advocates on Friday delivered a petition to Drug Enforcement Administration headquarters in Arlington, Virginia, calling for the firing of DEA chief Chuck Rosenberg for his characterization that using the drug as medicine was "a joke."

The petition, signed by more than 100,000 people, calls on President Barack Obama to oust Rosenberg and appoint a new DEA head "who will respect science, medicine, patients and voters."

Tom Angell, chairman of Marijuana Majority, the marijuana advocacy group that started the petition, said that for his family and millions of others, the use of the plant for medical purposes is "no joke."
T.J. Thompson, a U.S. Navy veteran, said medicinal marijuana quelled the suicidal thoughts and anxiety he was experiencing from post traumatic stress disorder after his service when no other drugs would.

"There is nothing funny about suicidal thoughts," Thompson said. "Using medical marijuana not only directly helps with my medical condition, but it has the added effect of making me a better father and husband." read more here