Vets want the Wacky Weed
Not all of us think giving Pot to veterans is a good idea. The “debate” continures…and will continue until “medical marijuana” is approved for use by the Veterans Administration.
Medical marijuana for veterans is having another moment on Capitol Hill.
As lawmakers work to wrap-up their pre-election work in the next three weeks, they’re also considering a host of proposals that could have wide-ranging effects on veterans’ ability to access cannabis for a host of ailments.
Among the ideas are broadening research into the medicinal effects of cannabis, allowing veterans to discuss use of marijuana with Veterans Affairs physicians, and new legislation introduced this week which would essentially decriminalize the drug for veterans across the country.
All of the plans still face a difficult path before they can become reality. Neither the White House nor VA officials have expressed support for expanded use of medical marijuana, even as advocates like the American Legion have touted it as a possible alternative to highly-addictive opioids.
I am concerned that there is no talk about the millions of people who have pissed their life away being all smoked up on dope. Do we really need more “research” at this point? Decades of research has shown that smoking Pot makes most people “feel” good…for a while. It also suppresses the brain centers for aggression and increases appetite. My professional experience is most every person who does use the drug on a regular basis is a massive underachiever. That drug retards initiative. Too many veterans are already sitting on their couch getting by on a check in the mail and complaining that the VA owes them even more.
I constantly hear about the virtues of marijuana, I also hear about the benefits of VA disability payments…I don’t hear about any study into what the cost is for making all of these people dependant on handouts from the government and now giving them the drug that makes them feel even better about doing it.
Ya, ya, ya, I know…I should be more supportive about giving money and drugs to veterans. Nah, Probably not during this lifetime.
Category: Military issues, Veteran Health Care
Their will lots of claims for #PornHub induced carpel tunnel syndrome from barracks life. 30% service connection with weed/meds.
I for one, would like to see it become available? Yes, I used to smoke it in my younger days and it didn’t stop me from becoming a successful person? I have a nice home in Florida, that is paid for, I drive a nice new truck, so I don’t think it makes everyone a dead beat! I have terrible issues with pain from cancer and a very bad back. I have been on morphine for nearly 20 years. I have to take 90 mg’s a day along with 6 percocets just to get thru the day. So yes, I would love to be able to smoke some weed to see if it would help with the pain or at least make me not care about it? It is no fun living with this kind of pain and the government is making it harder for me to get the meds I need to survive every month! So let’s give weed a try???
Your last name isn’t Nelson, by any chance? 😉
I agree with your view. We prescribe so many drugs with numerous side effects and addictive potential without batting an eye. If weed works and is shown to be more effective in some way, we should give it a chance. And if a vet gets a little buzz while medicating, then that’s just icing on the top for service to the nation.
But maybe that is the reason you are “wilted” lol….I also have back pain and at times, terrible. but to hell with pot! I worked in a jail years ago, met an inmate that talked about how great pot was and no side effects, except, he couldn’t carry on a complete conversation, he would lose track, backup, repeat..it is amazing all the stink about cigarette smoking but now the same people are advocating smoking pot….brain damage? 😉
“My professional experience is most every person who does use the drug on a regular basis is a massive underachiever. That drug retards initiative.”
I’ve seen that as well thus I’m perpetually skeptical about Medical Marijuana.
I’m with Dave on this one –110% !!
As a retired Texas Peace Officer , I’ve seen this shit ruin hundreds of lives . It’s been illegal all these years for a reason .
“As a retired Texas Peace Officer , I’ve seen this shit ruin hundreds of lives . It’s been illegal all these years for a reason.”
That’s been my experience as well from the same life experience with it. Further, when the veteran wants more than the prescribed amount or finds it easier to get off the street it’s going to bring them into contact with a criminal element that isn’t going to have any qualms about introducing them to harder drugs.
Any good that could come from this will be by far outweighed by the bad.
As a police officer you must have seen alcohol ruin hundreds of lives as well. Yet it continues to be legal.
That’s a fact. America has decided that it can live with the 10,000+ DWI fatalities every year. I wouldn’t recommend alcohol for PTSD meds either.
I’m not sure what your point is here.
Moral equivalence, most likely.
Yes indeed, several that alcohol ruined, but honestly, not as many as with MJ!
Think we also need to differentiate between the type of medication…didn’t they just approve a pot based med that did not use THC? Not all pot based compounds get you stoned, I read. Not an indulger myself, but demonizing all because people veg on THC seems akin to banning all opioids because of heroin addicts.
There has been some experimentation with CBD oil. Not approved for use that I know of. But it will still get you high. And now a lot of vape shops sell it as well and the police do nothing.
I’m in favor of dumping opiods forever and handing out weed as a pain med. The opiods are nasty addictive stuff that kill lots of people and destroy lives. Weed may keep people from being productive but it normally does not make them insane unless they are taking a synthetic, or mixing it with something else which may not even be weed.
CBD (hemp oil) is readily available over the counter or internet. It does not get you high. It is the same or better at providing pain releif etc, EXCEPT it does not provide the high. Link below is one of dozens that provide info on CBD.
https://healthyhempoil.com/can-cbd-oil-get-you-high/
CBD will NOT get you high. The portion has been removed. Friend of mine even gives it to an old coon dog of his with joint problems ( no joke there!).
CBD is derived form Hemp vice Marijuana. Does provide the high
sorry, does NOT provide the high.
A daily 22 body count suggests that a new option may be needed.
That number is around 5.
Never confuse people with facts when they have a perfectly good bullshit story going.
Besides, who will the 40,000 veteran charities help?
Good point. Actually, great point.
I get the symbolism and the rallying cry but until people can understand the issue proportionally and get their collective fingers wrapped around the problem, they will never adequately be able to address it, much less solve it.
And that is not my idea or opinion, but that of scientific rigor, thought and process.
People make all kinds of wild claims based on subjective experience, rumor, and heresay. Could it be a placebo effect? This is why we need legitimate scientific study. Want to fund this study, Congress, don’t do it by experimenting with vets through the VA.
With you on the natural skepticism. However, I also want docs to have every available tool to help their patients.
Is smoking dope the answer to everything? Of course not. Will it be abused? Yes, just as are narcotic pain meds, which also have legitimate uses.
And I agree that those who self-medicate just because tend toward underachieving. However, for those who are racked with pain which will never go away or suffering debilitating pain with life ending diseases, why not? Anything which can improve their quality of life is wonderful.
A friend of a friend has tried every pain med on the market. Those that effectively control the pain generally put him to sleep or make him so goofy that he can barely function. It is reported that when he smokes mj that he can take care of himself without assistance and behaves normally.
I just hate to see the legitimate cases that would benefit from it’s use being deprived because others abuse it.
In my area, I’ve been bombarded by dirty ass hippie looking characters, asking me to sign a petition for medical marijuana. Commonly, it is paired with another petition, one that increases tobacco taxes to help fund MM. F that. Those that want weed need to understand, you’ll never get the support you need by screwing over regular smokers even more. I have 1 cigar a day, and even that is getting ridiculously expensive. A GOOD cigar used to be about $5, good luck getting a really good one for less than $10 now
If I was a cigar smoker, I would learn to smoke the “not so good ones” lol $300.00 a month for a cigar a day…uh uh, no thanks, not for me! Rather spend that on pop, or iced tea 😉
Or smoke a pipe!
If not there already, this would be the creation of a “social prison” for veterans.
Think of it, already getting payments for PTSD, unemployability, or both. Add on top of this Marijuana to placate them.
The next logical step would be just to “pay” the veteran community in Marijuana.
Some may look at it differently, but I have visions of Nurse Ratched in “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” dispensing the meds to our veteran population to keep them sedated.
OWB:
Agree with you, Wilted Willy, Some Guy and David what you all wrote.
Not all medical cannibis is smoked. Virginia passed a STRICT Medical Marijuana Law this past March on the use of cannibis oil:
https://www.newsleader.com/story/news/2018/03/12/virginia-medical-marijuana-law-takes-effect/417918002/
“The affirmative defense applies to oil products only. The oil must contain at least 15% CBD or at least 15% THCA-A and may contain no more than 5% THC. The affirmative defense does not apply to flower, other products or products outside the allowed cannabinoid ratios.”
Prescription drugs are legal, but some folks abuse it (The “Opiod” “Crisis”). Alcohol is legal, but some folks abuse it. Food is legal, but some folks abuse it (Obesity which leads to heart disease).
Just as not every Veteran drinks alcohol or overeats or sells/misuses prescription narcotic medicines, not every Veteran will choose to use Medical Marijuana to help with pain.
Any relation to Senior Chief Don “The Hair” Shipley is purely coincidental. I think.
I had a Class B CDL while working for Brink’s so one afternoon I come into work and Nick in dispatch hands me some paperwork and tells me that on the way to JFK Airport, stop off on Atlantic ave in Brooklyn for a random drug test so I turn around and tell nick that I needed a Physco Doc instead, so he throws a clipboard at me as I left. Great 37 years there.
As a govvie, I’m subject to random urinalysis screenings. Haven’t had one in over a year, which is unusual. Makes me wonder if this is tacit approval of marijuana use.
Also a bit disappointed- the pain meds I’m on would light us a piss test like a Christmas tree.
Not just vets.
Elon Musk puffs on weed in podcast interview amid feud with cave diver, workers’ concerns
Fox News Link
Well, that explains a lot.
This, while senior executives are leaving, and shares are down 10%, the biggest daily loss since 2016. What was that about under achievers, Dave?
The guy runs three companies simultaneously, I could see how one might need some stress relief every once in a while.
It’s starting to look like he’s completely lost his marbles.
Maybe he just needs to go “invent” something revolutionary again to win back some of his disciples.
Da week wil do dat, yas it vill!
You want to be a doper? Be a doper. It’s your life. Ruin it, Better still, do that dope and ruin someone else’s life.
100% agree. If you value individual freedom and liberty, you let people fuck their own lives up as much as they want to.
Screw weed, people just want to get high, period….. if you do get high, give up your guns as required by federal law.
I posted this under the wrong one of your posts a minute ago….
So much for being pro second amendment around here I guess.
There is no federal law requiring medical marijuana or even recreational users to surrender their firearms. Nor should there be. Nor would it likely pass constitutional challenge if some assholes passed such a law.
And who would even do so? The left won’t because they likely view pot smokers as the least threatening of all gun owners.
So I guess that means the right would. Weird times were are in. The right is anti- free trade now, anti-individual accountability, and based on your comment becoming anti-second amendment.
I misspoke, can’t buy a firearm. If you check the box, no get the gun.
I would suggest you review ATF Form 4473, specifically question 11e.
You’re welcome.
The left wouldn’t do it because they are 90% pot smokers imho lol
” I also hear about the benefits of VA disability payments…I don’t hear about any study into what the cost is for making all of these people dependant on handouts from the government ….”
Are you really shaming your battle damaged brothers and sisters for taking service connected compensation?
91A1P:
The Associated Press did an interesting story in 2009 that addressed there were more Veterans claiming POW Status for VA Disabilty than the actual number of those who were Bona-Fide POWs:
“AP: More POW claimants than actual POWs”
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/30168352/ns/us_news-military/t/ap-more-pow-claimants-actual-pows/
“There are only 21 surviving POWs from the first Gulf War in 1991, the Department of Defense says. Yet the Department of Veterans Affairs is paying disability benefits to 286 service members it says were taken prisoner during that conflict, according to data released by VA to The Associated Press.”
“A similar discrepancy arises with Vietnam POWs. Only 661 officially recognized prisoners returned from that war alive — and about 100 of those have since died, according to Defense figures. But 966 purported Vietnam POWs are getting disability payments, the VA told AP.”
“Being classified as a POW doesn’t directly increase a veteran’s monthly disability check. There’s no “POW payment.”
“But a tale of torture and privation can influence whether a vet receives some money or nothing at all in disability payments — and the VA’s numbers raise questions about how often such tales are exaggerated..”
Capt Mike McGrath, Vietnam POW and Nam-POW Historian nailed it:
“While mindful of VA’s challenges, McGrath of Nam-POWs says every dollar that goes to a phony is one that’s not available for those who’ve earned it.”
Preaching to the Choir, but just as those who abuse medical majuiana, thus giving it a negative perception (which may prevent those with a valid medical condition to use it), the same goes to Veterans who take advantage of the system and “abuse” VA Disabilty benefits.
Just ask Wilted Willie about his brother…or CSM Rick Cayton’s claim of being a Vietnam POW..
I know about Cayton’s shitbaggery from guys in my unit that served with him, as well as the Schantags’ investigation of his false POW claims. I have also read that the VA once admitted they have had over 13,000 Vietnam veterans who filed for benefits claiming they were POWs in the Viet of the Nam. Anybody else recall seeing that figure?
rgr769: 13,000?
I believe it. I really do.
No telling how many false claims were from WWII and the Korean Confict…won’t be surprised that some of these guys went to their grave collecting VA Disabilty based on “POW” status..
Don’t think Cayton will ever admit in public that he lied. Thank goodness Jonn did a post on him (based on all the hard work the Schantags did):
https://valorguardians.com/blog/?p=62197
Thanks Pat for linking to the article. I also should note that two men on Cayton’s LRRP patrol were killed on that operation, but not from enemy contact. Cayton called for a night Maguire rig (STABO rig) extraction by helo. The two team members were killed by blunt force trauma from being drug through the jungle canopy on the end of 100 foot helo extraction ropes. The helicopter pilot screwed up, but Cayton faked the need for the night extraction. On Jan. 11 or 12, 1971 Cayton was not a POW, as he has claimed, because his signature is on the sign-in sheet for the unit memorial for his two dead team mates.
sounds like the VA! And they shoot me down for a pathetic 5% for hearing…service connected!!!
If you are going to ingest marijuana, you should take edibles.
At the very least, you should vape and not smoke the leaves.
Inhaling hot gases from smoking is very bad for your lungs.
The vapor is at least at room temperature. Eating pot is the safest way to ingest it.
During my Hiatus this summer I went back east with family. I got to hang out with my 2 younger brothers and I smoked weed for the first time in a long time, and on a regular basis.
I suffer from chronic pain and my youngest brother has bad stomach and intestinal issues that have had him had to take large amounts of time off work and required surgeries and 3 different types of medicine,
We both have been prescribed opioids for pain control by the VA.
He doesn’t take his and I go to an outside pain specialist who gave me a much lower level type of pain med to help control pain.
We both agree that weed is much more effective.
Neither of us are slackers ( he is a high level IT security project manager) and my other brother runs a successful construction company.
I USED to be anti-MJ because I believed it led to other drugs and criminal activity.
The only reason it does that now is because people are being forced to buy it from people who are criminals. A guy who is willing to risk his freedom to sell weed will also sell meth, coke and do other crimes.
legalize weed and take it out of the shadows and you reduce the crime associated with it
You don’t NEED weed, sorry, you don’t. If you have guns please follow federal and surrender them.
Law
So much for being pro second amendment around here I guess.
There is no federal law requiring medical marijuana or even recreational users to surrender their firearms. Nor should there be. Nor would it likely pass constitutional challenge if some assholes passed such a law.
And who would even do so? The left won’t because they likely view pot smokers as the least threatening of all gun owners.
So I guess that means the right would. Weird times were are in. The right is anti- free trade now, anti-individual accountability, and based on your comment becoming anti-second amendment.
Cthulhu wrote:
“There is no federal law requiring medical marijuana or even recreational users to surrender their firearms”..
Our Dave Hardin addressed this on a TAH Post less than a month ago:
https://valorguardians.com/blog/?p=81310
Right, can’t purchase one, I misspoke.
I never said I NEEDED weed. I just said it was my experience it was more effective at relieving chronic pain than the addictive opioids being pimped out by the VA and big pharmacy.
Just to add I’m not addicted to it, nor do I have a medical marijuana card.
If you want to learn what weed and weed culture does, go to Denvet today. It used to be great.
Denver
^^This!
How about you go to the nearest white trash trailer park on a Friday night and see what alcohol does.
That doesn’t compute? Just because some dirtbag sells other shyt, doesn’t mean you have to buy unless you are so inclined in the first place?
Adjust your computer (thinking process) and use reasoning to figure it out.
Citizen A buys weed from Citizen B.
Citizen B sells weed illegally, and since he is already a lawbreaker he sells other illegal drugs to Citizens C, D and E.
Citizen E gets arrested for burglary and informs on Citizen B. Citizen C gets caught leaving Citizen B’s house with meth and gets arrested. Citizen F, who is Citizen C’s cousin beats the dog shit out of Citizen E for being a Narc. Citizen G who is Citizen E’s Friend kill’s Citizen F.
All due to a plant right?
OR
Citizen A is able to buy weed from a legal pharmacy.Nothing else follows.
My brother is a veteran and a staunch supporter of marijuana legalization. Me? Never tried it and probably never will, partially due to his over the top views.
Oh yeah, he was politely “asked” to leave the service after almost six years, never advancing beyond E-4. He’s abused about every substance out there but after getting his discharge upgraded and becoming eligible, he lives off of a VA disability pension.
After seeing him play up his disabled vet status in the name of “tree” (the first time I heard the term, my wife told me that it’s commonly used by younger people, not middle aged men), I question how many other vet marijuana advocates have similarly questionable histories.
I just lost a brother to opioids, I miss him, but he killed himself. I will forever love my brother but I cannot condone how he went and your brother is a drug addled dick.
Sorry to hear your brother. Mine managed to somehow survive his bouts with heavy drug use, but in my eyes he’s only replaced the illegal stuff with prescriptions compliments of the VA. Of course, his numerous medical issues due (in my opinion) to his misadventures over the years are mostly “service connected” nowadays.
They (VA) are really increasing the urine tests (drug tests) for those that take opioids. If you test positive for grass, no pills.
Tons.
They were losers then and they are losers now.
Get high, take pill and wash it down with booze as you stuff your face with garbage and play video games.
The new 21rst century Veteran.
I advocate for medical, and even recreational Marijuana.
My history? 20 years of Honorable service, retired as a First Sergeant, one NJP as Cpl in 1982.
Other than that 3 speeding tickets (1982, 1998 and 2009) One moving violation in 2000.
Numerous Deployments, A few awards here and there.
That’s my history.
There are numerous Priests who never touched alcohol and are anti Marijuana who have molested Children, so whats your point?
Dave’s not here.
It’s me, Dave… open up, man, I got the stuff!
“This s#%t is oregano man, it won’t get a fly high man.” Class, Class; Don’t make me call SGT Stadanko.
I’m subject to random drug and alcohol testing. Okay, says I, there’s no problem with me staying off the hippie lettuce and confining my alcohol consumption to moderate amounts during after-work hours.
But with recreational use of pot climbing, it’s getting harder for employers to find qualified people who can pass random FFD tests. Guess what that does to the pay scales?
So go ahead and bake your brains, dudes. I’ll be laughing all the way to the bank.
Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, amen… lol… people just want to get high.
I absolutely hate that crap. My first job in Chicago was at an AV company. the “smoking lamp” was lit at 5PM, but the graphics people went across the street and sat on the steps of the cathedral to get high, then came back from their “lunch” and made so many mistakes in the art I was supposed to shoot that I was there until 2AM sometimes, fixing their crappy artwork.
And they got away with it. So I left, and that little company struggle to stay afloat. I think the owners sold it a few years later.
I absolutely hate that crap.
Have personally seen “medicinal brownies” help some folks and have ZERO effect of other folk. Soon as the states figure out which way the federal wind is going to blow on this issue, they will make medicinal and recreational available, simply for the tax revenues. Colorado made a bloody fortune on the taxes in just the 1st quarter. No Congress type critter has ever met a tax it didn’t like. Just my $.02. YMMV. My employer requires random D&A, plus DOT D&A for Class A CDL. As long as you have a scrip for opioids, you can be high as a kite, still have a job and a CDL
We are unfortunately headed for a nation full of dopers, many of whom will move on to the harder drugs. Glad I’m over 70, so I don’t have to see what this country will become in the next 25 to 30 years if this legalization crap continues.
https://www.thecannabist.co/2018/01/15/marijuana-users-gun-ownership/96741/
Fun reading about marijuana and firearms ownership
18 U.S.C. 922 § (g)(3) states that anyone with an addiction to controlled substances may not possess a firearm or ammunition. In fact, anyone who uses controlled substances at all may not own a gun.
This is what I based my earlier comments on.
Well there is addiction versus casual use. Some lawyer gonna get rich of of this.
As Retired Grunt cited, the US Code does indeed prohibit possession of a firearm by an unlawful user of CDS and marihuana is Schedule I CDS. The same Code provision also separately applies to addicts. It’s interesting inasmuch as a recovered addict remains an addict and the non-addicted user’s use may b or may not be current. In other words, my use of the word “intersting” is a euphemism for phuked-up mess.
Question for the masses?
Does anyone else find it odd that a person who is on active duty status can be court-martialed and discharged for using marijuana, but the US government is willing to provide marijuana to “injured” veterans? What about all the military members that were discharged for using it on active duty? Did some of those members lose their VA privileges for failure to complete an enlistment? Are we to overturn their court-martials? Are we going to make it legal for active duty? What about reservists and guardsmen?
My bias: I do have a problem giving someone an unfiltered product to smoke with more known carcinogens than a cigarette.
Good questions. I knew a guy who was awaiting his medical discharge/retirement for a knee injury that occurred on active duty. Pissed hot for weed (he claimed for pain mgmt) one drill weekend. I ETS’d before his case was decided, but it wasn’t looking good for him.
I know when I was in the air reserves, getting prescribed anti-depressants from your civilian doc would immediately see you separated from the air force. Get them on active duty from a military doc? No problem. I imagine weed would be similar.
Until the federal laws on possession get changed, it’ll be illegal to possess weed on any federal property, including military bases.
Not sure that there is a good comparison between someone using a recreational drug and a prescribed med. Lots of folks take something post surgery, for instance, that would be illegal for them to get in a back alley.
I once could have blown a drug test but told them up front what I was taking and why. It was all good. Never knew for sure but assume that they checked with the doc to confirm. (Of course, having the ‘scrip in my pocket and till using a cane might also have been a clue.)
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For the life of me I just can not figure out WHY anyone here cares at all what someone else does in this instance?
Other than the thrill of meddling in someone elses life because you know better than they do, why does anyone care at all what these folks are doing?
Why do I care what someone is doing with my tax dollars?
You mean you might be among us sillies that want accountability for how our $$ is spent? How evil of you. You might even be among those of us who figure that taking stuff from us with no say in where it goes sounds a lot like theft.
It’s much more than money, as far as I am concerned. It’s that societal interest business at play again. It is in society’s best interest not to encourage illegal drug use and the abuse of legally used drugs. Some drugs alter moods, dull the senses, tickle the drug-created funny bone, affect judgment and others do some of those things and quickly make the user dependent upon them to the exclusion of things such as job and family. Also, crime and drug use go hand in hand, and I’m not talking about the crime of possessing CDS. I’m talking about the crimes that are committed to support drug habits and to distribute drugs. At the same time that society is moving away from punishing drug users in favor of a medical model, the same society is to bless drug use? I don’t think so.
Nothing to disagree with there. It has long been concerning that pills are handed out as the answer to everything, with little to no medical supervision. It’s “Here, try this,” then send the patient out the door on all manner of heavy duty psychotropic drugs and such. No idea how the patient might react. Nobody monitoring if there is any good effect at all.
Among other stupid stuff involving drugs and narcotics.
/OWB steps off the soapbox before getting really riled up.
You do have your say… Every two years for the house and six in the senate.
I am sure that you would agree to support those that agree with you…in as much as they disagree with funding the DOD, right?
without evidence… i would hazard that you do not actually care about the money here, but are more concerned about those damn dirty hippies smoking the weed….
and for those of you who are advocating that these filks turn in there guns, ‘because it’s the law’….
Where exactly in the second amendment does it say anything about that?
Well where I am from we ain’t never much cared for what the gubmint says we can and can’t do, know what I mean there Vern? My great grandaddy made shine and we just perty much does as we damn well please. I followed the rules during my 32 years in uniform but now will do as I damn well please. And what pleases me is IPA and bourbon. But that is my call. And if I ever decide to just check out that other stuff I’ll sh@t fire and light matched before I turn in my guns. Course they are always welcome to monon labe.