cannabisnews.com: Injured Vets Want Battle Over Pot To End
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Injured Vets Want Battle Over Pot To End
Posted by CN Staff on July 06, 2010 at 05:54:45 PT
By Susan Greene, Denver Post Columnist
Source: Denver Post
Colorado -- Consider the case of Kevin Grimsinger. The 42-year-old former special-forces medic had served in Kosovo and Desert Storm before stepping on a land mine in Kandahar, Afghanistan, in 2001. He lost parts of both legs, broke his back in 13 places, shattered a shoulder and ribs and suffered injuries to several internal organs.But by far, his toughest wounds are to his brain — textbook post-traumatic stress disorder.
That means flashbacks. It means struggling to sleep and thinking about suicide more often than he cares to admit. His nightmares are constant, he says. "They're bloody, they're noisy and they're gory."After two years in hospitals, Grimsinger was released addicted "to every pain medication known to man," he tells me. It wasn't until turning to therapeutic cannabis, along with other prescriptions, that he says he has been able to function. Medical marijuana doesn't take away his trauma. But it gives him a break long enough to sleep.Grimsinger has served on Denver's Commission for People with Disabilities and as a quartermaster at his local Veterans of Foreign Wars post. He works as a veterans advocate at Budding Health, a Denver dispensary, where he leads a support group of nearly 200 former service members.Most have registered as chronic-pain patients. But just as Grimsinger's stumps are easier to spot than his brain injuries, what ails their minds is far more debilitating.PTSD isn't a condition that qualifies for medical-marijuana use in Colorado. Federally, the Veterans Affairs doesn't prescribe the drug and, by policy, threatens to cut off care and benefits to vets who test positive for using it."Veterans feel incredibly disrespected on this issue, especially as it relates to PTSD," says Michael Krawitz, executive director of Veterans for Medical Marijuana Access. Snipped Complete Article: http://www.denverpost.com/headlines/ci_15444920Source: Denver Post (CO)Author: Susan Greene, Denver Post ColumnistPublished: July 6, 2010Copyright: 2010 The Denver Post CorpWebsite: http://www.denverpost.com/Contact: openforum denverpost.comCannabisNews Medical Marijuana Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/medical.shtml
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Comment #15 posted by Hope on July 07, 2010 at 13:14:13 PT
You're right, Storm Crow
Of course. Sometimes the frustration with the incredible amount of time and patience this is taking just overwhelms me.We have seen mega improvement in the situation.
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Comment #14 posted by Storm Crow on July 07, 2010 at 10:10:59 PT
Hope....
You asked what can we do? We do what we always have done, speak the truth and give the facts. We educate!Hon, when I started using cannabis over 40 years ago, there was NO "medical marijuana". There wasn't even the CONCEPT of "medical marijuana". 14 states and DC recognize medical use now and the permitted uses are increasing. We have gotten this far by educating others!So, we share Dr. Phil Leveque's excellent articles on PTSD and other PTSD medical studies* with everyone. Not with just the patients, but their families, their doctors and the politicians. We just have to keep speaking the truth and educating! It will happen, Hope. Our soldiers, injured in mind and body, deserve access to cannabis. The VA is slowly changing it's "dinosaur mind" about cannabis use. Now, at least, the VA no longer denies vets who use cannabis their needed medical treatments! The right to use cannabis can't happen too soon for our vets, but it will happen! *My new list is coming out next month and has over 25 articles on PTS.)
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Comment #13 posted by Hope on July 07, 2010 at 09:27:56 PT
:0)
Thank you.
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Comment #12 posted by FoM on July 07, 2010 at 09:26:46 PT
Hope
Don't say that! You say whatever you want whenever you want dear friend.
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Comment #11 posted by Hope on July 07, 2010 at 09:26:22 PT
Comment 9
That's true.
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Comment #10 posted by Hope on July 07, 2010 at 09:25:32 PT
I'm sorry...
I shouldn't even comment. I'm overwrought... I guess. Maybe even hysterical.
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Comment #9 posted by FoM on July 07, 2010 at 09:24:02 PT
Hope
I am glad that any President can't just do what he wants. We could have a bad situation if we had a bad President. It really does work both ways.
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Comment #8 posted by Hope on July 07, 2010 at 09:21:28 PT
The real "Boogers"...
Are the haters. The selfish. The killers. The thieves. The takers. The users. The fear mongers. The racists. The greedy. The arrogant. They really are bad dangerous things to the general good of humanity... and they don't even have enough insight and understanding of reality to realize it.
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Comment #7 posted by Hope on July 07, 2010 at 09:16:27 PT
Can't the President do something...
I was in a deep fit of desperate whining.It seems like he should be able to, though, if any human can. He's kind of the boss of the world... though no one pays much attention. I love him... (not worship him! It's stupid that I have to say that... but with all the fools running loose seeing boogers of one kind or another everywhere...)Cannabis prohibition is all political and laws anyway. It seems like he should be able to do something in that world of politics and legalities. He seems like a good man. He's the most powerful man in the world. It seems like he could do something. At least for the vets.I'm whining though... I know it.I'm sad that seemingly nobody can do anything to ease all this pain.... but there sure are a lot of people that seem to have the power to make it worse.
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Comment #6 posted by FoM on July 07, 2010 at 08:51:16 PT
Hope
You asked can't the President do something. No he really can't or he would be labeled a Dictator by the Right. Change comes from the bottom up not the top down. We need to change the laws on marijuana thru Congress.
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Comment #5 posted by FoM on July 07, 2010 at 08:47:01 PT
herbdoc215
I agree with you. I am totally saddened by the tea party people. So much hate. It blows my mind.
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Comment #4 posted by herbdoc215 on July 07, 2010 at 08:28:30 PT
Hope, your getting better is all I need
To keep me going for quite some time...I'm paddling and swimming against the current as fast as I can and for the first time in years I actually feel like we have chance to get somewhere positive.
I am just going to be like a bee and keep stinging certain people on our side into doing what they KNOW is right and make sure that those whom need cannabis on a emergency basis don't have to pay for it! Traveling around doing this work lately has shown me some strange things about where our country is now and just how bad and broke things are everywhere now...Hope has never been more needed.
ps...I would also like to apologize to the world for the nut-ass Tea-baggers we have in this country running talking shit on our President now...who is doing the best job he can with the disaster that nut-job neo-cons just like them created and left him, and now they want to gripe about things that are beyond their understanding...where were the racist bastards when GWB was running our country down the drain with their BS??? It is time for us to regroup and make adult decisions about where we want to go as a country! peace, steve
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Comment #3 posted by Hope on July 07, 2010 at 08:12:29 PT
People are standing by like empty, soulless shells
I'm talking about people that COULD do something... if they would... if they had the heart or soul... Who are they? Why aren't they doing good instead of hurting people?Can't the President do anything? Can't the city councils do anything good? Can't all the lavish and abundant congresses and officials do something? Can't the sheriffs, and police chiefs, and LEOs do something good? Can't the caring medical profession? Why aren't they? Why are they frozen like chess pieces waiting to be moved by some official authority that will move them? What's wrong with them? Why don't they care? Are they so empty? So wickedly useless to mankind?
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Comment #2 posted by Hope on July 07, 2010 at 08:07:55 PT
We do see, Dear Steve. We do see.
And we can't seem to do anything about it. People are standing by like empty, soulless shells and watching it all happen and not lifting a finger to make anything better for anyone.It's so unbelievably wrong and awful. If people would just love and care about each other... but they won't. It's horrifying. We're all knee deep in the blood of the suffering... and our authorities are just letting the misery pour and pour out on the afflicted and doing all they can to increase the misery. Still, in this supposedly enlightened age, it's an unbelievably wicked world filled with wicked and cruel authoritarians. They are so blind. They have no understanding of anything but money and squeezing as much money and life and "Productivity" as they can out of others. They've squeezed all they can possibly get out of these people like you and Kevin Grimsinger, and so many others, our government and military have used in the name of war... and now they just want to discard them like so many used toothpaste tubes of toothpaste. Instead of tending their wounds and helping those that sacrificed so much to help us all... they want them to just be quiet and die.Oh yeah... give em a flag made in Japan or China and throw them in the ground, blow a bugle... and go to the next one they are going to use up.It's horrible.Prohibitionists of cannabis are filthy, wretched monsters masquerading as human.I care. I'm so angry. And apparently too weak and helpless to do anything substantial about it. You, on the other hand, are doing things. You are helping people, Steve. In this seemingly endless struggle against the inhumanity of man... it's an honor to know you. A real honor. You're a decent man. Power to Kevin Grimsinger and to you and to all who struggle to make some of this more right than it is.What can we do? Please... someone... tell me... what can we do?
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Comment #1 posted by herbdoc215 on July 07, 2010 at 07:24:57 PT
To deny returning service members this medicine
Is the most bullshit and chickenshit thing our country does. It's like telling an 18 year old he can pack a rifle and kill for his country but he can't drink a beer? If people here can't see these folks deserve this medicine then we are to far down the rabbit hole to save, the fact they are having to pay the prices they do here in Cali and Colorado is a crime in itself and has shown me just how much "Compassion" is left in this weed business which isn't supposed to be raping our soldiers out of their meager pensions the greedy govt gives us just so we can live. The biggest failure of current system is there isn't much there for hospice patients and vets for affordable quality meds ANYWHERE! I am in Humboldt now watching this place die...it's like watching a family member suffer? peace, Steve Tuck
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