CAN MEDICAL MARIJUANA AID THE PRESCRIPTION ADDICTION EPIDEMIC?

For months, media reports have chronicled fiery debates over
marijuana's medicinal utility and its impact on our broader
communities. But what about those constituencies who don't have a
lobbyist down at the Capitol or City Hall?

What about our veterans?

National polls consistently show support for medical marijuana rights
at over 60 percent. A May Rasmussen report concluded that one in two
Colorado voters support outright marijuana legalization, even for
non-medicinal purposes. And while state officials now estimate
Colorado's official registered patient count somewhere about 130,000,
skeptics remain firmly rooted to the stereotype that patients are
just a bunch of lazy hippies looking to evade marijuana prohibition.
As a medical marijuana caregiver, I have the honor of serving a
couple hundred of our state's patients on a regular basis. They are
anything but lazy or law-evading. Like me, many of them are vets.
They are my motivation for writing today.

As a proud Marine who served over two decades ago, I've witnessed the
good, the bad and the ugly when it comes to the health care options
we provide to my fellow armed service members who returned home with
immense physical and emotional scars.

Well-intentioned though overworked physicians at our nation's veteran
hospitals prescribe anti-depressants and narcotic painkillers with
abandon. The net result: VA patients turn into addicts, held captive,
not by the injuries that first made them seek medical help, but
rather by the addictive pills that were supposed to free them from their agony.

Today, Colorado is one of more than a dozen states where narcotic
painkillers are the leading cause of accidental death. Such drug
overdoses kill more people than car accidents, including those caused
by drunken drivers, Meanwhile, I have yet to find a single documented
case where marijuana independently caused a single death in U.S. history.

A 2008 Pentagon survey found one in four soldiers admitting to
prescription drug abuse, with another 15 percent saying they had
abused painkillers within the previous 30 days. While Congress
demanded action, the problem only continues to spiral out of control.

It was with the hope of reversing this trend - joining together with
one courageous soldier at a time - that motivated me last summer to
seriously explore the idea of opening my own medical marijuana
wellness center here in Colorado Springs. By early fall, We Grow
Colorado was born, and by December, we were deep in construction dust
as we turned a former local veterinarian clinic into a viable center.

Now open and thriving for the last several months, We Grow's
commitment to vets is clear and consistent. We don't believe in
handing out medicine. Rather, we empower our patients to regain
control of their lives and fight back against narcotic addiction. We
offer discounts to indigent vets and are planning an educational
series on PTSD. Sadly, military policy does not allow current service
members to utilize medical marijuana as part of their recovery
strategy. For now, we can only aid those who have completed their service.

Medical marijuana is not some magic pill. It is one of many therapies
that work for some, but not for all, who try it. In a community like
ours, where vets play a key role in every aspect of our daily lives,
we should show them the respect they deserve. Let's stop throwing
pills at their pain in the hopes of keeping them quiet. Instead, we
should stop and listen to what they have to say. If our leaders will
do this, as We Grow Colorado does every day, they will hear that many
vets benefit tremendously from medical marijuana. Giving them the
freedom to choose this non-addictive alternative therapy is the least
we can do.

Drew Milburn is a U.S. Marine and a co-founder of We Grow Colorado
(www.WeGrowColorado.com) a Colorado Springs-based medical marijuana
wellness center.