VETS DESERVE CHOICE IN MEDS

In my role as a professor who specializes in the endocannabinoid
system, I am frequently contacted and saddened by people people
suffering from conditions that are often profoundly helped by the use
of medical marijuana, but who are unable to find doctors who will help
them legally obtain it. I find it particularly tragic when our brave
military men and women are injured in their efforts to protect our
freedom, only to find that federal policies do not honor the freedom
of those who most deserve it.

Department of Veterans Affairs policies not only prevent veterans from
discussing the medical use of marijuana with their military doctors,
but turn them into drug addicts by providing them with addictive
narcotics for often unsatisfactory relief from chronic pain.

Too many of our vets are illegally using marijuana for effective
relief of mental and physical pain.

All humans make marijuana-like compounds that regulate all of our body
systems. The pain-relieving properties of cannabis are unambiguous,
and have been know for thousands of years.

Furthermore, a normal role played by endocannabinoids is to help
people forget unpleasant memories which is why marijuana is effective
for post traumatic stress disorder. There is an abundance of modern
peer reviewed science that supports what our citizens are slowly
finding out - medical marijuana works.

Narcotics destroy the lives of chronic users. In contrast marijuana
often restores a degree of normalcy and functionality. Don't we owe
our vets this choice?

Dr. Robert Melamede, Colorado Springs