Veteran Faces Jail Time for Treating PTSD With Medical Marijuana

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/speakeasy/kristen-gwynne/veteran-faces-jail-time-treating-ptsd-medical-marijuana




In 2003, former U.S. Navy Corpsman Jeremy Usher returned from Iraq and Afghanistan, only to suffer from flashbacks of combat and a variety of mental health issues, including nightmares and insomnia, panic attacks, and depression. Thanks to medical marijuana, he is doing better, but is now facing jail time for choosing a medication the federal government refuses to legitimize.

A combat medic, Usher was on the back of a helicopter sent to rescue wounded marines when he was shot in the head, causing brain damage and memory loss and leaving him with a stutter. When he walked out of a treatment at a San Diego hospital, he was still not well, and according to the Greeley Tribune, "suffered form extreme paranoia as he wandered San Diego, constantly spinning around while walking to make sure no one was sneaking up on him."

According to the the Greeley Tribune, Usher then began self-medicating with alcohol, marking the beginnings of his criminal record. He is currently serving probation in Colorado for his second and third DUIs. Usher says he is cleaning up in his act in counseling and school, but is facing jail time for violating probation by treating his PTSD with medical marijuana nonetheless. For failing dozens of drug tests, he could do 29 days in jail.

Usher told the Greeley Tribune he feels like he is "being punished for being a little different" and "not understanding why." His doctors have written letters to the court explaining that medical marijuana and Marinol pills have helped treat his PTSD, and they recommend he stay on it. Nonetheless, America's draconian drug policy is now threatening to send a traumatized veteran to jail, where he worries his progress could begin to reverse

[malaise]

1. Someone should have told him he was fighting for the freedoms of corporations

and not his own freedom

[sigmasix]

2. legislators know what's best, not doctors

Marijuana's postitive effects relieve an entire host of negative health issues. Most doctors agree with the use of it for patients that are suffering. It isn't a drug; it's a medicine- and right wing politicians that are concerting so much effort to take medicine from the seriously ill, cannot legislate the truth away, nor can they escape the immorality of punishing the sick and denying them thier medicine- no matter how hard the teabaggers try...

[MindPilot]

3. Down the rabbit hole...

Here is a guy using a drug prescribed by a doctor jailed for using that drug medically in a place where it is legal to use that drug recreational.


Dystopia, I think we've arrived.