you got my vote..however how about "take care of ALL veterans"

Ok well sure this is a good idea! Only thing that wouldnt make it worthy of showing it To President Obama is that legislation has just released a 62 Billion dollar GI bill covering all tuition fees, a housing allowance, and book allowance for any veteran who has continuously served 90 days after 2001. So there is that problem..solved. I am a vet and am very excited to start full time college again come august!!

Universal Health Care, HA! We can't even take care of a couple million Veterans nationwide. Get these guys coverage first, they deserve every penny of it.

Universal Health Care, HA! We can't even take care of a couple million Veterans nationwide. Get these guys coverage first, they deserve every penny of it.

Please also vote for "Reverse Bootcamp for returning combat veterans" under Iraq War.  It's a needed suggestion.

                                    FACTS
           
            Important documentation of cases where 

          the US military did NOT even take care of its own:

As of Jan. 12, 2008, The New York Times found 121 factual cases in which veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan committed a killing in this country, or were charged with one, after their return from war.
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/01/12/us/20080113_VETS_DATABASE.html?scp=7&sq=The%20Cases&st=cse
 
                                or search:
         http://www.nytimes.com/    for:  The Cases

Each one of these cases is a tragedy. 

Make sure that veterans are treated fairly, no matter what war they fought in.  Those that served in peace keeping missions, police actions, and actual declared wars should all receive equal benefits.

Disability discrimation exists in the veterans community and needs legislative oversight aside form all the other issues which veterans face.  www.phillyvet.blogspot.com  - make this vote count- keep up the advocacy.

I'm a disabled veteran and I had to go through nightmarish paperwork to get the disability status I have.  This process needs to be redone and/or streamlined drastically.  Its a mess.

I would like to see funding for alternative/complimentary medicine available for returning, injured and disabaled war vets.
 I have seen (tiny) projects funded and amazing results occur for PTSD and injury/nerve damage.

Yes, I agree with this, but we need to just say "Take care of Veterans".  Through health care, and real funding and oversight in the VA.  They are being vastly under-assisted and deserve as much help as we can offer.  We need financial assistance for home mortgages, ongoing medical problems (many of which are for life) and so on.  Many come back from war to learn that they can't pay their mortgages or that their medical bills are shooting through the roof, or that they are now in the middle of a nasty divorce.  These are, unfortunately, the side effects of being gone for months at a time.  We need to support them both in education and in other ways.

Our Meditation Center is being slowly developed in the Ozark mountains in Missouri on 30 acres of land. We have 6 cabins now. Last winter it was approved to build one cabin for Disabled Veterans to use in to the center as a place to come in to chill for a week to 10 days to study meditation to help with management of PTSD= Delayed stress syndrome.
Our troops need places where they can go and learn about handling Depression, anxiety, Panic attacks and the fears that crop up when coming back home. They are not getting the help for readjustment that they need and this isn't fair.
Some of the monks here and my self also have worked in Advocacy for mental health before becoming monastics. other medical people in our community want to help too. We are beginning by building this first cabin with donations from many people across the country who want to help these men or women have a place int he forest to come to rest that is disability friendly for up to parapalegic mobility situations.
I want to start a program to help other organizations to set up similar places for x military to get away into the woods for a rest.
Please comment...........

Rev. sister khema
Meditation teacher and nun.

Doesn’t anyone else remember life post-Nam when the war ended and so many came back into society at the same time?  For a few years there were many suicides, bar room fights where the building was destroyed and then burned.  Remember all the thirty or sixty days given in the county jail?  Well in society today it would not be thirty days in jail – the worst thing that could happen (way too soon) is for all our troops to return home in great numbers – today society would yell for martial law, but most of our Guard would be part of the problem.    « While the pilot program I mention below would only help the new generation of veterans from this war, it would reduce the number of homeless vets on the street AND prevent this from happening to any veteran just returning home. « To get this backlogged claims system fixed give them a year with only physical injuries being filed.   It would be faster, easier, and extremely cheaper to attract any new veteran to a 12 or 14 month new pilot program to receive a thousand dollars a month to receive a “re-organizing treatment” this would help bring in veterans (like post Nam) those vets that want to stay away from any government program, but who might really need help.  With the new GI bill starting soon I’d bet MOST new veterans would transfer over to education benefits, and then much of the information needed for college benefits will already be on file at the VA.   « With the VBA case load so backed up wouldn’t a $1000 a month to every vet who signs up for a “re-organizing treatment first” really help the DVA, VBA, and veterans all at the same time?  Actually while the delay process is being cleaned up MANY, MANY veterans could get the temporary (but fast) help they need and would never have to endure a harder future in employment or insurance coverage as someone who had/has a mental health condition If you think about this everyone wins. « If you want the backlogged claims system fixed give them a year with only physical injuries being filed.   No filing for PTSD during that one year or 14 months time frame of treatment.  This would really help the vets who want that life without a mental health disability hanging over their heads for the rest of their life.  And again, this would bring veterans into the VA who would not have of otherwise ever sought treatment (but who might really need it).  It would also help the VA weed out the few who will make fraudulent claims of PTSD.   Even while the system is in restructure,  they WILL NOT allow PTSD to be used as a “catch all” for everything besides the visual hang-nail either « Here is another well earned part of the solution; I left just a brief comment there also: http://www.clinicaltrialstoday.com/2008/12/aahrpp-accredit.html

Mr. Lange
You absolutely have my vote and like others have said, that care should extend to all U.S. VETERANS. This is an idea that SHOULD NOT  be turned down. If we don't take care of our soldiers then, to me, that is the same as "slapping them in the face". American soldiers are why we have what we have and they should not be denied anything-no matter their situation.

As a disabled vet, I know how much needs to be done to help us.  Please do more for Vets, we all need better medical and mental health care.

Veterans for Medical Marijuana Access
http://www.veteransformedicalmarijuana.org

"As a sufferer of multiple sclerosis since 1999, I use medical marijuana to ease my painful spasms. Marijuana allows me to function normally instead of having to endure the debilitating side effects and mental fogginess that I found accompanied opiate-based painkillers.
 
I strongly endorse the mission of Veterans for Medical Marijuana Access."
 
 –Montel Williams

Read more about Montel's Story here....
http://www.veteransformedicalmarijuana.org/vets.html

Veterans For Peace
http://www.veteransforpeace.org/img/top_logo.gif
http://www.veteransforpeace.org/

Yes We Can Shut Down the SOA
http://www.politicalaffairs.net/article/view/7775/1/355/

http://i34.tinypic.com/314vxat.jpg

CANNABIS, FORGETTING, AND THE BOTANY OF DESIRE
MICHAEL POLLAN
http://tinyurl.com/CANNABIS-FORGETTING-Pollan
I want to start by briefly explaining what I mean by the botany of desire, about my approach to plants and their relationship to people, and then get on to marijuana. Those who have the book, Botany of Desire, will recognize some of what I’m saying, at least at the start. But I then want to go a little bit deeper into what we’ve  learned and what we’re learning about cannabis and the cannabinoid network and memory since the book has come out. We’re learning things actually almost every day about this very exciting area of brain science.

Cannabis, the Importance of Forgetting  by Michael Pollan
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/MASHAction/message/400
“Why would we evolve a chemical that would make us forget, that would affect our short-term memory?” That seems maladaptive. His answer was one of the great “a-ha!” moments I had when I was working on this book. He said, “Well, do you really want to remember all the faces you saw in the subway this morning, all the faces in the supermarket?” And I realized at that moment, well, of course, forgetting is not a defect of a mental operation, although it can certainly be that; forgetting is a mental operation. It’s almost as important as remembering.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeCra-sn0dI
YouTube - Cannabis Forgetting and the Botany of Desire ...

Ganja Eases Traumatic Memories New Orleans...
http://www.hipforums.com/newforums/archive/index.php/t-118782.html

Homeless Vets Already Overload Safety Net
http://pzzzz.tripod.com/day.html

Many Veterans are the "Enemy" of the Bush D.E.A.th War
http://tinyurl.com/VeteransEnemyInD-E-A-thWar
Sam Stone came home, To his wife and family After serving in the conflict overseas. And the time that he served, Had shattered all his nerves, And left a little shrapnel in his knee. But the morphine eased the pain, And the grass grew round his brain, And gave him all the confidence he lacked, With a Purple Heart and a monkey on his back. There's a hole in daddy's arm where all the money goes...

Iraq & Afghan Vets Suffer PTSD & Depression
http://www.topix.net/forum/source/ukiah-daily-journal/T73HNJTEMJH0OIVK6
300,000 US troops who served in Iraq and Afghanistan are suffering from major depression or post-traumatic stress disorder. This, according to a new study by the RAND Corporation.

Pot Blocks Painful Memories, Study Says
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread13600.shtml

Pot-Like Chemical Helps Beat Fear
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread13596.shtml
The five-year study, by Beat Lutz of the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry in Munich, Germany, and his German and Italian colleagues, revealed a previously unknown component of that job -- snuffing out terrifying memories as part of the body's fear-coping mechanism. "Our work shows an involvement of the endogenous cannabinoid system in extinction of fear memory for the first time," Lutz told United Press International.

Natural High Extinguishes Bad Memories in Brain
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread13593.shtml

'Natural' Cannabis Manages Memory
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread13598.shtml

High Times for Alzheimers
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14254.shtml

"My basic hypothesis," he says, "is that Aß is taken up into neurons, where it is phophorylated [garlanded, like tau, with phosphorus and oxygen] and kills them. It's this toxic action that cannabinoids prevent." Milton discovered this by incubating human neurons in culture, and then poisoning them with Aß. When he added cannabinoids to the brew, Aß was apparently no longer toxic.
Dr Nathaniel Milton,
a biochemist at London's Royal Free
and University College medical school.

Israel To Soothe Trauma With Marijuana
http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/19/thread19585.shtml

Pot Shots for Israeli Soldiers
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread19285.shtml
"The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) medical corps, in cooperation with the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, is introducing the use of THC, the active agent in the cannabis plant, which helps relieve post-traumatic stress disorders, on an experimental basis," an army statement said.

Study: Marijuana Eases Traumatic Memories
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread13601.shtml

Pot Blocks Painful Memories, Study Says
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread13600.shtml

Pot-Like Chemical Helps Beat Fear
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread13596.shtml
Natural molecules that act like the primary active ingredient in marijuana apparently play a key part in helping the brain wipe away fearful memories, perhaps averting undue anxiety and panic attacks, researchers report. The discovery, detailed in the British journal Nature, could lead to the development of psychiatric drugs for the treatment of such fear-based conditions as phobias and post-traumatic stress disorder, they said.

'Cannabis' Acts as Antidepressant
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread21188.shtml

'Cannabis' Acts as Antidepressant
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread21188.shtml
The Journal of Clinical Investigation
Canada's University of Sasketchewan

Scientists Copy Pot To Combat Depression
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14877.shtml

"THC reduces anxiety by binding directly to receptors in the brain and resulting in its familiar high sensation. The reaction is too strong, creating marijuana's side effects,"
- Dr. Daniele Piomelli,
a pharmacology professor at the University of California at Irvine
January issue of the journal Nature Medicine.

8. CANNABIS LUNG CLEANER AND EXPECTORANT
http://www.jackherer.com/chapter07.html

9. SLEEP AND RELAXATION
http://www.jackherer.com/chapter07.html
Cannabis lowers blood pressure, dilates the arteries and reduces body temperature an average of one-half degree, thereby relieving stress. Evening cannabis smokers in general report more restful sleep.

Drugwar Lies Linked to Schizophrenia
http://www.cannabisculture.com/forums/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=1184658

"Not very long ago, emotion was thought to be the exclusive province of poets.... Now, a new science of emotion is discovering pathways in our brains that create powerful emotional memories. Normally these protect us against repeating harmful encounters and guide us to what's good. But science is just now beginning to understand how emotional memories can also become prisons when hijacked by anxiety or trauma."
- National Institute of Mental Health

Study: Marijuana Eases Traumatic Memories By Faye Flam
Source: Seattle Times August 01, 2002
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread13601.shtml

Tod H. Mikuriya M.D. http://www.mikuriya.com

The Stoners Will Survive
http://tinyurl.com/5bk5v

Israel: IDF To Treat Shell Shock With Cannabis August 05, 2004
http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/19/thread19585.shtml
The IDF will soon begin using cannabis to treat soldiers suffering from combat stress, the military said Wednesday. An army statement said the military medical corps and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem would begin treating victims of post-traumatic stress - commonly known as shell shock - with THC, the active ingredient in the cannabis plant. It said the treatment would begin on an experimental basis. "The use of THC as part of the treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder was approved by military and civilian committees relevant to the subject," the statement said.

Patients Out of Time
http://www.medicalcannabis.com

Missoula Chronic Cannabis Use Research Study
http://www.maps.org/mmj/russo.4-2001.html
MAPS is pleased to announce that funding has been secured for the Missoula Chronic Cannabis Use Research Study. This research project will examine the overall health status of six of the eight surviving federally- supplied medical marijuana patients. These patients receive their medication in canisters containing 300 cigarettes of regulated and federally- grown medical marijuana on a regular basis, according to their FDA- approved protocols.

Journal of Cannabis Therapeutics 
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread8466.shtml

Herbicide Exposure To Illnesses Among Vietnam Veterans Link
http://www.ejnet.org/rachel/rhwn212.htm
For more than a decade Vietnam veterans have sought compensation for illnesses they believe were caused by their wartime exposure to herbicides, which were used heavily during the war to defoliate the jungle, to reduce available cover for enemy troops. U.S. soldiers and airmen who prepared, handled or sprayed the herbicides, and ground troops who were doused, have been routinely denied compensation by the federal Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) because the VA has taken the position that there is not enough scientific evidence linking herbicide exposure to disease.

Agent Orange, All Over Again
http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread10495.shtml

The Dogs of War (pesticides; antibiotics)
http://www.ejnet.org/rachel/rehw436.htm
Somewhere between 2.6 and 3.8 million American men and women served in Vietnam during the years 1965 through 1971, the years when chemical herbicides were being used to denude the jungle and destroy enemy crops. Military records do not allow a more accurate determination of the true number who served.

Violence in Colombia 1990–2000
http://muse.jhu.edu/login?uri=/journals/the_americas/v059/59.2earle.html

Oil Rigged: There’s Something Slippery About The U.S. Drug War in Colombia
http://cannabisnews.com/news/8/thread8691.shtml
Colombia’s petroleum production today rivals Kuwait’s on the eve of the Gulf War. The United States imports more oil from Colombia and its neighbors Venezuela and Ecuador than from all Persian Gulf countries combined.

STOP Monsanto's Terminator Seed
http://www.rafi.org

November Coalition
http://www.november.org

Working to end drug war injustice, the November Coalition, a non-profit grassroots organization, was founded in 1997. Members educate the public about destructive, unnecessary incarceration due to the U.S. drug war, and advocate for drug war prisoners.

http://tinyurl.com/VeteransInPrisonOrJail

Bushit Rumcheney Cocktail:Fascist Nationalism and MKULTRA
http://forums.cannabisculture.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/585344/site_id/1#import

"Naturally the common people don't want war; neither in Russia, nor in England, nor in America, nor in Germany. That is understood. But after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.
- Hermann Wilhelm Göring

I'm a 70% disabled (service-related) Veteran, and I have absolutely no problem obtaining appointments at the Seattle VA.

Getting my disability status was extremely difficult, however.  It took almost 11 months of fighting with the VA.  Fortunately, I was a medic and knew how to fight the system.  Many don't.

Those who can best “Take Care of Disabled Veterans” are other veterans.  Much of what needs to be accomplished will be done by this newer generation of veterans, and as more veterans graduate from college (there is a few ready to graduate now) we need for just a few of these college veterans (no matter their course of study) to take a course in (PR) Public Relations.  And as soon as possible a new course should be added to a few hometown colleges called “Veterans Benefits Law’s.”  I wonder if veterans advocate Jim Strickland would know who could put the text book for this course together.  I’d bet the text book can be made from what he already has written.

    http://www.vawatchdog.org/08/nf08/nfsep08/nf091508-7.htm

 It will be fantastic to have a few more newly educated veterans who want to help ALL veterans… we also need  some new veterans in congress that are not yet corrupt.  Now that last part is the only part which really is easier said than done. ☺

Our soldiers deserve much more then they are getting.  They volunteered to protect our country.  USA should show some appreciation and fight hard for the veterans.

Ganjawarnews * Ganjawareness 1-9-9
http://drugwarrant.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4215#4215

Band Of Brothers Supports Vet On Trial
US CA: Column Fisher, Patty    San Jose Mercury News 07 Jan 2009

Alan Lubke fought in Vietnam more than 40 years ago, but he can't forget the horrors.  Murderous ambushes in the jungle, buddies who died.  And horrors that awaited him when he returned home - nightmares, nausea, paranoia - that only alcohol seemed to ease.

Lubke, West Point class of 1961, retired Army lieutenant colonel and recovering alcoholic, knows the awful terror of suffering from Post Traumatic stress Disorder.

That's why he has joined a small, passionate group of West Point alumni supporting Sargent Binkley, class of 1997, who is on trial for armed robbery in San Jose.  During each day of the month-long trial, members of the band of brothers have been in Judge Linda Condron's courtroom, watching intently and taking notes.

Lubke says he understands why Binkley, who became addicted to pain killers in the Army and has been diagnosed with PTSD, took an unloaded service revolver to a Mountain View Walgreen's in the middle of the night three years ago and demanded prescription drugs.

"I know about PTSD," he said.  "I know about the pain."

Lubke wants Binkley to get treatment.  But it's more likely that he'll get a prison term instead.

He's facing 12 years

Last week, a jury convicted Binkley of armed robbery, and he could get at least 12 years in prison.  This week his attorneys are trying to convince the same jury that he was insane at the time of the robbery and shobe sent to a mental hospital instead.

I wrote about Binkley in March 2008, when his parents were hoping a plea bargain would keep him out of prison.  They noted that their son had no criminal record and had been diagnosed with PTSD after seeing mass graves excavated in Bosnia and killing a boy in Honduras.

He never would have become a drug addict, they said, if the Army had properly treated the hip injury he suffered while stationed in Honduras instead of just giving him Percocet to ease the pain.

He had suffered horribly.  They had called the police when they found the stolen drugs, hoping to get help for him.

But the district attorney didn't buy Binkley's story.  At trial, he was painted not as a hero or a victim but as a liar and a manipulator who was disciplined in the Army, made up stories about his service record and refused treatment for his hip and his addiction.  He wasn't injured in the line of duty, prosecutor Deborah Medved said, but during an off-duty escapade on a beach in Honduras.

Why they support him

t's true that Binkley's service record was not exemplary and he didn't receive an honorable discharge.  So why would guys like Lubke, a decorated war hero who led the first all-American ground unit in Vietnam, stand behind this young man? Because Lubke understands that the toll war takes on a soldier isn't necessarily in proportion to the glory of the deeds.  Heroes aren't the only ones who suffer from PTSD.

"We all fought for our country," he said.  "We've all been through the experience." continued...
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n020/a07.html?102

Veterans for Medical Marijuana Access
http://www.veteransformedicalmarijuana.org

"As a sufferer of multiple sclerosis since 1999, I use medical marijuana to ease my painful spasms. Marijuana allows me to function normally instead of having to endure the debilitating side effects and mental fogginess that I found accompanied opiate-based painkillers.
 
I strongly endorse the mission of Veterans for Medical Marijuana Access."
 
 –Montel Williams

Read more about Montel's Story here....
http://www.veteransformedicalmarijuana.org/vets.html

Many Veterans are the "Enemy" of the Bush D.E.A.th War
http://tinyurl.com/VeteransEnemyInD-E-A-thWar
Sam Stone came home, To his wife and family After serving in the conflict overseas. And the time that he served, Had shattered all his nerves, And left a little shrapnel in his knee. But the morphine eased the pain, And the grass grew round his brain, And gave him all the confidence he lacked, With a Purple Heart and a monkey on his back. There's a hole in daddy's arm where all the money goes...

Iraq & Afghan Vets Suffer PTSD & Depression
http://www.topix.net/forum/source/ukiah-daily-journal/T73HNJTEMJH0OIVK6
300,000 US troops who served in Iraq and Afghanistan are suffering from major depression or post-traumatic stress disorder. This, according to a new study by the RAND Corporation.

Pot Blocks Painful Memories, Study Says
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread13600.shtml

Pot-Like Chemical Helps Beat Fear
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread13596.shtml

PTSD Victim Booted from US Army for "Misconduct"
http://www.truthout.org/011009Y
Kelly Kennedy, The Army Times: "After serving two tours in Iraq - tours filled with killing enemy combatants and watching close friends die - Sgt. Adam Boyle, 27, returned home expecting the Army to take care of him. Instead, service member advocates and Boyle's mother say his chain of command in the 3rd Psychological Operations Battalion at Fort Bragg, NC, worked to end his military career at the first sign of weakness."

Will troops be sent to the Mexican border?
The Posse Comitatus RIP... again...

Ganjawarnews * Ganjawareness 1.10/11.9
http://drugwarrant.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4216#4216

Legalized drugs only way to halt cartels
By Terry Nelson / El Paso Times Guest columnist
Posted: 01/11/2009 12:00:00 AM MST
http://www.elpasotimes.com/opinion/ci_11424658

As a retired federal officer with over three decades of service, many of those years spent fighting America's "war on drugs," I was pleased to read that the El Paso City Council unanimously called for a long overdue discussion on the effectiveness of our nation's drug policies.

You might be surprised that a veteran anti-drug agent would be glad the council specifically said drug legalization should be included in this new national conversation

Comments
http://www.topix.net/forum/source/el-paso-times/TJSJL7D5B1JQ85IO8

El Paso City Council approves resolution asking for debate on Legalization

Mayor Vetoes Resolution Asking For Debate On Legalizing Drugs
US TX Acosta, Gustavo Reveles El Paso Times 06 Jan 2009
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n021/a05.html?1042

Comments
http://www.topix.net/forum/source/el-paso-times/T7785RMT5JOEBVCA9

DdC Cannabist

“You might be surprised that a veteran anti-drug agent would be glad the council specifically said drug legalization should be included in this new national conversation” – I’m just surprised that someone who can will also speak up intelligently, I’m just a disabled veteran, but I’ve seen it all;

 If this new administration really wants change, a much better economy, more available health care, and an end to ALL the wars we are fighting this would be the best place to start: “Afghanistan has doubled its opium production over the past two years and now accounts for 93 percent of the world's output, according to the annual UNODC survey. The southern province of Helmand alone has become the world's biggest source of illicit drugs.  The amount of Afghan land used for opium has surpassed the total used for coca cultivation in Colombia, Peru and Bolivia combined.  Afghan poppies, which start as flowers in farmers' fields and often wind up as heroin on U.S. streets, fuel a $3 billion a year industry in Afghanistan. The industry is filling the coffers of the Taliban, the group who gave safe haven to al Qaeda before and after 9/11, and it is destabilizing the Afghan government” (CNN).  This investigative report was done using the figures from 2005, since then the figures from 2006 have been released and are much higher.


After our many decades of fighting this same war on illegal drugs; it would be safer, faster and much cheaper to end this war by legalizing the drugs.  The worst resistance would come from the drug cartels world-wide and the terrorist networks in the Middle-East and Mexico.  Without the illegal drug industry funding the terrorists, this global war on terror could end much sooner, and our own boarders would be easier to guard.  At the same time for just a few more years (not decades) the United States would still have to continue clearing up the mess by the once illegal drugs;  the same way as usual, with tax-payer funded drug rehabs,  including heroine or methadone babies and their lifetime medical costs etc…  Our society needs to get more faith in itself because in the Middle-East where it is much easier to get heroin than it is to get clean drinking water; they are not a society of drug addicts.

  This would also cut off the funded government corruption in the Middle East, Mexico, and the United States.   In time this will also solve many other problems in our economy especially the cost, and availability of health care.   The repercussions this would help to create for a few years (not decades) is one of the best examples of why our forefathers emphasized so strongly on the necessity of separation between the church and state.  We should take one-third of the drug rehabs in the U.S. and turn them into hospice units for the “drug challenged”.

I am truly upset the way our service men and women are treated.  Our men and women are brave enough to serve in time of war, yet when they return home needing Medical Care, or Financial  Help,  what do we do, bail out companies that have destroyed this country.  Were is the logic to this?  My brother-in-law died alone in a room, because he could not get the help he needed.  Another family member was told  after years of fighting for disability related to agent orange, they paid him $700.00 too much and they wanted the money back.  Between medication and everyday bills (no credit cards) he is hardly making it month to month.  Men and women of the Vietnam war returned home without any signs of gratitude and now history is repeating it's self.  If a man or woman puts on a uniform, serves the country, and they keep us safe., the least we can do is take care of them when they come home.

I am going to cast a vote for this cause because additional education for retraining our veterans is not the only issue they, or their families face. Good service should be rewarded with good support :)

Veterans were always high on the medical list until our present president took office and bagan the Iraq war, then it fell to helevel of the impovished. 

Hi Pat

I am a little, happily surprised.

I've been an Anti-War Veteran since the May Day demonstrations in 1971. But never against the people serving in the Armed Forces. Just the politicians making the wars and then leaving the Vets to fend for themselves. Then when they do they cage them for illegally relieving pain or trauma. That is just too far out and trippy for me.

As a cannabis caregiver since 1990 I have had Veteran patients and have helped them with their medicine. Big macho Bikers on the wrong side of a tainted transfusion in the early eighties when some government corkscrew thought AIDs only attacked gays. Before that I ran boilers and ammonia refrigeration for a corporation. All while taking a few tokes after work. I try to stay in private care, unfortunately it was mostly those wealthy enough to afford it, Nice people and fair wages but the workers were left to partial care a couple times a day and then hope for the best in the hours they can't afford. Agencies provide even more expensive care usually shorter term.

Leaving warehouses or under the table so the patients can afford 24 hour home care.  Also leaving vulnerable patients to a sliding scale. Price isn't always the best determination if your loved one is abused or ripped off. This nuke family mindset has left us spread out from our parents and even large homes to provide a place for seniors inevitably needing help someday. So I've let it unfold and so far have always seemed to find someone needing my services.  My resume is basically the last patients family. If it isn't quality care I wouldn't have stayed employed almost 20 years.

Not always cannabis. I think that is important to not do anything behind their backs even if past experience tells me it would help them sleep, eat or what not. I've never ask a doctor or patient to sign anything, but insist the three of us talk about it first. Doesn't seem to matter the back ground. In a hospice situation the patients comfort usually over rides political hogwash. Unless your Al Gore's sister.

But I do advocate and utilize Hemp. My clothing is softer and has greater tensile strength. The hemp oil is sold in health food stores here and I've found it helps patients immune system fight off infection from urinary cathitors. Keeping off antibiotecs. It also hemps the skin with its essential fatty acids. Only thing I've found for weeping skin breakdown when edema leaks out preventing it from healing. 24 hours it seals as it lets a new layer grow. Amazing in soaps and skin care without the drying petroleum products.

Outlawed for farmers in the US. Would Mexicans risk their lives coming here if they could grow a staple food, fuel and fiber for rugs and clothing. Burlap or canvas. Plus selling and manufacturing jobs. For family farmers locally providing communities without oil tankers or pesticides sprayed onto the streams and lakes along with the fields and dirt kids play in.  Whatever Ganja research takes place around the world, it also gets in the conversation. I've seen more eyebrow bottoms than anyone. lol

High on Hemp
http://drugwarrant.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=859

Something Vets aren't even aware of, as with most of the population. The government taxes their injury, illness or disease. I've been pushing and hounding my Reps in Congress but telling them about not paying taxes is like telling a hippy to not listen to the Grateful Dead.

Long term home care Insurance is popping up, but not in the mainstream. So many of us boomers will end up in warehouses. 20 to 1 ratio of patients to caregivers. No personal involvement. Just assembly line maintenance. Many seniors labored to build their homes and have a lifetime of memories in every furniture nick and sounds and smells. Now forced out because of a condition requiring assistance. Because 24/7 x 365 x?$ per hour isn't in the retirement plans.

Especially when they're half way through, seen Alaska tired of Golfing and think shuffle board is for sissies. And now this happens. Strokes or the onslaught of Neurological illness, imho since the inception of poison pesticides, not used on hemp btw. Whatever, the end result is a third of the expense could be saved by exempting the caregiver on a one on one basis, and heavy fines if abused. This won't increase the caregivers salary one cent. Though that is also part of the bigger picture when citizens don't get living wages.

By exempting the caregiver of income tax, not SS, and letting the patient keep the money, not a rebate they have to come up with. Contract with the two and the tax people and it would free up about a third of the bill. Maybe not everything they need, but enough for extra hours and not forced to psychically predict when the best time would be.

I'm very skeptical of this administration using Klintoon's old buddies. Not that I respect Bush, but at least I knew where his base was. Obama will have to earn my respect. That will take time and his actions. So far I'm not impressed. This change,org seems to censor ideas and even comments. An agenda where they choose over the will of the people on the forums voting. Sounds familiar. Change.gov did the same and no matter how many want the debate, it is sidelined into silence. Though this is a good thing having different lifestyles state their positions and then talk it out. Many end up like El Paso shootouts. Lot of intimidation to avoid the talks, even legislature. I'm not impressed with intimidation. Seems it hides something.

I was one of the lucky ones in the late 60's early 70's. My ping pong ball was 249 and I haven't played the lottery since because I feel I won back then and what's the point. My friends went and came back with the horror stories and some with addictions and many just warehoused as I just mentioned. The "Battle Fatigue, Heebee Geebees, Shell Shock, PTSD... was usually covered up in the macho folder. Real men don't whine sorta nonsense. Now that Israel troops and home remedies are seeing good results using cannabis to forget the trauma, more hopefully will question why research is outlawed, and again rejected by the omnipotent infallible DEA. If it works and in ten thousand years never killed as many of the drug store powders have. Then Let it Be.

I see no problem, and almost 40 years of being around it without a criminal record I know it can be a good thing and prohibition makes it dangerous. Prohibition would make lawn rakings dangerous. Outlaw carrots and the jail would still do damage as it does now. Jail and the jungle survival of the fittists settings, rapes beatings and other terror tactic extracurricular activity is not the effects of carrots or cannabis. The only reason I have remained this long without a criminal record is the fact that I've kept a personal vow in 1972 to stop selling it. I personally treat it as a non religious Sacrament. I've loaned a thousand joints but haven't made a nickel. btw when you loan joints they think its a gift and never pay it back. Here that deadbeats! lol

I have to ask, besides Coca Cola who on earth snorts cocaine? I thought that went out with Disco. tg I know crack is garbage and enslaves kids to the addiction and cannabis can help them ween off of it in controlled environments. But where is the market except Madison Ave making anti drug commercials? I know it dissipates alcohol to stay sober during three martini lunches. I know speed is abused and mostly because of the economy and people trying to stay awake for the second shift. All made in laboratories during prohibition. So if all these bad things are taking place during prohibition, maybe its time to try something else. Separate the drugs from the punishment and combat zones required to get the drugs.

I've always steered people clear of white powders, especially speed, and found myself lecturing in Florida to redneck kids doing peace-mill work. I told them their hearts were going three times faster than normal, added to the physical labor and they were just asking for heart attacks before they reached 30. Speed Kills is what we told people. But it is a staple in this country, from diet pills to truckers getting the produce to market. Doctors and even cops on long shifts. College kids cramming for exams popping white crosses. Now for ADD? Yes meth is junk but the economy  forcing people to work two jobs is wrong too.

As for Afghanistan I was informed in the 90's most of the crop went to Europe and the US got its opiates from Mexico and the East. Another problem I never had thanks to a Vet returning from Vietnam. He tried to introduce me to heroin and missed the vein. Caused a lump and scared me out of trying it again. I sorta think he may have done it on purpose because of what he had to go through being addicted. Most just turn into subhuman emotionless beings drumming up clients without regards to their lives. There but for the grace of God go I. If my ping pong ball was lower it could easily have been me.

Seems to me that all of the addictive drugs that come from plants require corporate lab equipment and chemicals. That never seem to be part of the equation. Like heroin grows out of the ground. Arm and Hammer baking soda to make crack seems like that would be paraphernalia. Can't they check inventories to see who is buying so much since the mid 80's? I feel for the junkies but not multi billion dollars worth giving it to the drug czar. He won't help them just make them un-American snitches to bust a sick person like Steve Kubby.

Lot of politics in the ONDCP that seems counter productive to the country and especially some of its citizens. If the system allowed true debate Nixon's lies about cannabis would have been exposed by the media, especially including hemp and medicinal in the mix that wasn't in the original Marijuana Tax Act of 1937. Corporatism. Now they again refuse to re-schedule it and won't let researchers use anything but the sticks and seeds they give to the remaining IND patients. Federal government joints roiled and sent to 5 remaining patients while the 20 millionth cannabis criminal was inducted. Weird.

I'm glad they left this post, and we got to chat. I think we can solve a lot more problems on the ground than some neurotic politician fabricating castles in the sky.
Be Well
DdC

DEA Denies Recent Rescheduling Petition

On May 12,2008, you petitioned the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to initiate rulemaking proceedings under the rescheduling provisions of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA). You requested that DEA remove marijuana from schedule I of the CSA based on your assertion that the federal definition for a schedule I controlled substance no longer applies to it. You contend that federal drug law gives states the authority to determine accepted medical use and that marijuana, therefore, has a "currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States" because 12 states have passed laws relating to the use of marijuana for medical purposes. Based on these same assertions, on August 5, 2008, you filed a "Notice and Deadline to Cease and Desist Illegal Enforcement of Fraudulant [sic] Marijuana Regulation." The notice states that the DEA must "cease and desist enforcement of the illegal regulation of marijuana" within 30 days or you will file a federal civil injunction. continued...
http://forums.cannabisculture.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showthreaded&Number=1484940

DEA Rejects Yet Another Rescheduling Petition
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/567/DEA_rejects_marijuana_rescheduling_petition
But the End Game Lies Far Down the Road is an excellent view of the current efforts to reschedule marijuana, with the recent, but expected rejection by the DEA of Carl Olsen's petition.

Nixon lied to schedule Ganja #1.
http://drugwarrant.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=459

DEA Rejects By Bina Venkataraman
UMass Request To Grow Med Marijuana
CN Source: Boston Globe January 12, 2009 Washington, DC
The US Drug Enforcement Administration has rejected the bid of a UMass Amherst researcher who wants to create the second laboratory in the nation authorized to grow marijuana for medical research. The ruling released today came nearly two years after a federal administrative law judge recommended that Lyle Craker, a horticultural professor who specializes in medicinal plants, be allowed to grow marijuana for medical research.
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread24422.shtml

DEA Rejects Professor's Bid To Grow Marijuana By Andrew Miga
CN Source: Associated Press January 12, 2009 Washington, DC
The Drug Enforcement Administration has rejected a petition by a University of Massachusetts-Amherst professor to let him grow marijuana for medical research. DEA spokesman Garrison Courtney on Monday confirmed the agency's ruling, but declined further comment.
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread24421.shtml

Patrick M. Ward
http://www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov/about/Ward.html
Acting Deputy Director for Supply Reduction
White House Office of National Drug Control Policy

The federal government itself approved the use of cannabis as a medicine in 1976, by instituting the Compassionate IND program, under which physicians could obtain an individual Investigational New Drug application (IND) for a patient to receive cannabis. This program too was so bureaucratically burdened that in the course of its history only about three dozen patients ever received marihuana.
-- Dr Lester Grinspoon

Patients Out of Time
http://mojo.calyx.net/~olsen/MEDICAL/POT/

A Few People Get Uncle Sam's Weed
http://cannabisnews.com/news/23/thread23425.shtml

Prescription Pot? Only from Bayer and Government
http://cannabisnews.com/news/19/thread19205.shtml

Patients Out of Time
http://www.medicalcannabis.com

Missoula Chronic Cannabis Use Research Study
http://www.maps.org/mmj/russo.4-2001.html

Journal of Cannabis Therapeutics
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread8466.shtml

http://tinyurl.com/COPsAgainstGanjawar

Oh and yes, the Cartels do profit on the war the same as cops and corporations keeping competition off the market. Growers wouldn't be getting $400.00 an ounce if it grew legally in the kitchen. The war is fought by profiteers on opposite sides and it is paid for by the majority of us in the middle. Like most wars.

I was wondering...
http://blogs.salon.com/0002762/categories/guestDrugWarrant/2003/12/03.html

Interview related to this subject at url below.

Aaron Glantz, independent journalist who reported extensively from Iraq from 2003-05 and has been covering the stories of American military veterans since his return. He is author of the new book The War Comes Home. Washington’s Battle against America’s Veterans. His first book was titled How America Lost Iraq.

http://www.democracynow.org/2009/1/15/as_shinseki_vows_to_transform_va

I fully support this. My dad was a Vietnam Vet.
Why is there free housing, food, clothes, car repair, any many other things for people who have never served their country?  They should cut out some welfair benifets and fund support for all veterans.