“As Medical Marijuana Becomes More Accepted, Veterans Urge the VA to Prescribe It”
” Though medical marijuana is legal in most states, the Department of Veterans Affairs will neither recommend nor prescribe it because of a longstanding federal law.
Charles Claybaker spent five tours in Afghanistan, kicking in doors and taking out terrorists. But an aircraft crash in 2010 left the Army Ranger with a crushed leg, hip and spine and a traumatic brain injury.
Army doctors loaded him up with a dozen prescriptions to numb the pain and keep his PTSD in check.
But Claybaker said the pills transformed him from a highly-trained fighter into a zombie for at least two hours a day.
“I’m talking mouth open, staring into space,” Claybaker said.
Claybaker decided he would rather live in constant pain. He took himself off opioids and suffered for eight months.
Then, after retiring and moving back to St. Petersburg, Fla. he discovered marijuana – and he said it changed his life.”
Copyright 2018 North Carolina Public Radio – WUNC.
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