Drugs/Therapy
Veterans Given Free Pot in Denver to Relieve their Pain
According to a group from Denver, hundreds of military veterans were given free marijuana-infused products to help relieve their pain at an event titled the Denver Cannabis Giveaway.
"We're really here to help them with their medical conditions," the founder of Operation Grow4Vets, Roger Martin, who is a veteran, told KDVR-TV. "There's a wide variety of ailments. Anything that involves pain."
Operation Grow4Vets, which hosted the event, is an organization that wants to provide veterans the option of using an alternative form of medicine to prescription drugs. The organization promotes the use of marijuana to relieve pain, anxiety and other symptoms. At the giveaway, it distributed 400 bags of products infused with marijuana
"I've been using cannabis and it's been helping me. And it helps. If I don't have to take a pill for 4 to 5 hours, for me that's a big deal," commented Brian Nance, 29, a veteran from Afghanistan.
Vietnam veteran, Mark Pitts, added, "Without the cannabis, forget it, I don't even want to get out of bed some days. But, at least, cannabis takes enough of the edge off the pain I can deal with the pain,"
Within Colorado, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has not been approved as a condition that can be treated with medical marijuana. Despite this, state officials cannot prohibit a giveaway event to adults over the age of 21 from taking place since marijuana has been approved for recreational purposes. It is also legal within the state to give out free pot. Some experts, however, questioned the safety of this type of event.
"It's a reckless way to operate," Bob Doyle with the Colorado Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM) Coalition said according to CBS Denver.
Colorado and Washington are the only two states where adults can purchase marijuana legally for recreational use.
Operation Grow4Vets' latest project is called Save 1,000 Vets. The project's goal is to provide 1,000 veterans with a lifetime supply of marijuana-infused products free of charge.
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