work and i am well people saying and let's get started on this where do we go p t s d veterans administration how about you know where do we begin but we brought that subject up before but now i voters six hundred seventy two thousand voters strong keith already done rivers for congress campaign treasurer and pretty much anything you need to be done right now in the reason i say that is when i going to leave people out these veterans need to be district and a key thing here and keep in mind also that in the constitution does say military pensions shebeen not be question and keep in mind during the discussion and you're probably in joy a lot more pleasure so could you give us a little bit more of your background let's that's where you're from and some of the jobs you've held on and it's ok tell us why you're running because that's what we already well actually i'm from seattle i'm originally by way of detroit michigan been here for thirty seven almost thirty eight years now but you're so you're not a native i'm i'm really no a sorry about that thirty seven years oh yeah you came close quite close came and i'm also not a of community involvement been an activist in the area for that period of time been an advisor for law enforcement for thirty six plus years have traveled the nation dealing with issues of criminal justice racial profiling  voters of washington state in areas of that significant we're looking at right now you cannot in canonical issues the growth of our economy educational issues and the quality of life style bridges they're not being paid attention to veterans affairs can't really get a hole to this thing and and senator patty murray has championed this basically by herself and i don't know where the other elected officials are so we need to have co officials to be there and ready to be involved and i told you yesterday i mean i why veterans what what what drives you to them veterans i'm drawn to that piece right now because they're strong piece of our society they're coming back home  and either they're bringing war back home or they're bringing lack of not being accepted into society post traumatic stress disorder issues we really need to have our communities prepared to talk to these individuals on a regular basis pick our hand out in congratulate them and and get into dialogue with them help them understand their family if you're living next to a vet make sure that you meet him at the mailbox we used to have the milkman so you know you meet of a twitter i have met you know madonna my when you're on life if you will share with us why vets i mean there's a lot of issues that you could you could hang your hat on what is there is there a personal connection somehow is there a family member is there is there something that's driven you to this there is there are several issues why but there are a lot of several times to mccord and to fort lewis to counsel sergeants and those that were coming back that wanted to kill their families and basically did not want to be back in society two and three and four deployments my heart goes out to them i don't think that they find that they feel that they have a place in society any longer once they've been out so long and they don't know how to fit back in so it's an  area of where if we're bringing in the soldiers back home we have to prepare ourselves to engage with the soldiers and bring them into society and know that they're there and then we adjust ourselves the fact that they are going to be living amongst us and i think that's important in the military can't do it all but the military has been sending out soldiers that were not really competent being able to be on the battlefield they were actually sick and they deployed them back out that's what i heard yesterday and that was really devastating for me to hear something like that well look let's go back one step and talk about because i find it found i i found it shocking  when we when you mentioned it earlier this evening this this concept that a military person would want to win even think of killing their own family i haven't read much of in the papers and when you when you when you hear of people losing it and going killing other people do usually not their family it's that we know that the tragedy and in texas just this last week from a from a school families being killed if they're all outside killers families is this is this is this becoming more common is this something we're supposed to really take in as as something that bets that's going to happen well i think what i have noticed is soldiers are coming back with stressful situations that they're not really ready to confront whether a nazi or spouse have been with someone else whether or not the house has been turned upside down the mortgage is messed over whether or not can they be daddy again can they be mommy again those are the issues that they're confronted with in who knows what goes on in the mindset of that soldier that activates that lack of caring of ability to not even feel that they can be normal in functioning any more so we have to get into that area of because the issues are simple they're not hard issues these are issues that deal with whether or not a person is accepted or the person except themselves to be normal and that's not being found in society's days and we have to engage to make sure that that is a common factor of evaluating soldiers or veterans where they're being placed how do what additional roundings environment looks like in how the engage with one another so yes i've dealt with a lot and this is traumatic when a soldier says he comes home and now he's faced with a bang that's foreclosing on his home a job to say you can't come back  test went on in the battlefield so little things are important so let's go down our panel a bit don i'm curious because i have not been in the military so i don't know i guess i had this concept put people in boot camp for six weeks i don't know if that's accurate correct me if they're if it's different but we obviously put a lot of effort into teaching normal people how to be abnormal bet is go out and kill other human beings when we have been raised and learn that this is not something that we do but we don't give them six weeks of boot camp coming back and i think that's part of what you've been talking about is that that's what we need to have in place is a program that we're going on ice and in place in structure so that they they get off the plane or the boat they have this available to them where they can go and get a therapeutic massage where they can talk to a counsellor where they can you know talk about their nightmares where they can get some hopefully organic natural medicine like cannabis that's not going to kill their organs but can give them stress relief and help them you know focusing in constructive ways as they rebuild their life that's what we need to do is give them a structure to help them rebuild their lives because they come to us i think damaged by nature we have taught them to be killing machines now we have to teach them again to be productive members of loving productive members of society but by god these are american military men and women not supposed to talk about this they're supposed to not resolved in the state of washington and america the black white issue some can say forty acres in a meal whatever however you want to diagnose it we have not really found ourselves able to get alone or understand how we get along and if we haven't done that with the black white issue now we have it from a cultural perspective because now we're globalized and we're dealing with this now from a perspective of minorities  for you to understand my culture you first have to understand my life and if you don't understand my life and my surroundings you would never understand my culture so to sit and watch those soldiers come back home and say i tell you what i'm going to be a police officer what do you think's going to happen ok because they got said trauma that inside of and they got that the other piece of them that wants to  engage adrenaline pumping and in horror we have a war against people of color most of our wars in america that have been fought the people of color so it's destiny case we're looking at a powder keg here soldiers coming back home from war but starting war in their minds in their communities in our societies when we've got to wake up and own it and be involved in it i saw senator patty murray sit there and take responsibility but what i was heard about was out of all the congressional people we have in the state of washington all the elected officials none of them were there no matter she was the chairperson on this committee none of them with their that hurt me mayor strickland was there from tacoma  the governor's husband was there mr gregg while he was there but i'm telling you there's a disconnect here and we have to have people in office at a competent enough to really care about people and it's there to the bus to go to labor ready you can attain a job if it's available you have no health insurance and he's type two diabetic i mean my stomach turns and i just don't see how we can find one place for that and you know and it's setting where he's going to cut lawns and and really release all that stress and anxiety and really be able to work and work through things with his hands and my wife since i'm the last night her father was an army ranger who recently passed she said let these guys train for that which they want to do you don't tell them what you're going to do let them find out what they should be trained for no other words keep it simple right and actually done it wasn't that one of the things that was being addressed in the issues of work you've got right there that are coming back and they're signing up for the g i bill so they can have income but there isn't anything else really they're not they're not able to look at their long term goals and from active duty to inactive to being a vet and then you're categorized no one really is breaking it down from that point to see where you fit in society now they get they have the the so called shrink to a so called people that have been versed with degrees someone's theory someone's point of view of what systemically should done but no one is dealing with the stabilizing point of sand every day how you doing today mike what did you do today how is your family what  doest you think today and these are the things that you have to engage in because the brain has to be active if the brain has been dead into war then you have to activate the brain to life so we have to engage in a community of activating our veterans brain into life into caring again into one thing to be cared for and these things are not happening die they're  things are ok the mortgage is paid and you know the husband or wife is home and the kids are there and they're in school and you know it's a good reunion but when you go back to the p t s d and if they're not become latchkey kids by liabilities then it's not some well it's in addition to all the trauma they've suffered they've come home to a lack of freedom due to this prohibition and it has been more detrimental the effects of the prohibition are more detrimental then any perceived attachment from the cannabis while that's strong so as patty murray been successful on trying to get  that diagnoses of p t s d through the veterans administration turned around where they were where they're going to reinstate that diagnosis and actually give more pats help it's there  how should i say it cleared and set back to battle therefore i think we're in the discovery phase she would be she's in a discovery phase i asked to join the party because i believe that if we don't engage and i'm i'm wanting to be and i will be elected official so my goal is to make sure that i start now i don't wait to the voters vote me and by the time the voters vote these areas are important and we have to make sure that we have veterans are able to understand that they are free to live in these areas and love life because life loves them so you know don i'm glad you mentioned beer and i have brought this up before i'm associated with the cameras farmer's market and white and other white center yeah that market is directly across the street from a par there used to be a couple of bars one shut down there's a lot of people on the street white senate and i've talked to the two quite a few people out there and they're veterans oh my god it's just really sad to see what the circumstances they live under and people doing well all around them but offering of you don they can call this a choice wellness center at two zero six six eight two three zero one five and what discount do you get the vets we give the vets a twenty percent discount and if they're in the end it more if they are in can this kind of stuff is very important we don't want these guys falling through the cracks i want to hang out with don and talk to some of these vets live and show him that i care because it's not enough just to talk and we got to do it and get it done and i know don's a man for that down rivers for congress twenty twelve r and i like to ask all that's to please go to our website canister child protection act dot org we have to show is there you can download we can happen just as you can read you can see how we intend to change prohibition and how it affects your family and your lives we need all the support we can get to get this on the ballot we want to vote on the same november but we do have two propositions twelve twenty three is to the people will be there in november and five fourteen it's to the legislature in case we don't make it on the ballot for november in case for vote it down this issue is not going away and washington needs safe access for all of its patients p t s d even if they're not a qualifying condition a lot of these vets have other it is all a lie friday night here we are again and i hope that we can come up with some ideas we need your input while you're watching and listening and maybe maybe some day participating that might be interesting we're looking at creating programs media programs especially  great opportunity to have media on demand go to me is to fake google search will bring up some of our stuff from the last few weeks what's very key is it's not just medical where medical cannabis it's not just p t s d addressing it as p though my name's professor gizmo and activist and also a medical marijuana patient and also do tours here for new people in town that need to find your medical access points for medical marijuana  with the cannabis chop protection act initiative twelve twenty three and five fourteen for trying to get these on the ballot to give greater access to washington citizens to keep dorothy campaign treasurer dan rivers for d so that's why i'll be talking to our congressmen candidate about asking him questions today tonight they well we've had an interesting evening yesterday with u s senator patty murray when she decided to have a first hearing the senate committee on veteran affairs first hearing was held in tacoma and it was done in april before of two thousand and twelve i want to commend her for her efforts of champ being the champion of this but this time she started off with taken to ten issues off and she hit real hard and was running real good on it about what is happening to our fare better and in the area of post traumatic stress disorder and veterans wellness issues so don let's get started on that what do you were we had today when we  dealing with post traumatic stress wellness issues what do you think it well i think that everyone that has p t s d issues needs to have every available treatment open to  them my personal issue is cannabis we find a lot of our young soldiers and older soldiers as well coming back from service to trouble at home a lot of them don't know that they have the issue and they begin medicating self medicating with cannabis and find it helps them and the concern is that without an authorization they might find themselves losing their benefits losing their opportunities for employment all the things that medicating with cannabis some of the current law effects veterans and others with p t s d negatively you could die why would you say someone would need to self medicate themselves well in the heat when you're upset or you and the thing is with other alcohol with alcohol and other substances that may be legal there's no repercussions but when they choose to find that cannabis is effective in treating their symptoms that's against the law but they if they don't have an authorization they could lose everything and i just don't think that's right for veterans i don't think that's good for our country and good for our state what do you think about cannabis and veterans well i actually think it's an issue here if anyone has a statement you can kind of cool your hand  statements that have been made that the debriefing system is outdated and not related to bringing veterans or soldiers back into society and because of it they come back with issues and i'm hearing also that they're deployed with issues so they're not really being diagnosed properly the diagnosis a are being thrown away put away and hidden and they'd be employed back out into the battlefield and i'm thanking senator patty murray for championed this because we've got some strong issues here some problems that we're bringing back home so what we had we went to these young people went to fight a war but they're coming back and creating war constitution where the constitution does say military pensions shall not be questioned so if you're not questioning something that's a military standpoint with then not also be their medical coverage their host employment situation everything i mean that is that not part of the military pension but that's where i would perceive it and i don't know how you would pursue but i'm assuming that might be pretty close to the same say but this congress and the senate really think of it that way it doesn't sound like it from the documents you documentations don't i brought in it doesn't seem like it's matching no no not at all and then there's a version no well there was one example in there where there was some dental problems and i think you are correct you read it more finally the right idea but i'm thinking from a financial side planning standpoint when you get when you're employed you've got your short term disability up to six months and then the first is so security disability might kick in after that so you think six months maybe another three months for the extra transition time so for instance for instance and so security if you are disabled for at least six months and expected to last for at least one year or more and it doesn't actually have to be but that's what they're looking at o leading to death and anything like with cancer that's expected to lead to death but i'm not seeing or hearing from that particular dental example because they had was a sixty days actually ninety days sixty you know yeah ok with a gap between being a soldier and being put into a veteran status with no coverage with for the v a for the regular so separate none whatsoever sixty or ninety days there's no people only do three months some people do night four months five six based upon what they might want to do in the longer you're in there the better it is for you but that particular person they had issues with their there was some guys or something all they needed was a cap on their tooth and they didn't get it and they didn't get it named it would some dental floss down into their gums and they were deployed back out and that's only and they just about lost half their face right except for the provision of a fine gentleman dentist that covered the bases from the financial standpoint on that because he had some sympathy or some and in the community right in right in the civilian area so from a financial planning standpoint the government is falling down and if we go back and look at the constitution it says military pensions shall not be questioned then is that not part of the military question i military pension taking care of the veterans after they're out well that's an area that people i definitely want people to go to my website w w w donbas for congress and i definitely dot com i definitely want them to send us an email about what's going on in their issue i told senator patty murray that i was definitely going to get started on this situation now because we have better and better on the street don that are living on the street they can't live in a house they're  not confined to the can't be put back into society is that way and we haven't them getting diagnosed from what i heard by someone's thesis someone's doctorate degree from a perspective of psychology and being a psychologist and seen ok wait a minute we we got to seen you back out even though we know you have post traumatic stress disorder we're going to just say you ok and we got to get you back on the battlefield because we  have a shortage soldiers number one you can hold a gun you can shoot a gun you can you can talk you can run and you signed up you deployed i mean right two and three terms three and four terms i've actually had on had times where i have really been called in and had to talk to sergeants who were talking about killing their family they want to get came back and the houses were turned upside down the mortgages were messed up and they wanted to kill their family and to really had the only thing they got that this sergeant is when i took a road out of my pocket and stuck it in his face and said this is your wife does she deserve that and he broke so the candidates reasoned maybe an area where they can think i know i've seen people take a cigarette everyone now and then and they go off in a corner and i think and in they have time where they can kind of dialogue understand something what we want to get deeper into this because senator patty murray was really really touched by what she heard yesterday and it was really it floored me i've never out of thirty years i've known her i've never seen heard this uncomfortable and if there's anything we've got to come to you sure in the in the veterans that i've talked to over the last couple of years oh you know going to war going to service overseas is hard enough it's very traumatic in and of itself when you get these extended deployments repeated deployments they become more alienated from their family and less detachment we're more detached from the community more isolated in introspective so we have to try to eliminate symptoms before we're treating them you platoon to do something a soldier knows is irrational save marching through an open field surrounded by trees with lord knows what in it well a lot of those first lieutenant second lieutenants didn't make it home because they got shot in the head by their own men now if you could treating people in combat situations like we've been treating them and setting them out for deployment after deployment after deployment to commit atrocities after atrocity year after atrocity and then you stack on all the chemicals they send these boys boys and girls out into the field that's what they're doing they think giving our soldiers or marines or bottles of prozac or whatever  and what it would or these young people supposed to do if these drugs out in the field they're playing with death every day pretty soon these pills just become things that they can yammer with things to make bets on you know see who can take the most those things of this nature well what is this doing to all of our brothers and sisters when they come home i mean once you start taking an s s r i you no longer have enough of that feel good hormones sarah tone in your blood what do you expect our brothers and sisters to do in order they're so messed up the cheapest easiest most effective way to address all of that with the least i think to everybody is to let them have cannabis freely frequently as much as they like i say let them but that fire out as quickly and as safely as has to be some type of a think tank program or something where they can go and sort of like of a detox area zone or something to bring them back into one and to be what causes that guy for what cause if a soldier to come back go through to me but at the same time be ready to be deployed at any moment how do you sleep at night how do you rest with your loved ones how do you feel when you're little daughter runs across with your son runs across the floor to you what do you think and what what has shut down in you and been turned off when you have is dea that strong that you've done you've committed you you've killed the enemy so to speak but now you consider yourself an enemy to yourself well you know when you think about that if there was a effective treatment and pharmaceutical medicine that worked we wouldn't be talking here today ok it would have affect your treatment but you know you're in america you watch t v every one of these drugs has got  just outstanding side effects that are very scary including up to and including death and the prohibition on cannabis has prevented any research into any beneficial effects it's very possible that some of our most well adjusted people could come back and be consuming cannabis as their treatment in avoidance of all these other detrimental or even interactive substances in other words you favor metal out well mel lot is one thing but we need some science behind everything we do we can't just say hey go out and smoke marijuana cuz it'll make you feel better was what i want the evidence that we're getting from the public at large i mean we've had over one hundred million americans smoke marijuana at some point their lives already and i haven't seen one hundred million marijuana deaths unfortunately see a million marijuana arrests and  that's another traumatic experience and then another detriment to our veterans that you know when you get down this road and get involved with law enforcement and if you've chosen cannabis as your medication it puts you further into the system and away from the help you we live in a society where even though america is a very violent society we at least have a pretense and we certainly try to raise our children with peace in peaceful manners in loving and helpful kinds of ways to help people and then they turn eighteen and we take them and we put them into a camp and we make murders out of them we teach them to kill which is absolutely diametrically opposed to what most of us have raised our children with is to love and to care for people not to kill people not to hurt people not even hit them but then on you i expect you to pick up a gun and go to the other side of the world and kill people that's got that unto itself has got to be incredibly stressful and i agree we need a blueprint we need it we need for for methods that we can help these people when we when we bring them back after they've been so damaged i truly believe virtually all of our soldiers are very damaged by the very act of what they're doing and the way that we treat them and with the way that we do it is even more damaging to them and then when they get home we say to hell with you oh gee you probably had a preexisting condition well if you had a preexisting condition you never should have been in the military to begin with quite frankly you know and it's really horrible what's been happening to our soldiers i know it at choice wellness we've made a commitment to our veterans we give everything except for the medicine because there's not that margin to be able to do that but we give everything twenty percent off to vets you know more if they're in really dire circumstances financially i mean we really want to help with and we owe them i think every single person here in this room in this county in this state in this country owes our veterans even though i personally am a pacifist i'm opposed to war that's all the more reason that we owe them i'm not willing to put my body out there and pick up a gun and have somebody shooting me from the trees so i owe a debt to those of you have been brave enough or foolish enough whatever it is to actually do that you know for for me and for my country we owe these vets something and we know i know that in my family a young man has just recently returned from afghanistan with a terrible case of p t s d his mother is a steri cool because he is smoking a lot of marijuana and my advice to them was leave him alone and get him the the other skins of support that he needs i don't think mere marijuana cannabis is the magic answer i think it's part of the it it can be part of the answer not necessarily for everybody but it certainly should be an option for everybody if it's go  because i have p t s d myself and i've gone through that psychotropic process where they have tried every kind of chemical on me at different points in my life and there were adverse reactions to it you know and i don't know if everybody here realize it when you're on those drugs it's like they playing out in your brain they playing out and once they play now then you have to try another chemical or another drug that might work and event you're just going through this process of playing out playing out playing out and you're messing with your body you're messing with the chemistry in your body so for me personally i would rather have something that was organically grown that was going to adapt to my body and not have these adverse you know reactions are affects on my body you know and it's it's a healthier way to handle the situation the other thing is i agree with you know the medical marijuana is a great start it's a natural start it's a healthier start but also it's a two part thing you know people that have those issues with p t s d also need the people that are there for them to stand with them to help them through the counseling process is to find out how they're thinking what they're thinking why they're thinking those things too because it's cheaper going marijuana and the medical aspects of it like the sake of topics that's dealing with anxiety depression you know emotional behavioral things the other things the things that we put into our think the way we perceive the world often the way we believe in things the way we process so those things have to be dealt with too as well but i totally agree with that now are you saying that those that are coming back are considered to be veterans as well as those that are not being not going to recently back from deployment there should be dialogue consistent dialogue instead of  birdie briefing program and now you can go off into the wild blue yonder and you're ok yeah just get in on a bus and you don't be ridiculous by on a bus well you know it's kind of interesting is when i was in college i had to do a study on this be a marijuana also study on the vets that were coming back from war and where they were add on the streets and what they were doing out on the streets and how their life was going on the street and it was really interesting conversation because society kind of turned their backs on him ok you know once they came back they didn't have the mental issues the anxiety the depression all these things and because they couldn't go get help get people to listen and get the right medication and they got into the drugs and they got into the alcohol because there you go it's a self medication i have anxiety i'm feeling bad and feeling sad and feeling rejected by society and i go drink i'm going to forget about it all and michael pass out in a corner to understand don't be afraid of it we have to talk we have to allow them and welcome them back to the community and talk to them took our hand out and said thank you for your servitude and really get involved i'd rather you stick your hand out to make a free and could be addressed so that we don't have so many problematic people future we're going to have another break here real quick during a few i do a quick song and we're going to have bill but again but again law so i didn't