needlessly without it and no patient should ever go to jail for following the advice of a doctor joined us and learned more about the exciting science of medical marijuana welcome to c n n i'm ken last executive director of the coalition for medical you know we haven't had anybody from haiti who is a veteran here and it begs the question how did you get from haiti to here nowhere here where your an elbow how did it go from you being born raised  read a history that one of the poorest countries in the in the western hemisphere for sure and a lot of civil unrest i'm sure you've lived for so and so you came here in ninety four with your parents  when i graduated high school i did to seventeen in two thousand and five i joined arms were seventeen is my parents sent me away and you know both parents signatures so my mom and my father signed me away to the military because i was a doing anything else in my life and i did i did get a little bit of trouble with the law and that time and so that just came up to like that was the best decision for me to do at the time i mean there's really no terry in two thousand and five i needed seventeen seventeen and then  i believe at that time i was nineteen so i spent my nineteenth twentieth twenty first birthday and i write but yeah that's not most people's first choice have so the book that was written about what we did in iraq was written by my lieutenant and he became my captain and i write his name was a matthew gallagher is a very very cool guy he was a native from new york he was raised it was probably pretty complimentary about the way you went forward full speed and didn't wait for others if you didn't need to book is called boom by the way you can find an amazon  combat soldier yes and there's something we were talking about that i talked to you briefly just a little while ago because i want to be clear on it i thought i people who are civilians can't really know exactly what veterans are talking about if you haven't had the experience and i know that because most veterans come back and say boy that was what i expected when i got there so if they didn't know what to expect we don't know what to expect  them and nobody really thinks what happens after a kill whether it's for against friendly fire and you said there's a procedure every time that involves an investigation and then there is a special duty that soldiers have afterwards that we don't think about tell us what that is  everybody and that's how we found out he was a young boy but so they were every death there is definitely investigation especially overseas whether it be neutral or civilian size but yeah soldiers reversed no civilian or otherwise clean up crew that does that it's you go through it twice once when it happens and once when you've got a clean up yeah yeah that's something that a lot of people don't think of and that itself is traumatic you know that is you know that not only killing people but you know dealing with the results of the killing especially when it's somebody you know so this is a very serious issue you and you're fortunate enough to have a medical marijuana registration card for a different indication yet for most of specificity so you do have access to jersey fresh medicine legally yes i did so you at least get to talk about it the benefits of it on your post traumatic stress without having to look over your shoulder and wonder if somebody is going to make it an issue and you know how much it helps people you know to to see you do that but you also are and have become an advocate a couple years that you decided to do your first committee testimony and were doing a podcast outside when you came out you said that's it i'll never do that again and it was because of not that you didn't do well it's how it made you feel you were telling me that yes i remember telling you that but i know the reason why i actually started doing this again because that same week after i saw you that i think it was on i was in jersey city and northern talking talking about the traumatic events can help but if you're suffering from p t s d when you talk about i mean it just triggers the triggers the emotional emotions the the the negative emotions and  it's it's just such a difficult thing and but marijuana really is helpful for you yes medical marijuana does help with many different conditions it's helpful for many different emotional and and mental conditions as well and you know we certainly hope that post traumatic stress disorder will be the first of the mental and emotional conditions that are added to the compassionate use medical marijuana act here in new jersey right now only physical conditions like multiple sclerosis and cancer and as your own muscle spasms are allowed and it's just such a limiting program that so few people are able to take take advantage of it well we're fortunate on the hopefully fortunate on the panel who will be recommending to add conditions help and dealing with that so she was able to recommend cannabis for the correct indication that that is allowed and then sees the benefit on the post traumatic stress that she was actually  exactly your story really with you know because you see it with your you see the benefit from your muscle spasms you also see it personally with that post traumatic stress disorder yes you know but there's only one of the of the people on the panel who actually participate in the middest of marijuana program and these are the doctors and nurses who have health care professionals who are going to make the decision about not the final decision but that women are a decision at on the legislative for right and i know when you said you were ever going to do that again it was a matter of thing two weeks until he was at the next committee hearing or three we had june third was the assembly committee and then june sixteenth of this so he came be posted for a vote before the recess and we don't have both found ourselves with a few hours off on a tuesday so we went to the office of the senate president senator stevens weenie got no recourse there and went straight into the senate majority office in the statehouse to leave a letter and try to see somebody and we did see their general counsel so he's certainly done a lot more than not go back to a committee hearing he's branching out in the cold calling people and it's tough when we say all right you know what you're doing even for experienced people in the state how into why i know what office called like that fully it would help other veterans to know then that with my vast experience and could drawing people and getting somebody to say as we were about to be turned away with a all i can do is deliver the letter and see it gets to him and i try to get all i can do deliver a letter and i said you're comfortable with dismissing a combat veteran who has a stake in this one moment somebody be right with you and somebody came with us to a conference and said somebody's been right with you so it was the veteran with a stake in this that showed up that turned it all around were my best efforts didn't so yeah it should it's a it shouldn't occur he knows that you know but that's true and if i have twenty five years experience and could joining people doing this it wasn't worth squat compared to a veteran showing up so far we've also been talking to fellow veterans he knows thinking they're very close to following some of his example and start showing up if we go into the summer recess we're not going quietly we're going to spend the summer recess having veterans show up more and more to the pod cast where the need to be so what he started out yeah  so i picked up the language just so we can get liquor for for ourselves and liquor is illegal in that country but they actually could go to because iraq is connected to another country there and you know it's sometimes you don't even realize you know how much trauma you're being exposed to in your daily life you're talking earlier about the policeman who you know run into it so much trauma and you know p d really it permeates so much of our society that it really can help not only veterans of course but you know anyone who suffers from p t s d it's sad that it falls upon  people like you to affect lead the charge with civilian advisers so to speak but the civilians that have post traumatic stress that perhaps a lot of that are  doors open like we were just discussing i could come in with a sad story about somebody that exact person and we still would have not gotten the appointment when i was able to get because you're a combat veteran so i know that you recognize that and it's almost another call to duty in effect where you don't have the luxury of ignoring it and just taking care of yourself your wired that way so i seen you gradually giving into with understanding this is a responsibility you have should you decide to take it and you stepped up in a big way at your own pace which has really been rapid even though it's not two or three months or a couple years it's your fully involved and so we want to thank you for not only being here today but willing to be so open i think it's going to be evident to everybody that has watched this that felipe doesn't have a filter when it's time to tell the truth and tell it like it is he doesn't have to stop and choose his words almost like we have to asking a question has the answer are evident immediately and that we know we're getting our unvarnished truth and a close look at something most of us will never experience so i'm sorry if you have any ill effects but you know the good effects outweigh that yes and you're still a soldier you want different different kind of service cannot speak for themselves and you know that's that's what's so powerful too about your testimony and your willingness to to you know endorse this and lobby for for this for access to appropriate marijuana therapy for p d victims you know that the drug war is such a devastating consequences and you know our society you know you look at the rest parents and you take parents away from the children and you know the children are left to fend for themselves just by just by arresting people for drug offenses you take away the breadwinner from from you know the family and that automatically lowers their socioeconomic status and a lower set so economic status is associated with a lower i q so say to lower cheeseman it's associated with more and more apt to be involved with the criminal justice system and you know so many negative consequences come from our current policy that that we really we really need to a society and really need to stop what we're doing and look at a new approach to dealing with the issue of drugs in america and we do need to stop what we're doing because we're getting another sign from the producer thank you so much thank you for having me you know how much i appreciate your brother for more information about the coalition for medical marijuana new jersey join us and our free public meetings on the second tuesday of every month at the lawrence township library in mercer county new jersey from seven to nine p m and snacks are served in all are welcome remember every forty two seconds someone is arrested for marijuana every forty two seconds s