For Immediate Release:

Veterans For Medical Cannabis Access Kicks Off Petition on White House "We The People" Site

The national Veterans service organization, Veterans for Medical Cannabis Access (VMCA), veteransformedicalcannabis.org on behalf of the Veterans across the United States has drawn up a petition to ask President Obama's administration to "Allow United States Disabled Military Veterans access to medical marijuana to treat their PTSD."

The petition may be viewed at the White House website:

http://wh.gov/4xd

Medicinal cannabis is recognized in DC and 16 states such as MD, OR and NM as having medical value including treatment for PTS(d) and TBI. Allies of the US in Iraq and Afghanistan - Canada, Czechoslovakia and Israel allow the use of cannabis to treat these injuries sustained in military service alongside US troops.

Co-founder of VMCA, Al Byrne, Lcdr. USN, ret. said, "I am a Virginia Veteran who uses cannabis for PTS. If I seek treatment in a VHA facility in Virginia the MD's and RN's can not even discuss this treatment option BECAUSE VIRGINIA LAW STILL DOESN'T ALLOW USE OF THIS IMPORTANT MEDICINE FOR PTS(d)  . If I seek the same treatment say, as a Veteran resident of Maine (where cannabis is legal medicine) they say welcome and thank you for your service."

VHA Directive 2010-035 of July 2010 states clearly that if a Veteran gets a recommendation for cannabis from a civilian health care provider in a state that allows the medicinal use of cannabis, then the VA health care providers must treat cannabis as a medicine and the Vet as a valued patient. In Virginia the Vet is not so valued and the medicine for their needs is banned.

Veteran care based on geography is wrong.  It is illogical.  It is not the practice of medicine it is the practice of politics on the wounded and it is shameful.

Contact:

Mike Krawitz
Disabled United States Air Force Sergeant
Executive Director Veterans For Medical Cannabis Access
[email protected]
www.veteransformedicalmarijuana.org

Al Byrne
COO and Co-founder
Patients Out of Time
[email protected]
www.medicalcannabis.com