Combining a couple topics we’ve hit lately: last week the Danville Planning and Zoning Commission approved plans for a second Adult Use Cannabis Dispensary in Danville, subject to City Council Approval. Meanwhile, this week, being Veterans Day, brings about annual concerns, which of course should be expressed every day, about the health and wellness of those who have served our country.
One Veteran out west, who served in the Marines for 12 years, and did combat time overseas in Iraq and Afganistan as part of Operation Enduring Freedom, realized he needed some help, and did so well with medical cannabis, that he is now a co-founder and cultivator with the Helmand Valley Growers Company in California. Helmand is the Southwest Afgan province where Andy Miears did a lot of his time serving with the Marines. Miears says, he would never say Cannabis is a cure all, end all for recovering Veterans. But it’s a matter of keeping open to all possibilities to help our Veterans after they have served.
AUDIO: We went through a lot, as Marine Combat Veterans; and Army, Navy, Air Force the same; throughout the last 20 or 21 years. It was a relief to know that there was something available that was more natural than a pharmacutical. I had to take pain medication post-surgery, because they were pretty extensive surgeries. So having cannabis to help take a step down off the heavier stuff was a breath of fresh air, just something new in the tool box that could be utilitzed.
Miears says data is needed over the next several years to learn more about who and where medical cannabis helps, and who and where it does not. He says it’s not a matter re-inventing the wheel. Instead, it’s a matter of adding an extra spoke to strengthen the wheel that helps with Veterans’ health and wellness.
