Why Veterans Choose Medical Marijuana - Exploring Approaches to Symptom Management and Care

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
From the WA and M Studio on the campus of
Florida A and M University.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
This is Mary Forum Radio, a weekly conversation on the
education and research of the medical marijuana being conducted at BAMMUT.

Speaker 3 (00:13):
I'm Heidi Outway, your host for this conversation on cannabis
virtual form, brought to you by the Medical Marijuana Education
and Research Initiative at Florida and M University. In this conversation,
we're talking about the growing number of veterans using medical
cannabis for common health challenges they faced following military service.

(00:34):
So let's talk and learn about this subject with our guests.
Jeff Demond is a US Navy veteran and the founder
of The Grateful Veteran, a Florida based nonprofit organization focused
on veteran education, pure support, and responsible pathways to wellness.
His work centers on reducing barriers to care and addressing

(00:56):
the issues many veterans face when dealing with pain management,
including how to transition from pharmaceuticals to legal medical cannabis.
Our next guest is Andy Donado, a US Marine Corps
veteran who works as the Vice president of The Grateful Veteran.
In this role, he leads strategic initiatives, builds partnerships, and

(01:16):
advances programs that empower veterans and support their transition to
civilian life. With more than twenty years of experience spanning
military service, security, entrepreneurship, and the cannabis industry, he brings
a strong foundation in leadership, discipline, and operational expertise to
the nonprofit organization and the veterans it serves. I want

(01:40):
to thank you both for your service and for being
guests on our show today. To everybody, yes, to everyone watching,
please share the link to this forum on your social
media channels so they can learn about this topic. And
we also want you to tell us what you think
about this forum. By completing the survey posted on Mary's
social media pages, your name will be entered into a

(02:01):
drawing in July twenty twenty six to win a one
hundred dollars gift card provided by one of Mary's partners. Now,
let's start this conversation on cannabis. Jeff and Andy more
veterans are choosing to use medical cannabis as part of
their wellness plans. Jeff, I want to start with you.
Can you tell us a little bit about your military service,

(02:23):
and what made you start using medical cannabis.

Speaker 4 (02:27):
Well, I was.

Speaker 5 (02:29):
I'm a twenty year Navy veteran, so I had a
very active deploy schedule, and I ended up getting hurt
around seventeen and a half years or so. I required
multiple surgeries on my ankles, and by the time I
was retired, I had already been on opioids for almost
three years and quite significant amount eighty miligrams of oxycott

(02:54):
in a day, one hundred and twenty miligrams of morphine
a day. I was on six miligrams of kalanapen effects
or presision, all sorts of medicine. It's not the doctor's
fault or anything they were trying. I was over medicated
and undertreated, as what I say, and I wasn't aware,
like of cannabis's medicine. But my cousin knew more because

(03:18):
he was five when I left twenty five when I
came home, and he saw me going through these opioid
things like nodding off, and you know, I was misusing
my medicine because it was being mailed right to my house.
So he approached me about using cannabis as medicine. And

(03:38):
I wasn't you know, I wasn't hip to that originally, because,
like I did twenty years in service, I wasn't considering
cannabis as a medicine. I promptly threw him out, but
he kept talking about how many pills do you have
left in your bottle? I bet you know when you're
supposed to go back and see your doctor, and all

(03:58):
these things that were clicking my head. And he said,
just do a little research and maybe you can find it.
You can use this medicine.

Speaker 1 (04:05):
I did.

Speaker 5 (04:06):
I started in two months, I was able to half
my opioids and I went back to I was seeing
an Air Force captain at Scott Air Force Base at
the time. Because I'm retired, I could go still see
the active duty doctors, and I said, I want to
stop these opioids with medical cannabis. And he says, I
don't think you can do that, and I said, I

(04:28):
already did this much and it kind of it kind
of blew his mind. But all I really needed from
him was like, Okay, there was some more medicine that
was going to come off.

Speaker 4 (04:38):
I lost one hundred pounds.

Speaker 5 (04:39):
I came off of four shots for diabetes, high blood
pressure medicine all all all of the nerve pain medicine
to rotten presision effect source in Balta, Lyrica, all of those.
I was on massive amounts of pharmaceuticals and now cannabis

(05:00):
takes the place of all that, and I think other
veterans are finding that relief as well. It's unfortunate that
they don't get taught that upon relief, you know, leaving
the military, because there's some time between that and finding
cannabis that could save lives, not just save lives, but
save addictions, save problems, save all kinds of different things.

(05:23):
So not only that, but the way that cannabis is
being viewed now in the government and the changes that
they've made and those various things, it looks like, you know,
people are a little bit more aware to the benefit
of cannabis. It's not so much snake oil anymore. So
I think that's why people are migrating that way, and

(05:45):
it's a better path way. Like when I was on opioids,
I wouldn't leave my house and I was no pleasant
person to talk to at all, And cannabis gives me
that ability to be out in the public and have
a smile, have a full heart and and not be
worried about when I'm supposed to take my next dose

(06:06):
of pain medicine, because it really does change who you
are and how you how you interact with everyone. Yeah,
that's my story. Uh, and why I why I choose
cannabis's medicine, And I think that's one of, you know,
main reasons why veterans are migrating to cannabis instead of pharmaceuticals.

Speaker 3 (06:28):
Yeah, Andy, what's your story.

Speaker 2 (06:32):
Well, I'm a Marine Corps veteran, spend some time active duty,
and like many veterans, once we get out, we spend
a lot of time trying to figure out what life
is going to be like. At the same time, we're
trying to readjust back to a Salivian lifestyle, dealing with
a bunch of stuff in the background that we're not
aware of until years down the road. And then initially

(06:54):
you get diagnosed through the BA system or not.

Speaker 1 (06:58):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (06:58):
For me, I I went that research. I was trying
to figure out what would be the best for me
and eventually let me to cannabis and I was able
to try it once the program came live in twenty
sixteen here in Florida, and ever since then, it was
a journey to completely get off the pharmaceuticals with my
providers and myself and all the tools that were given.

Speaker 1 (07:21):
So I think with the research and.

Speaker 2 (07:23):
The access and the stigma being gone from just something
people did back in the day, you know, and.

Speaker 1 (07:32):
To now where.

Speaker 2 (07:33):
They know that there's a possibility that this can help
them more than one way. So that's kind of why
I think the migration has happened.

Speaker 3 (07:41):
Yeah, Yeah, So Jeff tell us about the grateful veteran
and the work that you all do.

Speaker 5 (07:47):
Well, We've started in December of twenty eighteen, and so
most aggressively right now, we're on a tour around the
state going to different America legions and vfws and bringing
veteran resources and including a cannabis doctor with us and
taking appointments and setting that up for veterans and like,

(08:11):
so far this year, we've qualified three hundred and eighty
seven veterans to the into the program, and we're finding
that like ninety seven percent of those are brand new veterans,
brand new to the program, and the other ones are
either have lost the doctor or have just fallen out
of the program and coming back into the program. That's

(08:32):
just one pillar of what we do, but like most aggressively,
that's what we're on right now. But the other things
that we do are like more local. We raise food
year round for one of the whole one of the
veterans shelters over in Fort Myers, and we donate food
from around the state. The cannabis community helps us raise

(08:53):
this food and brings it down to our area and
we get it to that shelter. We do some other
community service projects and get veterans together for different for
different reasons, Like we used to do some sound balls
and meditation down at the beach in the morning just
to kind of get out of the house kind of things.
Andy Andy was our sound bowl player, but we've had

(09:17):
we've had guest people come down to those events and
do breath work and different things just to kind of,
you know, give veterans a bunch of different tools to
use instead of pharmaceuticals.

Speaker 4 (09:28):
Right, Cannabis isn't a cure. It's just a tool.

Speaker 5 (09:31):
So we try to we try to teach that along
the way because we find even like the older veterans
or that may have used cannabis prior, they find that
the cannabis now is different obviously than in the seventies
or sixties or eighties whenever it was that they may
have used before. So we try to educate them on
the modality and different things like that.

Speaker 3 (09:52):
Yeah, and I can imagine, you know, for those veterans
who are older and we're using it when it was illegal,
we the legal medical cannabis. So what are some of
the questions that you all are encountering when you're talking
to veterans about, you know, who are considering medical cannabis
as a treatment.

Speaker 4 (10:13):
Well, I think that like a lot, there's there's a
lot of misconception and a lot that veterans don't know
that they're what their rights are.

Speaker 1 (10:23):
Right.

Speaker 5 (10:23):
So I was just at the American Legion convention and
there were many times that they veterans would come right
up to me and say, oh, no, I can't do
it because I'll lose all my benefits. That's just completely
a misnomer. So that's one thing that we like to
clarify they ask that question. You know, while I still
be able to.

Speaker 1 (10:43):
Go to the VA.

Speaker 5 (10:44):
The VA even on their website addresses medical cannabis and
how you can use it and speak to your doctors
about it. Your doctors at the VA are not allowed
to advise you on cannabis. And the only two programs
that you may not be able to use cannabis in
as the pain management program because they want you to

(11:04):
be on the pharmaceuticals and if you come with cannabis
in your system, they may cut you out of that program.
And you don't want to be cut from a pharmaceutical
program if you're not ready to tight trade off, right.
And the other one is within the psychiatric program. They
want you to be clear minded and not use cannabis

(11:27):
for that program as well, and not that they're going
to kick you out or anything like that, they're going
to give talk to you about your opportunities to either
this or that. And the second question I think we
get most is about gun rights. You know, they think
that they're going to lose their right to either conceal
carry or to have a gun whatsoever at all. And

(11:49):
in the state of Florida, our previous Secretary of Agriculture
used to show both of her cards, her cannabis card
and her concealed carry card at the same time because
that both of those programs are owned by that department,
so they can't have conflict. So that's what she was
trying to say, is like, both of these fall under

(12:12):
my lead, and cannabis and concealed Carrie are not. They
don't butt heads, so they fit together. You're allowed to
do it. As a matter of fact, Andy has a
great story about getting his concealed weapons permit.

Speaker 3 (12:27):
Yeah sure that with a zany Yeah sure.

Speaker 2 (12:29):
When I moved to Cape Coro in the southwest Florida
area back in twenty nineteen, I too had that question
because the program was kind of new in Florida, right,
It's only been a couple of years. So when I
went down to city Hall, I needed to know and
I used my secondary ID was my.

Speaker 1 (12:47):
Cannabis card, and it was quite the shocker for everybody
down there.

Speaker 2 (12:52):
But the woman went back to her supervisor and came
back with the phone for me. So I was very
sure that will still be able to bear my arms
and use my medicine of choice. So it was it
was quite good for me to do that, at least
for myself.

Speaker 1 (13:08):
It was.

Speaker 5 (13:08):
There's a lot of common sense involved because you know,
just like drinking or like if you're on pain medicine,
you're not allowed to carry your weapon. It's just an
obvious thing. And I think more than anything, the grateful
veteran tries to promote that responsible cannabis use because like,
we all join the military for a life of service, right,

(13:31):
because we wanted to serve. And I feel like, you know,
being that stand up, red, white, and blue veteran organization
that talks about cannabis. Access is key, but information is essential, right,
So once you have access, then you have to pour
the information out to the veterans that don't understand that.

(13:51):
And coming from you know, our organization, we use cannabis
every single day. Well, I do every day, all day long,
different period of time to manage my issues, and I
like to be able to speak to it and say, look,
I was medicated while I was speaking, So your misconception
about cannabis and the ability to do things is off, right.

(14:16):
I like to be that voice of people who are
unsure about cannabis and veterans and talk to both of
those groups at the same time, because it's important for
veterans to be able to use that as medicine and
not be judged, right. I think it's really key and
for us, we try to qualify a veteran and maybe

(14:36):
their spouse or their roommate or their daughter, or we
try to qualify them at the same time, like we
call it the friends and family on our tour, because
sometimes that cannabis journey can be questionable and if you know,
like I'll give you for example, there have never been
in a circle of veterans where we talked about how

(14:58):
much blood pressure medicine we were on on and what
brand it was doing from the pharmacy. But when you
get a group of veterans that use cannabis, I guarantee
they talk about the medicine that they're using, something that
they tried that's better than what they thought it was
going to be, or some other way to treat yourself

(15:18):
with a certain type of a certain modality or a
certain medicine or rso or you know who's got a
good thing going right now, because the medicine's expensive, and
it works, and it works in different ways, and it
makes veterans come out of their shell and talk about it.
Because that was part of my healing, right. I wasn't

(15:39):
the person that I thought I was supposed to be
while I was on those opioids, and cannabis brings that
out of me now where I can be I have
emotions again, and I have feelings again, and this brings
me joy to be able to, you know, propagate this
plant like this to everyone else and you know, hopefully

(16:01):
they can have the same experience that most of the
veterans that we have had.

Speaker 4 (16:07):
And help themselves.

Speaker 3 (16:09):
Yeah. Well, I want to bring in a comment from
Matt Moses, who's watching right now, talking about the Supreme
Court voting on this matter when it comes to having
an MMJ card and cannabis. So he said, the Supreme
Court just voted on this very matter nine to zero.
Having an MMJ card, which is a medical marijuana card,
does not take away your second amendments. So thank you
Matt for sharing that with everybody. So can you, Jeff

(16:33):
and Andy walk people through, especially our veterans, if they're
curious about how to go about getting a medical marijuana
cart legally in the state of Florida, can you walk
them through that process?

Speaker 1 (16:45):
Yeah? Sure. Usually I'll take the first half, Devi and
you can do it.

Speaker 2 (16:51):
So usually it starts with the curiosity they heard it,
they saw somebody.

Speaker 1 (16:57):
Who shared their story, and once.

Speaker 2 (17:01):
They get ahold with us or get a hold of us,
we send them a form where we kind of vet them,
ask them some very general questions.

Speaker 1 (17:10):
From there, we find the nearest medical marijuana the doctor
in their area.

Speaker 2 (17:16):
We schedule them, and then the conversation happens between them
and the provider or the doctor's office, and in between,
if there are any questions, they can always contact Jeff.
So the first point of contact is Jeff right now
whenever we sign up a new veteran, so there's there's
never that gap in between the veteran getting started and then.

Speaker 1 (17:36):
Seeing the doctor.

Speaker 2 (17:38):
There's a lot of information that's been dissipated by then,
so they don't go in having all kinds of newbie
questions per se.

Speaker 1 (17:45):
Right there, they are a little bit more seasoned and.

Speaker 2 (17:48):
They have the tools to ask the right questions to
the providers.

Speaker 1 (17:54):
That's a little bit of what I got to.

Speaker 3 (17:55):
Say on that, and just to clarifying questions. So you
help them apply for a legal medical marijuana card in
Florida is understand that, and then once they are approved,
then you help them identify a qualified physician.

Speaker 5 (18:09):
Yeah, we have a there's several groups of physicians that
we work with around the state. So wherever it is
that they apply from yeah, get that information and funnel
them towards a doctor that will see them for free
in their area.

Speaker 4 (18:24):
And then like our main.

Speaker 5 (18:25):
Thing is is we raise money to pay that seventy
seven seventy five state fee so that a veteran can
get into cannabis and try that medicine for no money down,
just the cost of the medicine. And like on the Red,
White and Blue tour, we're signing up. You know, we've
signed up over what three hundred and eighty seven now,
so like that that's a tremendous number for me. And

(18:48):
like once they get that done, you know, I pay
their state fee. Don't stop there. We send them information
they get you know, we tell them about the various
programs from the various dispensaries, Like we have a partner
that's helping us now, and they give them a coupon
that's worth so much at a dispensary, and you know,

(19:11):
they continue to like contact us back and forth, send
their friends our way. Once they've started, you know, their
healing journey. It always ends up with maybe their spouse
or someone else that they know needs their cannabis cards.
So that's that's the start to finish for us.

Speaker 3 (19:28):
Yeah. Well, one of the things that we've been hearing,
you know, through our various conversations on cannabis is that
there's so many different products out there, and so, you know,
even even so, I would imagine veterans just like any
other you know, patient consumer who wants to use legal
medical cannabis. You know, they're just like I don't know

(19:48):
where to start. Do I do a flower, Do I
do a gum edible? You know, those kinds of a tincture.
So do you all help, you know, give insights along
with you know, to help them make informed decisions along
with their medical marijuana doctor.

Speaker 5 (20:06):
Yes, So it's similar to like what you would alluded
to earlier. We we kind of break it down into
those various things rights, like the veterans' rights, what you're
allowed to do as a veteran, you know right now.
We also do that modality what you're trying to treat
and what may be the best kind of way to

(20:26):
treat it. We get have a little one pagers that
we that we hand out our out at our events.
My wife is also part of the Grateful Veterans. She's
a nurse and she's in the cannabis industry, so she
has a lot to say about how we speak and
how we treat, you know, each question that a veteran

(20:47):
might have about cannabis, But we try not to get
too far into dose this way, use this product. We
just try to tell them the benefits of all of
the different modalities and all of the different types of
cannabis so that they can make some informed decisions.

Speaker 1 (21:03):
Yeah, I personally like to.

Speaker 2 (21:08):
Do a lot of research, and in that research, that's
how I came across Mary right, the fam use a
medical program, and then once I was there, I spend
a lot of time on the website. There's a lot
of information there that for me makes it somewhat central
where I can always rely on that information. And I

(21:28):
send a lot of people to the website, to the
Merry website because it's information that I know I can
trust and it's been research, it's not somebody's opinion per se.

Speaker 1 (21:38):
Right, So yeah, that's with that. We try to stay.

Speaker 2 (21:42):
As informed as possible, so we are not guiding people
in any direction, but in the right direction.

Speaker 3 (21:49):
Oh yeah, I appreciate that. So do you all come
across veterans who are concerned about the stigma of using
marijuana to talk about that.

Speaker 5 (22:01):
So I think it happens a lot in the various groups,
American legions and vfw's because you know, we've gone in
and people have just outright said, nobody in my post
uses marijuana or cannabis as medicine, and I'm thinking, wow,
you are really out of touch. You know why people
you don't know anybody that uses cannabis is because you're

(22:24):
anti cannabis. If you just opened your mind a little bit,
people would talk to you about what they do. So, yeah,
there's a stigma around it still, and it's still and
it comes from you know, it comes from all of
that prohibition stuff. People still believe in that and haven't
been taught or shown anything different. And then in the

(22:48):
same group or dynamics, you'll have the chaplain who has
seen families use cannabis come to us for information and
end up getting their cannabis card and that helps propagate
Like a picture of us with the chaplain from a
VFW that stated, you know, I need my cannabis and

(23:08):
card because I've you know, seen witnessed so many different things. Right,
So the stigma is changing, but it changes at weird intervals, Like,
you know, there's a whole bunch of veterans that might
want to use cannabis, but then you have a few
that are cannabis curious, like at the American Legion, and

(23:30):
we just had an open and honest conversation about cannabis
and twelve people applied for assistance through the grateful veteran
that I spoke to. So you know, you just never
know what's going to make that change. And I think
a lot of veterans because I spoke of that earlier,
like we joined to serve, right, we don't want to
be we don't want to be stigmatized because of our

(23:54):
choice in medicine.

Speaker 4 (23:55):
Right, that's kind of what we try to do. Make
it better for everyone.

Speaker 5 (24:00):
Even if you choose cannabis is not right for you
and you don't believe in it as medicine, respect that
it helps me because that helps me heal too, because
then I don't carry that shame or whatever around. I mean,
I'm not shameful about my cannabis use at all. But
there are some veterans that might pull back from cannabis

(24:20):
use because of you know, how someone else might push
their opinion on them.

Speaker 3 (24:26):
Yeah, Andy, did you want to add to that?

Speaker 2 (24:28):
Sure, as far as military service, you know, marijuana, cannabis
was something that it was easily accessible, but we all
knew that we needed to stay away from it, and
it was so active duty is so anti cannabis because
we're not allowed to use any kind of mind altering

(24:49):
drugs except alcohol during off times. Right that, once you
get out, unless you get some really formal education, or
you get some information from somebody that you really love
and trust and see the change in them, you carry
that anti thought process all the way across and you

(25:09):
start to build on it. You start adding stuff from
your own experiences and stigmas, and when somebody approaches it
to you. It's difficult at first with the older veteran
community because then the younger community has a little bit
more information. When cannabis or marijuana was back in the day,

(25:30):
there was only one form, right, it was usually flower
or in specialized forms, you had others. But now you
have tinctures, you got creams, You have so many different
ways that once they hear that, they're like, oh, I
don't have to smoke. I can take a pill, or
I can eat a gummy or a chocolate and then
that really changes because in their mind, marijuana has always

(25:51):
been something that you smoke. They don't they like some
of the information that there's many other ways. Now, yeah,
that's kind of the the problem that I see.

Speaker 3 (26:01):
So what are the what are the potential drawbacks for
a veteran taking cannabis? So, Jeff, earlier you talked about
you were taking all the opioids and everything and you
were like confined to your home and you know, just
sound like you were just pill popping. Right, So then
someone Yeah, so then someone gets on cannabis. You know,
have you all seen any adverse impacts to veterans? Maybe

(26:26):
more broadly? And then what what if possible? What what
caused them not to be able to use medical cannabis?
You know, just the balance the conversation here.

Speaker 5 (26:37):
You know, cannabis doesn't work for everyone. It doesn't and
sometimes sometimes it works opposite on people, right, like you
should use this product and not this product because it
helps better. You might have to figure that out a
little bit. But what we find the worst is is
like when someone is gone into a spacey the doctor

(27:01):
and we have discussed what they need, they go into
the dispensary that dispensary that they went into doesn't have
that product and tries to build them a product by saying,
take this and take this at the same time, and
you'll have the same overall experience. Well, when what they
really did was sell them to products that they didn't
necessarily need, instead of saying, go to the other dispensary

(27:24):
and pick up that product, you'll have a better experience.
Then we have say a Korean War veteran that took
too much Indica at bed time and woke up and
couldn't feel his legs and called nine to one one.
Instead of understanding what he did right and what he
should have done, they sold him this. He took it

(27:46):
like gospel and then had a horrible experience, which I
ended up having. I went with him to the dispensary.
We talked about it with the dispensary manager, because I
think it's important for those dispenses to say we don't
have that what you need, but I know that this
dispensary does, and I think that in a medical program

(28:09):
you should do that, and I think especially for veterans,
because one bad cannabis experience in a questionable veterans mind,
like I don't know about this whole cannabis thing, and
you have a bad experience, you're never going to get
them back to have a good experience, right, to maybe
come off of some of those medicines. They'll think, oh, man,

(28:29):
this was a whole this was a whole thing, and
we're doing this is going to be our sixth stop
on our tour right now. And we find veterans that
come into these vfws and American Legiance because they've seen
us advertising about it, skeptical that it's even happening.

Speaker 4 (28:47):
They're like, no.

Speaker 5 (28:47):
Way, is there somebody in here giving us a free
doctor visit and paying the seventy seven to seventy five
state fee. They're skeptical that way, right, because of the
whole program, they hear different things, they don't know exact
actly what the rules are. And so we find we
find that that's that's bringing a lot of people back
into the or back to the program because they're the

(29:10):
understanding of it now.

Speaker 3 (29:11):
Yeah, yeah, let me bring in this message from Carla
Ashburn who's watching on YouTube. She says, can we bring
up Carla our mutual veteran friends says, we are not
trying to get high we are trying to get better.
And this was tammy long battle. Buds love this. What
are your thoughts on that?

Speaker 4 (29:32):
I love Tammy.

Speaker 5 (29:34):
She's a senior chief just like I am, and from
the Navy, and she's been in this battle for a
long time. And to hear her say that is very important, right,
Like those those are the words that we want to say.
It's not about getting high, you know. I've had commanders
say like, we don't want we don't want people smoking
pot in the parking lot and coming in here stoned

(29:56):
and doing this. And I'm like, I don't want that either.
I mean, that's not what I want. Right, That's not
what I'm going to come to the VFW and talk
about and have a gathering out in the parking lot
where people are, you know, smoking or whatever. That's not
what I'm going to preach about. Their legalities about what
we do. You know, I did twenty years in the Navy.
There were rules to follow then, too, right, So there

(30:17):
are rules to follow within cannabis as well. And one
of them is like, you can't smoke at the VFW. Right,
you can't use your medicine outside of your home, right,
So we have to preach those kind of things and
tell the commanders those that same information so that it
does break down that stigma.

Speaker 3 (30:35):
Right, yeah, yeah, Andy, did you want to answer that?

Speaker 2 (30:39):
Yeah, well, the lack of information, that's kind of like
our model.

Speaker 1 (30:45):
You know, we are promoting change through.

Speaker 3 (30:47):
Education, right, that's how we're doing the show today, exactly.

Speaker 1 (30:52):
There seems to be it's getting better, but there is.

Speaker 2 (30:56):
A wide gap between what is and what people think
actually is.

Speaker 1 (31:01):
And somewhere in the middle, right, there's there's the truth.

Speaker 2 (31:03):
But the problem with that is, for example, what I
was bringing up there there, I think I was speaking
to another veteran and I told them, you know, we
have patience rights, but a lot it's not discussed about
patients responsibilities because we too have things that we must follow.
It like just speaking, you know, the stigma that we're
going to go outside in the.

Speaker 1 (31:24):
Parking lot of the BFW. It's just lack of knowledge
from that commander.

Speaker 2 (31:29):
If you understood what the program holds, and then he
understands that, you know, that's not something that should be.

Speaker 1 (31:35):
Happening legally, right, doesn't mean it doesn't happen.

Speaker 2 (31:38):
But and then as far as what I tell veterans
what's important why I believe in the program so much
is there's.

Speaker 1 (31:44):
A lot of legal reasons. If you, let's say you're.

Speaker 2 (31:48):
Using cannabis and you don't have a medical card, there
are some stuff that that.

Speaker 1 (31:52):
Can be a problem, especially with some of your benefits.

Speaker 3 (31:56):
Yes, when if someone shows up at the VA and
they test positive for cannabis and they don't have a
legal medical marijuana.

Speaker 2 (32:05):
Car, well, there are It can go a lot of
different directions depending on who the person that they're speaking with.

Speaker 1 (32:14):
Right, for the most part, what you want.

Speaker 2 (32:17):
Is somebody who's understandable and might guide you in the
right direction.

Speaker 1 (32:21):
But it doesn't mean that.

Speaker 2 (32:22):
You might come across a person who might go a
different route and call the law and get things involved. Right,
and some substance was used that you didn't have the
right to use. As far as benefits that we have
and anything above. Anybody who has a twenty percent or
higher rating and you're getting incarcerated for more than sixty days,

(32:45):
on the sixty.

Speaker 1 (32:45):
First day, it'll drop to a ten percent. So it
doesn't matter what you're having.

Speaker 2 (32:49):
You can have one hundred percent disability rating, on the
sixty first day, it'll go down to ten and anybody
who's at ten percent will go to.

Speaker 1 (32:58):
Half of that.

Speaker 2 (32:59):
So there are some implications that if you don't know right,
can get you into a legal area that you don't
want to be in for sure.

Speaker 3 (33:07):
Yeah. Well, Andy, I want to share that you're very
popular because we have Chris Overthrow asking if you're going
to be at the Fort Myers clinic on Sunday.

Speaker 1 (33:17):
Yeah, yes, definitely, Okay, great.

Speaker 3 (33:21):
Well, this has been a really informative conversation and we
have so many comments from people who are watching us
on YouTube and Facebook, so thank you all for joining
us during this live form. Jeff and Andy, I want
to give you guys an opportunity to share some closing
thoughts with everybody. Let me start with Andy and then
I'll close with Jeff.

Speaker 2 (33:40):
Well, most of course, I just want to say thank
you for this opportunity. I think that the relationship between
the Graef veteran and the Merry program from FAM you,
it's definitely something that will only strengthen not only the
medical program, but the veteran community. And I'm just so
grateful to have this conversation and that so many people

(34:01):
are at least open to listening to something that can
really help them.

Speaker 1 (34:05):
They give it a tense thank you, Jeen.

Speaker 5 (34:09):
I want to second that, thank you so much for
having us, because Mary is a powerful platform for us,
and we'll do wonders for us to be on this program.
But I think overall, like you know, the more the
more access, the better, the more the program propagates, Like

(34:30):
access is key and then knowledge, and I think that,
you know, we find that the veteran community is underserved
a little bit in that, so we try to bring
that knowledge to them and get them into the program
in a responsible manner, and we're finding success. And like,
I'm so proud that we're able to do this. It

(34:51):
fills me with so much joy inside, you know, like
I'm so rich and so my heart for being able
to help out in this in this way and to
be on this program and to have Andy in in
our corner and people that comment I love it. It's
just it's it's great. And I you know, when we

(35:14):
first started conversing with Anthony uh and fam you, I
didn't I didn't really realize how similar our programs were,
not like we're not nearly the size of you, but
like our focuses are so similar that I can only
see us growing together you know, stronger.

Speaker 1 (35:35):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (35:36):
Well awesome, Well Jeff and Andy, thank you all so
much for being guests on this Conversations on Cannabis virtual
form brought to you about medical marijuana education and research
initiative at Florida and M University. Thank you to everyone
watching this program. Tell us what you think about this
form by completing the survey posted in the comment boxes
on Mary's Facebook and YouTube pages. If you complete the survey,

(35:59):
your name will be entered into a drawing in July
twenty twenty six to win a one hundred dollars gift
card provided by one of Mary's partners. Stay connected with
fam You Mary to access educational information and resources about
legal medical cannabis use and the consequences of illegal marijuana
use in Florida. You can follow them on social media

(36:20):
or visit the fam You Mary website. We also want
to encourage you to go to the Florida Department of
Health Office of Medical Marijuana Use website to learn how
to obtain a legal medical marijuana card in the state
of Florida. Thanks everyone. The views and opinions of our
invited guest are not necessarily the views and opinions of

(36:42):
Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University, or the Medical Marijuana Education
and Research Initiative