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MEDICAL MARIJUANA HAS HELPED AMERICAN HEROES

"American Sniper" was ranked the No.  1 movie in United States for the week of Dec.  17 through Dec.  23, 2014, when competition for this top listing is intense.

This is an excerpt from the magazine, Salon:

"In his best-selling memoir, 'American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S.  Military History,' Navy SEAL Chris Kyle writes that he was only two weeks into his first of four tours of duty in Iraq when he was confronted with a difficult choice.  Through the scope of his .300 Winchester Magnum rifle, he saw a woman with a child pull a grenade from under her clothes as several Marines approached.  Kyle's job was to provide 'overwatch,' meaning that he was perched in or on top of bombed-out apartment buildings and was responsible for preventing enemy fighters from ambushing U.S.  troops."

When Kyle returned home, he suffered from PTSD and that led to sleepless nights and emotional distress that he tried to block out with alcohol.

Let's switch to a story about a local resident who was a sniper in Afghanistan.  He left his high school sweetheart to serve in the Marines.  He was trained in the same manner as Chris Kyle and his job was to also provide "overwatch" to prevent the enemy from ambushing U.S.  troops.

He witnessed his friends blown up by IEDs and others violently killed standing next to him.  He was exposed to one horrific scene after another during his deployment in Afghanistan.  When he returned to North Carolina, he discovered that he was always in physical pain, had insomnia, and nightmares woke him up each night.  The only bright spot in his life was when he reunited with his high school sweetheart, who had left their home town and settled in Pendleton finding a job as an English teacher at BMCC.

The painkillers prescribed by the VA started to cause debilitating side effects.  He discovered that only medical marijuana provided him with relief from PTSD.  Unfortunately, his VA doctor wouldn't prescribe medical marijuana.  The Marine doesn't want to break the law but he's faced with the responsibility of raising a young boy.  After serving his country for nine years, he relies on the medicinal qualities of marijuana to work, support his family, and cope with the physical and mental ailments caused by his military duty.

The time to make a decision about medical marijuana dispensaries cannot be delayed any longer.  Local musician Jared Pennington is just one of hundreds of people in the community who relies on medical marijuana to survive.

Jerry Cronin

Pendleton