Pubdate: Thu, 28 Apr 2016
Source: Kingston Whig-Standard (CN ON)
Copyright: 2016 Sun Media
Contact: http://www.thewhig.com/letters
Website: http://www.thewhig.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/224
Author: Elliot Ferguson
Page: A1

MEDICAL MARIJUANA COMPANY FOCUSES ON VETERANS

Veterans, civilians and first responders seeking relief from the
symptoms of post-traumatic stress and other ailments through cannabis
will have a new option for help next week.

Set to open Monday on Discovery Avenue in Kingston's east side,
Marijuana for Trauma Inc.'s new Kingston branch is to be the company's
largest in Ontario.

The new office is to help people access marijuana through their health
benefits programs and offer advice about how they can best use it to
ease their illnesses.

While many organizations are opening up to help people access medical
marijuana, Marijuana for Trauma focuses on helping veterans.

"There are a lot of places that are popping up that are one-trick
ponies. Not us," said company president Chris Dupee, who founded
Military Minds, a peer support organization for soldiers with
operational stress injuries, such as PTSD.

"We're a family. We're trying to recreate the military brotherhood
outside of the military."

But the company and its supporters plan the new branch to offer more
than just marijuana advice.

The Kingston branch is considered a Generation 2 store. The company's
original stores were smaller and only connected veterans with ways to
access cannabis.

"Cannabis starts being a small portion of what we do," former soldier
and veterans advocate Mike Collins said. "It's a component."

The new store is to provide access to social workers and massage
therapists. The office is also to provide peer support nights, music
and art therapy sessions and spousal support meetings. "We watched
statistics for years of Afghan vets, Bosnian vets going through some
very, very severe things, up to and including suicide. Divorce rates
were skyrocketing, booze, pill usage. Guys getting arrested. Homeless
veterans falling through the social cracks," Collins said.

"And now we can get this fixed with a plant? Why are we not doing
this?"

The Kingston store's opening comes at a time of easing attitudes
toward medical marijuana and follows two separate political shifts
dealing with PTSD and marijuana.

Earlier this month, the Ontario government passed legislation that
creates a presumption that PTSD diagnosed in first responders is
work-related.

And last week the federal government announced plans to introduce
legislation to legalize marijuana.

While Canadian society may be relaxing its view on marijuana, Andrew
Brown, Marijuana for Trauma's Ontario vice-president, said the
Canadian Forces has been slower to change.

"We don't even help serving soldiers get prescribed cannabis unless
they have a release message in hand, because some people in military
community viewed us a threat to operational security for a while
because serving soldiers would be prescribed," Brown said.

"The army hasn't caught up to the general population's opinion on
medical cannabis."

Mike Collins, who himself has a medical marijuana prescription, has no
such reservations about what it can do for him and other veterans.

"I know guys that were basically shut-ins. Now they are taking their
kids to hockey games, they're getting out shopping with their wives,
they are doing more family stuff, they are going on vacations again,"
Collins said.

"That stuff was just unheard of. It can be debilitating. Post-
traumatic stress can be debilitating."
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MAP posted-by: Matt