California Senate Bill 1302, Supported By Weed For Warriors Project, Offers The Only Option For Veteran Access To Medicine In Cannabis Deserts.

By: Heather Schafer

On Wednesday, May 2nd the State Senate Committee on Governance And Finance heard a number bills, including SB 1302 which will prohibit local government from banning delivery of cannabis into local jurisdictions.

 

WFWP takes over California State Capitol to support SB 1302

 

At issue is access, by all patients but specifically veterans, to much needed medical cannabis for their treatment of a multitude of illnesses and injuries. Supporters, of the Bill, believe that delivery of cannabis was not adequately addressed within the current California regulations and as a result local jurisdictions have deliberately banned cannabis delivery, from licensed commercial businesses outside of the banned areas, to patients within their jurisdictions. Opposition, to the Bill, feels that Proposition 64 gave authority, to every California jurisdiction, to decide if and when they wanted commercial cannabis activity to occur in their area and that SB 1302 takes that authority from them.

 

WFWP Founder, Kevin Richardson, speaking in support of SB 1302

 

Weed for Warriors Project (WFWP) sees this as an issue of access to medicine for veterans. 22 veterans are committing suicide on a daily basis and medical cannabis is key in preventing those deaths. “It is very simple,” says WFWP CEO Sean Kiernan, “If you vote no on this Bill then you working against the best interest of veterans

 

After testimony by supporters including the sponsor, We Drop Cannabis Delivery, and organizations such as WFWP, California NORML, Brownie Mary Democrats of Sacramento, Americans for Safe Access and California Teamsters, as well as over 75 others, the Committee voted to send the Bill on to the Senate Appropriations Committee for further review.

 

 

The only No vote came from Senator Janet Nguyen (R) from Long Beach’s 34th District. She and the opposition, including California State Association of Counties, League of California Cities, Long Beach Collectives Association and approximately 7 others are taking the position that SB 1302 violates their right to “Local Authority” under Prop. 64 or the Adult Use Of Marijuana Act (AUMA). WFWP believes that this bill does not violate “Local Authority” as the Cities and Counties are not being forced to allow commercial cannabis businesses to set up shop in their jurisdiction, SB 1302 only allows patients to gain access, to their much-needed medicine, by delivery from outside cannabis businesses. After a message thanking the commander of the Joint Forces Training Base at Los Alamitos, in California, on her Instagram feed we asked Senator Ngyuen “What about the enlisted veterans?”. We went on to ask “What are you doing to help alleviate the opioid and suicide crisis?”. There has been no response from Senator office or Instagram feed.

 


2 Responses to “California Senate Bill 1302, Supported By Weed For Warriors Project, Offers The Only Option For Veteran Access To Medicine In Cannabis Deserts.”

  • Dennis says:

    As a 100% service connected disabled veteran with five surgeries so far since returning from Iraqi Freedom, access to marijuana is NOT the answer to alleviating the suicide/opioid crisis for disabled veterans. Thinking this way is a cop out. Instead, let’s encourage veterans to put down the remote and get off the couch. Go to the gym. Meet up with other veterans for an activity and do it often. Become a fitness instructor.
    Let’s not teach our kids that medical marijuana is the answer.
    I tried it, it never completely took away my pain or alleviate my depression. Serving others did.
    If you have a roof over your head, money in the bank, food on the table and a car to drive, you are richer than 80% of the world. Let’s go help those who don’t have those luxeries.
    I’m part of a medical team every year to where AIDS began in Uganda. Serving the extreme poor does more for me than anything else. Every trip is life changing. It also teaches valuable lessons to my daughter.

    • Heather Schafer says:

      Hi Dennis,

      My name is Heather Schafer and I am currently handling media, and the website, for Weed For Warriors Project. Thank you for your comment. I can appreciate that you did not find relief, for your service related symptoms, through the use of cannabis. However, the goal for WFWP is to help veterans to transition from the side-effect ridden and usually dangerous pharma drugs handed out, like candy, through the VA to a more natural and non-addictive option like cannabis. To be clear, we are not trying to teach “our kids” anything as this is a website and lifestyle brand targeting adult veterans over the age of 21. Additionally, our target audience is men and women who are struggling with symptoms associated with PTSD, Chronic Pain and a whole host of other conditions resulting from their time in service. Our organization has seen, first hand, the positive outcomes that can come from using cannabis as a method to get off of the anti-psychotics, anti-depressants, pain control pharmaceuticals and other similar drugs being offered through the western medicine system in the US. In the future, I plan on offering stories about how veterans can participate in programs, such as the ones you spoke of, to further assist them in finding a new normal and finding a quality of life. However, until they are able to get off of the pharmaceuticals it is unlikely that most will be able to participate in those programs due to the side effects taking over their lives.

      Again, I want to thank you for your comment as you are correct in saying that serving others can bring a tremendous amount of rewards to these wounded warriors and we recognize that becoming more active is an important part of increasing their quality of life.

      Thank you

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