I & I Editorial BoardBrave. Honorable. Loyal. These are just some of the words often used to describe veterans like us. To many, we’re seen as American heroes — men and women who serve this country a hundred times over, regardless of the cost.
But behind the medals and uniforms, many veterans return home to a much different reality. After serving in the military, many veterans come home to an unexpected fight — one that doesn’t make headlines or come with parades. They find themselves grappling with the invisible wounds of war. Post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, becomes a part of their daily lives. It’s a struggle that far too many of our nation’s heroes quietly endure long after leaving the battlefield.
That’s why we stand together to voice our support for the rescheduling of cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III. On paper, our paths don’t look the same. But we’ve walked in the same boots. We’ve carried the same weight that so many who serve carry home. Throughout our collective 50-plus years of service, we’ve seen the toll that the battlefield can have on the mind and the body.
For veterans, healing does not stop with the end of service – it’s a lifelong journey. That’s why the call to reschedule cannabis from a Schedule I to a Schedule III substance is not just a bureaucratic change — it’s a lifeline.
A lifeline that President Trump has expressed support for. It’s been a year since President Trump was on the campaign trail declaring he would work to reschedule cannabis. Now, with Terrance Cole’s recent confirmation as administrator of the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), the DEA should take this momentum to finalize this change.
Under current federal law, cannabis is classified as a Schedule I substance, alongside drugs like heroin, which implies it has no accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.
This classification is scientifically outdated, hinders research, stigmatizes patients, and limits access to treatments that many veterans have found helpful for managing conditions like PTSD, chronic pain, and anxiety.
Cannabis is not a miracle cure, but for many veterans, it provides relief where traditional pharmaceuticals have failed. In speaking with my fellow brothers and sisters, I’ve seen how cannabis can ease the grip of night terrors, reduce reliance on opioids, and provide a sense of calm after years of hypervigilance.
Unfortunately, the current federal stance creates unnecessary barriers for both patients and researchers.
It’s also important to understand that rescheduling cannabis at the federal level would not, in any way, shape, or form, equate to nationwide legalization. The authority to legalize or regulate cannabis use would still remain with individual state governments.
Rescheduling cannabis to Schedule III would be a step toward aligning federal policy with what science and lived experience have long suggested — that cannabis has legitimate medical value. This change would allow for expanded research opportunities, opening doors for scientists and doctors to better understand its potential and its limitations.
It would also pave the way for medical professionals to prescribe cannabis more freely, leading to safer, more consistent treatment options for patients, especially veterans. As it stands, veterans cannot even discuss cannabis-based treatments as an option with their doctors at the VA Medical Center for fear of losing their benefits.
Rescheduling cannabis to Schedule III would change that.
We are calling on our Commander in Chief to stand with us and do what Biden failed to do. Veterans didn’t hesitate when our country asked us to serve. We shouldn’t have to wait for access to treatments that can improve our quality of life.
Rescheduling cannabis won’t solve every problem, but it’s a crucial step in the right direction. It sends a clear message that we are ready to treat our veterans — and all patients — with the respect, dignity, and care they deserve.
Authors:
Pablo Bica, Iraq Combat Marine, United States Marine Corps Veteran, Florida
Eric Hare, Major, United States Army Veteran, Alabama
Mike McCormick, Senior Chief Petty Officer, United States Navy Veteran, North Carolina
Russell Saffell, Senior Maritime Special Purpose Force Corpsman, United States Navy Veteran, Iowa
Kerry Jackson
At first I thought this was some kind of joke. I just read in another online newspaper (The Epoch Times) that, after doing a research test on over 200,000, the research team concluded that Cannabis leads to episodes of schizoid behavior and also to periods of psychosis.
However, after seeing the pedigrees of the authors, and the histories of successful treatments, I say, more power to the vets.
If you want to take cannabis because it has helped vet patients in the past, then I believe you should be allowed to.
You served our country; now we should serve you.
Yeah. I don’t think so.
Not effective as a pain reliever.
Doesn’t prevent opiate abuse — in fact, it’s a gateway drug.
Strongly linked to psychosis and psychosis-induced violence.
Writes Alex Berenson, who also pulled the “mask” off bad COVID science.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6913867/
I don’t understand why you are so insistent on the use when vets who have actually taken it say it has helped them-not a little but a lot.
I believe as you do that it can be a gateway drug and that its use can be deleterious.
So do its benefits exceed its costs?
Perhaps in the case of giving it to vets for the problems they have after serving (which the doses used the vets assert is helping them) is the key point.
The vets are using Cannabis when they have a medical issue and no other medicine helps; meanwhile, the doses the general public use is for recreational purposes, ie. they aren’t used for any of the medical reasons that the vets suffer from.
I enjoy your I&I writing, but I disagree with you (or at least wonder) about this particular situation.
I’ve heard and read that Cannabis can be bad for your mental stability-and I believe that. Also, when smoked, I believe that it harms your lungs, just like smoking does.
However, I also believe the vets assertion that it helps those vets who have used it and say it helps a lot.
Might as well give them access to medicinal alcohol, or medicinal opioids, or medicinal amphetamines, etc., if we start down the path of intoxicating with recreational psychoactive drugs of abuse. These will all turn our cherished vets into less productive, more dependent, and more disturbed individuals.
Where are the serious defenders of veterans who should be reminding the public that veterans are not, as a group, a fragile, PTSD-afflicted sub-segment of the homeless druggies on the streets of our towns? Veterans, including all forms of domestic first responders and most para-military personnel, are for the most part solid citizens in every way with proven capacities for loyalty, discipline, healthy living and a code … and living by it. Veterans are beholdin’ to the Feds more than most people, true, but that doesn’t make them another of liberal government’s victimhood groups. Veterans are not victims. If you want to legalize pot, don’t use veterans as the excuse. Just go ahead and do it.