7greeneyes
MedicalNLovingIt!
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URL: hMPp://www.theweedblog.com/new-mexico-corrections-officer-fired-for-medicating-legally-with-cannabis/
As it has with thousands of PTSD patients nationwide, cannabis gave 32-year-old Augustine Stanley his life back. Already a decorated veteran, already the youngest Lieutenant at New Mexicos Bernalillo County Metropolitan Detention Center, he could survive IEDs in Iraq and prison gang member sequestration cells in Albuquerque. But it looks iffy whether his promising, unblemished career will survive a urine test.
Stanley led the team of corrections officers that handles the highest risk inmates in the Albuquerque area not just violent criminals, but people at risk to themselves. I was interviewing for promotion to Captain, he told me. I dont even have a disciplinary file. Then last September I failed a urine test.
This is, sadly and temporarily, not a unique case of what happens in the final days of cannabis prohibition when a patient who works in a drug-tested position and his family choose his well-being over even his livelihood and obligation to support, in Stanleys case, his four kids. And when you talk to this local boy, he makes no bones about one truth: cannabis was and is a life-or-death necessity for him. Otherwise he would never have threatened a career that had logged 13 years toward a lucrative 20-year retirement plan.
In a steady, non-emotional voice, Stanley told me, The Xanax (alprazolam anti-anxiety pharmaceutical) I was prescribed (after a traumatic tour in Iraq in 2005) just deepened my depression. I was a worse person to be around. Id take even half the prescribed amount and fall asleep on the couch. I think of that time and the word that comes to mind is zombie.
Then another vet told Stanley what thousands of vets now know: that cannabis frees many PTSD sufferers from addictive pills and their often devastating side-effects, while allowing them to function in their work, in their relationships, and in their journey toward healing.
My wife didnt like the sound of it at first, Stanley said. But I had to try it I knew what (cannabis) was, from trying it now and then in college. I knew it wouldnt kill me. The legal pills I was supposed to take every day were killing me. (The New York Times reported in 2011 that an entire hospital system in Tennessee stopped prescribing alprazolam because its abuse was so widespread.)
What are Stanleys wife Anetras feelings about medical cannabis today? I got educated on it, she told me. Its amazing. It really is. I dont want him to stop. If he stops, hes a different person. Hes angry. When hes medicated, hes able to have patience, play with the kids, hes my husband again. Its night and day. Even his mother sees that hes got his life back and supports him using this medicine. I used to think medicinal cannabis was an excuse to smoke. So my message to the world is to embrace this plant as a medicine. Its real and it works.
So how does a PTSD sufferer utilize cannabis? It varies, of course, patient to patient: thats how herbal medication works ask any Chinese medical practitioner; this a tradition that hasnt stopped using cannabis for the last 3,000 years, including to ease delivery pain and anxiety for mothers-to-be during labor. Stanley describes his cannabis use this way: If Im having a panic attack, I use it. But thats happening less and less now. I never used it at work.
And yet his effective medication, an inexpensive plant he obtained legally under New Mexicos state medicinal cannabis program, got him fired.
I was interviewing for promotions no one was even thinking of firing me, Stanley said to me. But on January 7 of this year I was fired for cannabis showing up in a drug test. There are plenty of correction officers on prescriptions and theyre allowed to work why shouldnt I have the same opportunity? Im following state law.
Stanley, in our hour-long conversation, rarely sounded bitter, but he was clearly not thrilled when he added, There are even three other corrections officers who are part of the state cannabis program. One was recently promoted, and the other two drive county vehicles eight hours a day.
What Stanley was describing is a policy crossroads at which all of working America needs to make the correct turn. The issues at stake are productivity, reliability and sobriety at work. Today, industries such as corrections (and trucking, air travel, education, nursing and any industry that feels it has to drug test) operates according to a de facto dont ask/dont tell cannabis policy that applies unless an employee fails a drug test. Its not merely dishonest, its a policy that actually hampers our nations output and bottom-line productivity. As a Google employee told me last week when I performed my Too High to Fail live event for company employees on its Seattle campus, If we drug tested, there wouldnt be a high tech industry.
Clearly, as cannabis becomes legal, we as a society must agree to remove the plant from the substances that are unilaterally prohibited in workplaces (known as a per se ban), and instead apply a sensible policy, similar to workplace policy on alcohol. As in, dont come to work intoxicated. Clearly, Stanley wasnt impaired in the execution of his duties. He couldnt be: he was quite literally putting his life on the line every day.
Bestselling author Doug spreads his Drug Peace ideals each week in the Drug Peace Bumblebee column. (Photo by Michael Bowman)
Most Americans realize that this commonsense approachs day has arrived. Unfortunately, both former U.S. Drug Czars and politicians like Florida Governor Rick Scott now benefit from the counter productive pee test model of workplace efficiency and safety, since they work for, have worked for, or even have founded companies that provide testing services. Economic patriotism must overcome tired myths about cannabis. Some veterans organizations are already partnering with national drug policy groups to make this more sensible day come sooner rather than later. New Mexico, ironically, in being one of the first medical cannabis states to institutionalize acceptance of PTSD as a condition for which cannabis is therapeutic, is taking the lead. The Drug Policy Alliances New Mexico office has just launched a Freedom to Choose campaign to improve veteran access to cannabis for PTSD and Other Wounds of War.
As his appeals process continues, Stanley is anything but sorry for himself. Im 32 years old, Im a healthy young guy who works hard, and Ive shown I am on the way to success, he told me. Ill find work.
Thats not why Stanley is going public about his ordeal, which he thinks will end up, when the union arbitration process wraps in August, in court. I really hope that my case will change policy, he said. Its shame the way this medication is looked upon in some fields. It needs to be treated like any other medication. Everyone has a right to have a good quality of life. If my case opens minds, especially law enforcement administrators minds, or saves one guys job somewhere, this will all be worth it.
New Mexico Corrections Officer Fired For Medicating Legally With Cannabis
As it has with thousands of PTSD patients nationwide, cannabis gave 32-year-old Augustine Stanley his life back. Already a decorated veteran, already the youngest Lieutenant at New Mexicos Bernalillo County Metropolitan Detention Center, he could survive IEDs in Iraq and prison gang member sequestration cells in Albuquerque. But it looks iffy whether his promising, unblemished career will survive a urine test.
Stanley led the team of corrections officers that handles the highest risk inmates in the Albuquerque area not just violent criminals, but people at risk to themselves. I was interviewing for promotion to Captain, he told me. I dont even have a disciplinary file. Then last September I failed a urine test.
This is, sadly and temporarily, not a unique case of what happens in the final days of cannabis prohibition when a patient who works in a drug-tested position and his family choose his well-being over even his livelihood and obligation to support, in Stanleys case, his four kids. And when you talk to this local boy, he makes no bones about one truth: cannabis was and is a life-or-death necessity for him. Otherwise he would never have threatened a career that had logged 13 years toward a lucrative 20-year retirement plan.
In a steady, non-emotional voice, Stanley told me, The Xanax (alprazolam anti-anxiety pharmaceutical) I was prescribed (after a traumatic tour in Iraq in 2005) just deepened my depression. I was a worse person to be around. Id take even half the prescribed amount and fall asleep on the couch. I think of that time and the word that comes to mind is zombie.
Then another vet told Stanley what thousands of vets now know: that cannabis frees many PTSD sufferers from addictive pills and their often devastating side-effects, while allowing them to function in their work, in their relationships, and in their journey toward healing.
My wife didnt like the sound of it at first, Stanley said. But I had to try it I knew what (cannabis) was, from trying it now and then in college. I knew it wouldnt kill me. The legal pills I was supposed to take every day were killing me. (The New York Times reported in 2011 that an entire hospital system in Tennessee stopped prescribing alprazolam because its abuse was so widespread.)
What are Stanleys wife Anetras feelings about medical cannabis today? I got educated on it, she told me. Its amazing. It really is. I dont want him to stop. If he stops, hes a different person. Hes angry. When hes medicated, hes able to have patience, play with the kids, hes my husband again. Its night and day. Even his mother sees that hes got his life back and supports him using this medicine. I used to think medicinal cannabis was an excuse to smoke. So my message to the world is to embrace this plant as a medicine. Its real and it works.
So how does a PTSD sufferer utilize cannabis? It varies, of course, patient to patient: thats how herbal medication works ask any Chinese medical practitioner; this a tradition that hasnt stopped using cannabis for the last 3,000 years, including to ease delivery pain and anxiety for mothers-to-be during labor. Stanley describes his cannabis use this way: If Im having a panic attack, I use it. But thats happening less and less now. I never used it at work.
And yet his effective medication, an inexpensive plant he obtained legally under New Mexicos state medicinal cannabis program, got him fired.
I was interviewing for promotions no one was even thinking of firing me, Stanley said to me. But on January 7 of this year I was fired for cannabis showing up in a drug test. There are plenty of correction officers on prescriptions and theyre allowed to work why shouldnt I have the same opportunity? Im following state law.
Stanley, in our hour-long conversation, rarely sounded bitter, but he was clearly not thrilled when he added, There are even three other corrections officers who are part of the state cannabis program. One was recently promoted, and the other two drive county vehicles eight hours a day.
What Stanley was describing is a policy crossroads at which all of working America needs to make the correct turn. The issues at stake are productivity, reliability and sobriety at work. Today, industries such as corrections (and trucking, air travel, education, nursing and any industry that feels it has to drug test) operates according to a de facto dont ask/dont tell cannabis policy that applies unless an employee fails a drug test. Its not merely dishonest, its a policy that actually hampers our nations output and bottom-line productivity. As a Google employee told me last week when I performed my Too High to Fail live event for company employees on its Seattle campus, If we drug tested, there wouldnt be a high tech industry.
Clearly, as cannabis becomes legal, we as a society must agree to remove the plant from the substances that are unilaterally prohibited in workplaces (known as a per se ban), and instead apply a sensible policy, similar to workplace policy on alcohol. As in, dont come to work intoxicated. Clearly, Stanley wasnt impaired in the execution of his duties. He couldnt be: he was quite literally putting his life on the line every day.
Bestselling author Doug spreads his Drug Peace ideals each week in the Drug Peace Bumblebee column. (Photo by Michael Bowman)
Most Americans realize that this commonsense approachs day has arrived. Unfortunately, both former U.S. Drug Czars and politicians like Florida Governor Rick Scott now benefit from the counter productive pee test model of workplace efficiency and safety, since they work for, have worked for, or even have founded companies that provide testing services. Economic patriotism must overcome tired myths about cannabis. Some veterans organizations are already partnering with national drug policy groups to make this more sensible day come sooner rather than later. New Mexico, ironically, in being one of the first medical cannabis states to institutionalize acceptance of PTSD as a condition for which cannabis is therapeutic, is taking the lead. The Drug Policy Alliances New Mexico office has just launched a Freedom to Choose campaign to improve veteran access to cannabis for PTSD and Other Wounds of War.
As his appeals process continues, Stanley is anything but sorry for himself. Im 32 years old, Im a healthy young guy who works hard, and Ive shown I am on the way to success, he told me. Ill find work.
Thats not why Stanley is going public about his ordeal, which he thinks will end up, when the union arbitration process wraps in August, in court. I really hope that my case will change policy, he said. Its shame the way this medication is looked upon in some fields. It needs to be treated like any other medication. Everyone has a right to have a good quality of life. If my case opens minds, especially law enforcement administrators minds, or saves one guys job somewhere, this will all be worth it.