To the editor:
It is a travesty that New York State does not allow PTSD patients legal access to medical cannabis. How many more suicides and cases of wrongful arrest must continue to occur before the NY government wakes up?
Neighboring New Jersey has now recognized medical cannabis as a legitimate treatment for PTSD. Since even before my 2011 arrest in Middletown Township, N.J. (Monmouth County), I was a high-profile advocate for treating Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder with Medical Cannabis.
Unfortunately while the law has changed, patients such as myself who were wronged are not being compensated.
I was pulled out of a car late at night, handcuffed to a pipe in a cold room for hours, and robbed of my medicine by arrogant police officers who sought to intimidate and generate fine revenue in a municipal court where the Municipal Judge, Richard Thompson, has since been suspended due to alleged corruption.
It is fine to say now that as PTSD patients we are recognized as seriously-ill people in need of cannabis. But my California doctor already told the court as much and no one cared to listen.
A state apology and a lifetime supply of free medicine is what must be provided by the State of New Jersey to patients victimized by the unjust laws of the day. New York should do the same.
Rev. Dr. Eric Hafner, Toms River, New Jersey