{"id":73231,"date":"2016-09-18T11:42:47","date_gmt":"2016-09-18T15:42:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=73231"},"modified":"2016-09-17T23:05:40","modified_gmt":"2016-09-18T03:05:40","slug":"opinion-supports-medical-cannabis-for-ptsd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=73231","title":{"rendered":"OPINION: Supports Medical Cannabis for PTSD"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><a href=\"http:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?attachment_id=58690\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-58690\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-58690\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/madisoncountycourier.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/letters-to-the-editor.jpg?resize=300%2C225\" alt=\"letters to the editor\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/madisoncountycourier.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/letters-to-the-editor.jpg?w=300&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/madisoncountycourier.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/letters-to-the-editor.jpg?resize=150%2C112&amp;ssl=1 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>To the editor:<\/em><\/p>\n<p>It is a travesty that New York State does not allow PTSD patients legal\u00a0access to medical cannabis. How many more suicides and cases of wrongful\u00a0arrest must continue to occur before the NY government wakes up?<\/p>\n<p>Neighboring New Jersey has now recognized medical cannabis as a legitimate\u00a0treatment for PTSD. Since even before my 2011 arrest in Middletown Township, N.J.\u00a0(Monmouth County), I was a high-profile advocate for <!--more-->treating Post-Traumatic\u00a0Stress Disorder with Medical Cannabis.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately while the law has changed, patients such as myself who were\u00a0wronged are not being compensated.<\/p>\n<p>I was pulled out of a car late at night, handcuffed to a pipe in a cold\u00a0room for hours, and robbed of my medicine by arrogant police officers who\u00a0sought to intimidate and generate fine revenue in a municipal court where\u00a0the Municipal Judge, Richard Thompson, has since been suspended due to\u00a0alleged corruption.<\/p>\n<p>It is fine to say now that as PTSD patients we are recognized as\u00a0seriously-ill people in need of cannabis. But my California doctor already\u00a0told the court as much and no one cared to listen.<\/p>\n<p>A state apology and a lifetime supply of free medicine is what must be\u00a0provided by the State of New Jersey to patients victimized by the unjust\u00a0laws of the day. New York should do the same.<\/p>\n<p><em>Rev. Dr. Eric Hafner,\u00a0Toms River, New Jersey<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>To the editor: It is a travesty that New York State does not allow PTSD patients legal\u00a0access to medical cannabis. How many more suicides and cases of wrongful\u00a0arrest must continue to occur before the NY government wakes up? Neighboring New Jersey has now recognized medical cannabis as a legitimate\u00a0treatment for PTSD. Since even before my [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":58690,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-73231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-top-story"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p43meu-j39","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/madisoncountycourier.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/letters-to-the-editor.jpg?fit=300%2C225&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=73231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73231\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/58690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=73231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=73231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=73231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}