Raymond Rico is a veteran and chapter lead of Weed for Warriors: San Diego, a non-profit organization that provides veterans with medical marijuana.
Candid Chronicle: How did you get started with w4w
R: There was an event so I drove from Chula Vista up to Humboldt, and I didn’t know what it was about until I found out that it was for veterans. That we would get some sort of medicine instead of pills, and it was cannabis to use to treat war trauma; PTSD, anxiety, or we have a member up in Humboldt that only has one limb. So it treats all veterans, it’s like a bandage for us.
CC: Are you a veteran?
R: Yes I am
CC: Why is weed for warriors important to you?
R: I believe that we help out the community. Our veterans don’t need to be taking pills. People get ten, or seventy pills, and cannabis can do all of it. Why do we need to be taking what the DA prescribes us? They know that medical marijuana does help us.
CC: All the bad side effects of pills…
R: All the side effects! They even say it on the commercials, they might say “death” on the end. Why would I want to take a pill when I would be nauseated, puking, getting a rash from, or overdose? I know medical marijuana doesn’t give me any of those. I can smoke so much and I won’t die from it.
CC: We should be giving veterans the best treatment possible.
R: I agree, I tried to set up an appointment for a numbness in my hand, to see if I could get my hand checked. They said it would take a year to get an appointment. It’s ridiculous. My wife gets better treatment than I do.
CC: What does medical marijuana do for PTSD?
R: The CBD relaxes your muscles, makes you less tense.
CC: Can you describe PTSD for our readers?
R: Things that are really loud gets you really jumpy. My hands are always sweaty, at all times, because I’m always vigilant. I’m always looking around, thinking that someone’s looking at me. If I’m looking out a window, I’m looking up at the sky, I don’t know why, it’s just something that’s in my head. My hands get really sweaty. I’ve got insomnia, when I hear something, I wake up.
CC: When you leave active duty, it’s not like you go back home to normal life, you retain the perceptions that you were taught in service.
R: It’s stuff that doesn’t happen in normal life. People don’t walk around and hear a gunshot when you’re outside or hear an explosion when you’re watching TV. You come back thinking that’ going to happen over, and over, and over. Again, and again, and again.
CC: What was it like when you got home, before you started medicating?
R: I have a big family. I have a wife, two kids, one on the way. When I got out it was so stressful, all the weight on me, I needed to do everything. Dealing with my anxiety, my PTSD, I had no tolerance. I would get really aggravated. Me and my family were breaking down, and we weren’t doing very well. Then I heard about medical marijuana, everything became more mellow for me, it made more sense, kind of relaxed, even let me think more clear. My family got more together, more supportive towards it. She even tells me, if I get mad, she goes “Go smoke outside,” or “Go smoke, you’re being Sargeant Rico.”
CC: So medicating makes your anxiety and PTSD manageable so that you can get through life, and have a peaceful and productive day.
R: Yup!
CC: How did Weed for Warriors begin?
R: Crazy Kevin started it, he started asking veteran dispensaries, or any dispensaries for weed for free. ‘Cause he didn’t have any money, he had war trauma, he had this, he had that. Apparently somebody gave him a quarter, a free quarter pound of marijuana. He decided to disperse that to everybody. He grabbed up a bunch of veterans, had a sesh, and handed a gram or so out to everybody. It was just veterans. He decided to call it Weed for Warriors. Other dispensaries decided to support.
CC: Weed for Warriors provides medicine for soldiers.
R: Yes, we do. We have meetings once a month. We gather all the veterans that we can, we talk for about three hours or so, have a sesh.
CC: It’s like a support group.
R: Yes, and we’re a non-profit organization so we get medicine from sponsors and at the end of the event everyone gets a little bag for free. As long as you’re a veteran you can get a bag.
CC: Do you think marijuana should be allowed for active duty?
R: If they could make something that was tolerable for people to not get really, really, stoned from one puff, then yes. Just because they need to be active and alert at all times.
Any veterans looking to join the San Diego chapter of Weed for Warriors at www.wfwproject.org, or on Instagram, @wfw_project.
