After attempting suicide, US war veteran finds relief for post-traumatic stress in Medicinal Cannabis

Adam Smith spent 17 years serving in the US Army and in special forces combating terrorists and drug cartels in the world's most dangerous places. Seeing death was common during his operations in volatile countries like Afghanistan and Guatemala, where he trained soldiers to combat the Taliban and cartels.

But it was in a small taxi in Lexington, Kentucky (USA), where he came closest to dying. Surrounded by empty drink bottles, a suicide note, and with a gun in his mouth.

The only reason he didn't pull the trigger was because he was so drunk that he passed out, and his fiancée came in and took the gun. She had no idea what he was planning, and he had a good way of hiding it. At that point, alcohol was his medication and a way to deal with the side effects of his military career, which ended in 2016.

He struggled to adapt to civilian life and felt disconnected from the community where he was trying to reintegrate.

"Suicidal thoughts were a daily occurrence. The constant feeling of failure, purposelessness, and being lost in the world was a daily battle," says Smith to the Daily Mail.

He was lost, earning only $19,000 a year, gained about 23 pounds, and his body wasn't functioning well. "I was in a deep state of hopelessness and had no mission or purpose."

That's when he realized he could no longer drink to try to combat Post-Traumatic Stress and the impact of the head injuries he suffered in the battle zones. He mostly avoided the powerful medications often prescribed by the VA (agency that helps ex-military), believing they caused long-term damage and often led to addiction.

The VA said in 2017 that 68,000 veterans are addicted to opioids, many of them taking 32 pills a day for 57 different symptoms.

The day after his suicide attempt, he went to have a beer with a special war friend from the Navy who offered him the chance to train police officers in Ohio. He joined a tactical training company and started training Cross Fit. Then, he saw his life change.

The former soldier then found a solution to relieve the trauma in a place he didn't consider possible - a Cannabis dispensary in the state of Washington. He was on a bike trip with a friend who had issues with panic attacks, and they stopped at the store.

"I bought some [marijuana] and that night I smoked for the first time. I slept better, had less anxiety, felt more at ease, didn't have nightmares," he says.

He stopped using marijuana to self-medicate when he returned to Kentucky because it had not been decriminalized, and he was working in law enforcement training.

But when hemp products were legalized, he saw a way to help veterans like him combat the physical and psychological damages from their trips abroad.

Smith mentioned using prescribed opioids for post-surgery pain a few times. "I didn't like how they made me feel and usually just slept after taking them. Once the prescription ended, I didn't stop taking them."

The veteran also stated that while transitioning to the military, alcohol was the only thing he regularly used. "I didn't realize until looking back that I used alcohol as a means to cope with what I had experienced. Unfortunately, it didn't help and only made things worse. Alcohol worsened my sleeping habits, made me feel terrible the next day, and threw me straight into a spiral of decline," Adam declares.

It was then that a friend, also a military member of the 7th Special Forces Group, who had an epileptic episode while on duty, shared his story with Smith.

"He found that the medications the VA was prescribing were turning him into a zombie, so he decided to self-medicate with Cannabis," says Smith. "He was having huge success with it and told me everything."

At the time, states across the country were signing legislation decriminalizing or legalizing marijuana. PTSD was also added to the list of qualifying conditions for medical marijuana use.

In 2019, President Trump signed the farm bill and greatly expanded hemp production and how it could be sold because of the subsidies farmers could generate.

Hemp is a variety of Cannabis that cannot contain more than 0.3% THC - the compound in marijuana that is psychoactive. In short, it means you can't get high while using hemp.

The bill also removed CBD (or cannabidiol) derived from hemp from its status in Schedule 1 of the Controlled Substances Act - making it legal and meaning it could be sold more freely.

With the Farm Bill signing, people began to examine the health benefits of CBD and how it interacted with the body. As a result, products began to appear in stores.

It was then that Smith had the idea to develop products for veterans struggling with prescribed opioids and other side effects of their military careers.

"I had long conversations with many of my friends who also served and who went through the process, were diagnosed with PTSD, and subsequently took a stack of medications that didn't really treat the patient, but only temporarily treated the symptoms," says Smith. "Most of the medications offered by the VA only provide short-term relief. They shut off the brain and prevent it from healing in the process of providing the patient with temporary comfort."

Smith explains that when we talk about PTSD and traumatic brain injuries, there are many other options for those taking opioids for pain, antidepressants, anti-anxiety medications, blood pressure medications, and more. "These drugs often do more harm than good. These opioid painkillers can form a habit. The more you get, the more your body craves the compound. These medications are what veterans know."

The former soldier reflects that it's not that most veterans or those who serve use medications or alcohol to deal with everything they've seen. "Many use out of fear of acknowledging that we are mortal, the fear of possibly being removed from our lives, jobs, and ultimately, the fear of being 'broken' leads many in our community to self-medicate and remain silent," he says.

Company serving the military

That's when he founded Tactical Relief, a company that sells CBD products to veterans and first responders who have not found the necessary relief in painkillers and other medications prescribed by their doctors.
Their line includes 100 mg bottles of CBD oil. Their goal was to help give these people a choice of treatment.

His company states that their products have a list of benefits, including helping with anxiety, depression, pain, sleep, gut health, nervous system health, and brain chemistry.

Smith insists that the use of their products is not a cure and not only corrects physical and psychological problems but can help manage them.

Veterans still need a support network and a doctor who addresses long-lasting side effects. But Smith insists that they can help mitigate these issues.

"The first thing to remember is that bad memories never go away. These things will always be with you. However, how these bad memories generate physiological responses can change," he states.

It all starts with a choice - the choice to fight the status quo, to fight against everyone who thinks you're a victim, and to fight against the stories of your own victim that happen in your head.

The VA has faced accusations that doctors overprescribe medications and are lagging in vital care.

Sergeant William Bee, a Marine in one of the most iconic photos of the War on Terror, waited months to see a VA specialist to deal with the results of a brain injury he suffered when caught in an explosion in Afghanistan.

Smith had similar experiences when seeking their care.

"I'm not going to bash the VA, as there are many good people in the organization. Every time I went to the VA for any kind of assistance, it turned into a long, drawn-out day of doing nothing," he recalls.

Smith mentions that when you go to the VA and are having chronic pain issues, they often prescribe painkillers, and that pain medication is usually opioids. "When you are injured overseas or suffer a serious injury in training and are in a lot of pain, pain meds are prescribed. That's the standard, it's just what's done," he warns.

Congress has also been working on legislation for veterans and marijuana use. There are calls to research how marijuana can affect physical illnesses related to active service.

HR 1647, the Veterans Equal Access Act of 2019, is also seeking to give doctors the ability to sign state documents on medical marijuana.

VA doctors cannot do this, so veterans need to turn to private healthcare networks.