Salem-News.com Ptsd articles Page 55

Medical Marijuana and the Ignorant, Arrogant Oregon Medical Board

Oregon's medical marijuana application process shouldn't have been made any more complicated than obtaining a handicapped parking permit.

(THE DALLES ) - In a naked attempt to kill the voter-approved Medical Marijuana Act, the Oregon Medical Board made a hero and martyr out of Dr. Phillip Leveque by appearing to be above the law in revoking Leveque's ability to approve applications for medical marijuana cards and fining him $25,000 for allegedly not seeing all cross-state applications in person. Many are quadriplegic.

That requirement was added after the fact, and the Medical Marijuana Act stipulated that doctors could not be prosecuted for expressing their opinion as to whether or not a person had one of nine aliments that might entitle him to obtain a $150 annual medical marijuana card from the state of Oregon.

This card, in bypassing federal law, does not make possession legal but protects the cardholder from prosecution in Oregon.

A Marine`s Christmas Poem

A special poem for special Americans who defend this country in uniform.

(SEAL BEACH, Calif.) - This poem was written in 1986, by Lance Corporal James M. Schmidt while on duty in Washington D.C., and originally published in Leatherneck Magazine in 1991. Rich & Maureen Hamilton of Seal Beach, California say Christmas will be coming soon and some credit is due to our U.S. service men and women for our being able to celebrate these festivities.

"Let's try in this small way to pay a tiny bit of what we owe. Make people stop and think of our heroes, living and dead, who sacrificed themselves for us. Please, do your small part to plant this small seed," Richard Hamilton said.

TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS,
HE LIVED ALL ALONE,
IN A ONE BEDROOM HOUSE MADE OF
PLASTER AND STONE.

I HAD COME DOWN THE CHIMNEY
WITH PRESENTS TO GIVE,
AND TO SEE JUST WHO
IN THIS HOME DID LIVE...

`Camp Homebound` Peace Activists Meet With Oregon Officials (VIDEO)

The group was told that if a million Oregonians got behind their effort, they might be able to stop the scheduled deployment to Iraq.

(SALEM, Ore.) - Members of a peace vigil called 'Camp Homebound', organized to prevent Oregon Guard forces from deploying to Iraq next year, spent time with Oregon state officials Friday in a highly anticipated meeting where the group was allowed to express its point of view.

Members of the 24-hour fast and vigil say the meeting leaves them with hope. Darr said she was moderately surprised that state officials allowed the meeting to take place, but she also says she has been confident that they would. She says she will continue this effort until they can effect a change.

Medical Marijuana Licensees: Registered Like Sex Offenders

Phillip Leveque has spent his life as a Combat Infantryman, Physician Pharmacologist and Toxicologist.

(MOLALLA, Ore.) - Erin Hildebrandt has written and posted a very true and heart rending personal story of her apprehension about the Oregon Medical Marijuana Law and contrasting it with her previous home, Maryland.

Oregon Doctor Answers Reader`s Questions on Medical Marijuana and PTSD (VIDEO)

This is a special question and answer segment featuring Salem-News.com's Bonnie King and Dr. Phillip Leveque.

(SALEM, Ore.) - Dr. Phillip Leveque has treated over 4,000 patients throughout his career as a Physician, Pharmacologist and Toxicologist. Prior to that, he served in General Patton's Army in WWII as an infantry soldier fighting The Nazi's in Europe.

This intimate connection with the soldier's combat experience in war, led to Phil Leveque treating hundreds of veterans as an Osteopathic Doctor during his practice, many of whom suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Consequently, he became one of the world's most experienced physicians in dealing with this complex disorder.

He has known many veterans who use cannabis as a therapy for PTSD and he writes frequently about their high rate of success, and ability to stay off hard drugs and alcohol, both of which are killers. Marijuana has never led to a single death.

Oregon Officials Will Meet Group Protesting Guard Deployment

Demonstrators staging a 24-hour-a-day vigil and fast on the capitol steps in protest of sending Oregon Guard troops to Iraq, get a glimmer of hope as state officials agree to meet with them.

(SALEM, Ore.) - A group protesting next year's deployment of Oregon Guard soldiers to the war in Iraq received news Tuesday that representatives of the state governor's office and leadership elements of the Oregon Guard, will sit down and meet with them on Friday.

Michele Darr of "Camp Homebound", the anti-war group demonstrating and fasting on the capitol steps, has asked repeatedly for a meeting with Oregon's Governor Ted Kulongoski and while they still have a way to go to reach that point, they believe meeting with representatives of the governor is an indication things are headed in the right direction.

"The Governor 'won't be available' to meet personally, but it's a start and we are grateful and eager for the opportunity of furthering dialogue," Darr said.

VA Care: Fake Doctors and Fake Treatment

Phillip Leveque has spent his life as a Combat Infantryman, Physician Pharmacologist and Toxicologist.

(MOLALLA, Ore.) - As a pharmacologist and PTSD victim, I try to keep up with what is going on in these two interrelated matters. Web sightings on the computer indicated 86 pages related to these subjects.

One of the most interesting to me was an article by William Levesque (he is a cousin but according to my French Dictionary he doesn’t spell his last name correctly!). He printed in the Tampa Times that the Tampa area VA Hospital was staffed mostly by unlicensed psychologists. This seems very bad to me. How come psychologists are treating PTSD, a medical problem? Are any doing brain surgery? It’s just one step up.

He writes that Tampa’s VA Hospital has 34 psychologists but 12 are not only unlicensed but have little if any supervision by a licensed psychologist and apparently Psychiatrists or regular Physicians are not in the mix. THIS IS A NEGLIGENCE CATASTROPHE. The VA says it doesn’t matter. If it doesn’t matter, why the Fake Treatment with Fake Doctors?

Newspaper Publishes Iraq War Photographer`s Story

Meet a war photographer with a real artistic flair.

(EUGENE, Ore.) - The story of a freelance photographer that I traveled to Iraq with recently is now published in the Eugene Register Guard Newspaper. Justin King had never been in the military, nor had he spent time in a war theater, but this Eugene resident known throughout the world for his guitar skills, showed us all that he had exactly what it takes to shoot amazing images under less than ideal conditions.

Justin spent time with a number of units under the Army's 101st Airborne attached to the air base at Balad known as Camp Anaconda. He traveled to Baghdad as well, spending part of a day learning the history of some of the city's sites that many people are familiar with, through television coverage of the war.

Justin's guitar work is world famous, though you could spend days with him and not even know he plays. In the war zone Justin was a photographer, that is unless people recognized him; then he was a guitar virtuoso again.

Depression: Anti-Depressants, Male Sex Boobytraps

Phillip Leveque has spent his life as a Combat Infantryman, Physician Pharmacologist and Toxicologist.

(MOLALLA, Ore.) - I have had a few PTSD Veteran victims come in for MJ permits who informed me that one of their PTSD symptoms was E.D., Erectile Dysfunction. This surprised me because I knew from my own experience and the experience of my combat buddies that sex relations was one of the ways a combat soldier could forget being bombed or shot at if even for a few minutes (or hours).

Such being the case, I was not surprised to read in Peoples Pharmacy a medical/pharmacology news feature about this problem by Joe & Teresa Graedon. I believe Joe Graedon has a Masters Degree in Pharmacology but this news feature is how he makes a living. Joe fields write-in questions.

This one stated that he had been taking Prozac for about 5 years and could not get a sexual climax. He was switched to Celexa which didn’t help either. Joe’s answer clarified this problem – somewhat! He said that pharmaceutical company statements said this was rare (2-16 percent) but truthful information indicated this erectile dysfunction (E.D.) was 30 to 70 percent.

Virtual Reality Vs. Cannabis Therapy Continued

Phillip Leveque has spent his life as a Combat Infantryman, Physician Pharmacologist and Toxicologist.

(MOLALLA, Ore.) - Dozens of my readers have emailed in comments, questions and approval of my postings. It is very much appreciated. As a pharmacology research scientist, I learned long ago to be certain of what I was writing about. I must believe in my own writing or I wouldn’t do it.