I'm not as eloquent as the previous speaker. I'll just give you a quick history about me.
By the way, I have a speech impairment, so I might stop talking at any time.
I'm a 13-year veteran of the Canadian Armed Forces. I was in the signal corps. I was deployed in 2006 in Afghanistan for the first rotation of nine months. I was working for General Fraser. It was a very hard tour, as you guys already know. We lost a lot of people. I lost three friends at once.
My main role while I was in Afghanistan was as a bodyguard for journalists, and also electronic countermeasures, ECM, in G-wagons. For people who don't know what ECM means, essentially I jam the signals for bombs that I don't see, and hopefully never will, and protect in a magnetic field everybody who's within that cordon. It's a lot of stress, and obviously, I had many other roles.
I think I did send a story about that for you guys to review. I have no memory anymore.
Having said that, when I came back, six months later I started showing signs of extreme aggressiveness. When I say extreme, I mean extreme. At first I tossed it off as being a war-hardened veteran, and the young troops weren't just cutting it. By the way, I trained most of the following rotations out of Edmonton, with combat first aid, first aid and all the drills to keep you alive overseas.
Having said that, after a while I dodged many insubordinations and things like that, and I took it upon myself to start looking into it. There was really nothing in 2006, so I was not really guided properly. Meanwhile, to make a long story short, I got posted to Comox, B.C., in a non-traditional war role, because that's all I know. I sought help at the mental health clinic and got diagnosed with a generalized anxiety disorder or PTSD or whatever you want to call it. Essentially, it's just a big umbrella; it depends on the doctor and what they think is right.
In PTSD the D is wrong. It should be an I. It's an injury; it is not a disorder. You can progress to function at a certain level. I'm far beyond that, but I don't want to advance any claims on that right now, as I'm getting medical support.
I was put on a regimen of pills by the army, because with all that I was still serving, which affected my ability to work and remember. Anything that had to do with my personal life was completely destroyed. At some point I approached the doctor and said that I couldn't remember anything. I couldn't function properly. I couldn't take care of my kids. My wife was beyond frustrated with me. I needed something else. They put me on this anti-psychotic pill called quetiapine. I took half of the lowest dose for a week and I started stuttering really heavily. That's why I have a speech impairment. The other uncommon side effect was death. My wife and I made the decision that I would quit pretty much all pharmaceuticals right then and there, because they were killing me.
I managed about three years with teas and the best wishes from my wife to support me in any way, shape or form, until I was introduced by other veterans to cannabis. That was three years ago.
Since then, I haven't taken any pharmaceuticals. As you can imagine, my opinion of pharmaceuticals is pretty darn low. Obviously, the normal pills that we take every day are all right, but anything else, for what I'm dealing with, is completely and utterly useless.
I started using cannabis. It's a steep learning curve. There is no real guidance. I obtain it from a licensed producer. The implementation was pretty painless. I've been on a regimen of seven grams a day for the last three years.
I don't smoke; I ingest oil, as it is the healthiest alternative, through the body. I also learned how to make my own medication and play with the THC and the CBD, the combinations and the different strengths. Some are better than others for different effects. It's all trial and error. What works for me might not work for somebody else.
Right now I use sativa during the day and I use indica at night. But it's not how I started. I started with CBD, until the CBD wasn't working. I'm categorized as a severe case. I have 66% awarded from Veterans Affairs.
Having said that, I have a lot of benefits from it. I'm actually more patient with my kids. I actually can function and remember what I have to do within my arcs. I have immense support from my wife, because I can't remember anything due to my brain. It changed my life completely. I can actually go out in public.
I cannot work; I'm fully retired. I did try, but at the time I was not medicated. That was in those buffering years, just after I retired. I see tremendous.... I have joint pain. I have ligament pain. Name a pain and I probably have it. Just like guys who have been blown up and things like that....
Other than that, that's pretty much.... For me, I don't know what I'm walking into in this committee. I was told absolutely nothing, other than that it was on cannabis. I'm willing to answer any of your questions.
So, that's me.