NORTHAMPTON — Sixty area veterans on Saturday received an unusual token of gratitude: free medical marijuana consultations.
The Northampton office of Canna Care Docs, which provides the consultations needed for state medical marijuana cards, waived its $200 fee for veterans who presented a military ID or discharge paperwork at an event on Saturday. Two doctors were on hand to evaluate patients. The waiting room of the 243 King St. dispensary buzzed with activity at 2 p.m.
“We donate our services to the veterans,” said Kathleen McKinnon, director of operations of Canna Care Docs.
McKinnon said medical marijuana use can be “life changing” for veterans facing issues such as post-traumatic stress disorder, chronic pain, traumatic brain injury and insomnia.
According to McKinnon, Canna Care Docs has provided $300,000 of free evaluations for veterans and stage IV cancer patients. The company held its first event in May 2014 in South Dennis, McKinnon said.
Just bringing veterans together can be therapeutic, McKinnon said.
“We’ve brought people together, people from the Vietnam War right up the most recent skirmishes we’ve had in the Middle East,” McKinnon said. “To hear their stories, to see them heal a little bit just by talking and sharing that bond, it really makes me feel good.”
McKinnon said she is thankful for the service veterans have provided the country with, and she is thankful she is able to hold events that can help them heal.
She said she hopes to raise awareness that there is an alternative to opioid medications. In fact, medical marijuana can be used to curb opioid abuse without the aid of drugs like Suboxone, McKinnon said.
“There is a safer, gentler way to do it,” McKinnon said.
Stephen Mandile, of Uxbridge, recounted how medical marijuana helped to break his opioid addiction. Mandile, who spoke at the event Saturday, is a veteran of the United States Army Guard. He is a strong advocate for removing stigma from medical marijuana use and runs a website geared toward alternate healing for veterans.
In an interview Saturday afternoon, Mandile shared his own story as a veteran who benefits from marijuana use.
Mandile, a sergeant, was injured while serving in Iraq in 2005. He was prescribed a cocktail of opioid painkillers and other drugs including morphine, oxycodone, Xanax and fentanyl to treat his injuries. Mandile suffers from a fused spine, post-traumatic stress disorder and a traumatic brain injury.
For a decade, Mandile treated his injuries using opioid medication paid for by the state. The drugs, valued at $8,000 to $10,000 a month, turned him into a shell of who he once was, he said.
Mandile did not leave the house unless he had to, his wife Jessica explained. He lived dose-to-dose, he said, counting and recounting his pills. He handled problems one of two ways: getting angry or just leaving.
But in 2015, Mandile started using the medical marijuana card he obtained in 2012 when the state legalized marijuana for medicinal use. Four months after he started using medical marijuana, Mandile took his last fentanyl pill. He broke his reliance on opioid medication after 10 years.
“It was a rush of emotions,” Mandile said. “I went from being dead inside to waking up again.”
Medical marijuana is not a magic cure, Mandile emphasized. He still struggles with his disabilities, he said, but medical marijuana has
Because of his success, Mandile said he works as an activist to show people, especially veterans, that there is an alternative to commonly-prescribed opioids.