Group of veterans supports Amendment 64
A group of veterans rallied outside the El Paso County courthouse Thursday to support Amendment 64, the measure that would give adults 21 and older legal access to marijuana.
Members of Veterans for 64 said the drug helps post-traumatic stress disorder.
“It allows me to focus on the every day and not be trapped in memories in a corner with three fingers of whiskey,” said Joseph Hatcher, a veteran who returned from Iraq.
A petition was filed with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment last May to add PTSD to the list of qualifying conditions for access to medical marijuana.
The department hasn’t responded, and Veterans for 64 say at this point the petition will be denied. They said the department had 120 days to hold a public hearing, and they didn’t. But the department says they have 180 days to respond to the petition, and that they’ll do so in a timely matter.
Meanwhile, the group of veterans hopes Amendment 64 will pass.
“It’s time that we try to find an alternative way to make it legal,” veteran Bob Wiley said.
Voters will decide the fate of Amendment 64 when it appears on November’s ballot.
