Author: The Fix

Veterans Hold Memorial Day Push for Medical Cannabis

The veterans participating in the Veterans Rally advocated for the VA to change its medical marijuana policy.

Veterans from across the country gathered in Washington, D.C. on Monday to advocate for better access to medical cannabis through the Department of Veterans Affairs.

“Use cannabis, die less,” Mike Krawitz, a 56-year-old disabled U.S. Air Force veteran told Marijuana.com. “The scientific community has confirmed that cannabis saves lives by avoiding overdoses. VA doctors know this but are obliged not to recommend cannabis for pain and PTSD. And that is unethical.”

The motto of the 2018 Veterans Rally D.C. was “plants over pills.” The veterans who were participating were advocating for the VA to change its policy, which currently bars medical cannabis that many vets believe could help with chronic pain and issues like post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Derek Cloutier, who has PTSD after serving with the Marines, said that he always found it easy to get prescription pills from the VA. He said he has seen veterans turn to selling their VA-issued pills in order to get medical cannabis, which they felt was more effective at relieving their symptoms.

“I’ve been told straight by a vet that I can go to a VA hospital and be prescribed opiates, Adderall—anything if they play their cards right, and then go sell the pills on the streets… just so they can buy cannabis and heal themselves,” Cloutier told Fox News.

Many vets, he said, are hesitant to use marijuana because it is stigmatized as a street drug. He worked through his own negative perceptions about cannabis before he began using it regularly. Now, he grows his own medical cannabis legally in Massachusetts, which has both a medical and recreational cannabis program.

“The more I learned about it, the more I educated myself about it… the stigma came down, the stereotypes came down,” Cloutier said. “All these walls around me, that I was terrified to say I’m a cannabis user… that’s part of the problem.”

According to The American Legion, 22% of veterans are already using medical cannabis, despite the fact that it could affect their treatment from the VA. The overwhelming majority of vets (92%) say that they support research into using cannabis to treat a variety of ailments.

Recently, the VA announced that it would begin to study medical marijuana. However, many veterans believe that there is unlikely to be a policy change under the current administration.

“VA doctors may be allowed more breathing room in a legal medical marijuana state, but they are afraid to run afoul of the federal government,” Krawitz said.

View the original article at thefix.com

1 June 2018
Paramore’s Hayley Williams Pens Powerful Mental Health Essay

“Writing kept me alive. Forced me to be honest. It helped me understand that emotional wellness and physical health are actually related.”

Paramore’s lead singer Hayley Williams is taking the shame out of sadness.

In the band’s most recent single “Rose-Colored Boy,” Williams sings, “Just let me cry a little bit longer/ I ain’t gon’ smile if I don’t want to.”

The chorus is a perfect summation of Williams’ current incarnation, as she’s emerged from difficult times and is (at least a little bit) comfortable enough to talk about it.

In a new essay for Paper magazine, Williams recalled when a lot came crashing down on her at the same time in both her personal life and her career.

“I didn’t eat, I didn’t sleep, I didn’t laugh… for a long time,” she wrote. However, she added, “I’m still hesitant to call it depression. Mostly out of fear people will put it in a headline, as if depression is unique and interesting and deserves a click. Psychology is interesting. Depression is torment.”

But she said she managed to keep it together through writing. “Writing kept me alive. Forced me to be honest. Made me have empathy for [bandmate Taylor York] in his struggles with mental health. It helped me understand that emotional wellness and physical health are actually related,” she wrote.

Lately, she said she has felt a shift, as well as in the people around her. Paramore had not released new work since 2013, until they came out with After Laughter in the spring of 2017. The music and the timing of the album were significant for the band.

“[After Laughter] helps me mark this time as a significant turning point in my life,” said Williams. “I’m noticing similar movement in my friends’ lives too. More presence and awareness. More tenderness. I’m alive to both pain and joy now. I have my old laugh back, as my mom says… And only a couple years ago, I had hoped I’d die.”

Williams discussed her struggles with mental health in a summer 2017 interview with Fader, as well. She described a feeling of hopelessness that crept up on her in the “past couple of years.”

“I don’t feel as hopeful as I did as a teenager. For the first time in my life, there wasn’t a pinhole of light at the end of the tunnel,” she said at the time. “I thought, I just wish everything would stop. It wasn’t in the sense of, I’m going to take my life. It was just hopelessness. Like, what’s the point? I don’t think I understood how dangerous hopelessness is. Everything hurts.”

Paramore is currently on tour, which is set to wrap up in late August.

View the original article at thefix.com

1 June 2018
Accused Dark Web Kingpin "OxyMonster" Faces 20-Year Sentence

Federal agents captured the accused drug kingpin when he came to the US for a beard contest last summer.

The man who is accused of selling oxycodone, cocaine and methamphetamine online under the alias “OxyMonster” will reportedly plead guilty in federal court on charges of drug conspiracy and money laundering, the Associated Press reported on Thursday (May 31).

Guy Vallerius faces at least 20 years in prison. The alleged dark web drug dealer was nabbed by U.S. authorities while en route from France to Austin, Texas last summer for the World Beard and Moustache Championships. He was planning to compete in the “full beard 30.1-45cm” category.

DEA special agent Lilita Infante had Vallerius on her radar when she requested Homeland Security border officials to detain him for questioning upon his arrival in Atlanta, Georgia, his first stop from Paris.

Infante was hoping he’d have a laptop with him, which he did. Authorities searched his computer and was able to “directly link Vallerius to the Dream Market,” the dark web marketplace where Vallerius would “moderate sales of cocaine, methamphetamine and oxycodone,” according to the AP.

According to a DEA affidavit issued last August, authorities were able to “confirm his identity as ‘OxyMonster’” following the border search of his laptop, on which agents discovered the Tor browser (allowing one to conceal their true IP address that would be able to identify them), “apparent log-in credentials for Dream Market, and $500,000 worth of bitcoin.”

The affidavit states that Vallerius’ online profile advertised that he shipped his illicit wares from France to anywhere in Europe and the United States.

Vallerius also had a drug vendor page on a similar dark web marketplace called TradeRoute, according to DEA officials, where he had been a member since February 2017, according to the affidavit.

A magistrate judge stated in a summary of the prosecution’s case:

“In connection with his role as a ‘senior moderator,’ (Vallerius) also sold controlled substances to other members using the website, receiving payment for these sales through the use of bitcoin ‘tip jar,’ or electronic depository. It was through this tip jar that law enforcement officials became aware of Vallerius’ true identity.

“After locating the bitcoin depository allegedly belonging to the user ‘OxyMonster,’ agents tracked several incoming payments and outgoing deposits from the tip jar to various ‘wallets’ controlled by Vallerius.”

Vallerius’ upcoming court hearing on his plea deal is scheduled for June 12.

View the original article at thefix.com

1 June 2018
"Fear The Walking Dead" Actor Kevin Zegers Talks Sobriety

“Seven years ago, I couldn’t get out of bed in the morning. I was in such a bad state.”

While Kevin Zegers started out as a child actor and now plays a villain on Fear the Walking Dead, the road hasn’t always been easy. Even talking about his recovery was hard at first.

“Seven years ago, I couldn’t get out of bed in the morning. I was in such a bad state,” Zegers told Entertainment Tonight Canada in an interview. “I used to not talk about sobriety because it was like, ‘Oh, who cares,’ and it’s a little embarrassing.”

But these days, Zegers is finding it easier to be open about what he went through, especially in hopes that it may help someone else.

“The reason I go to an AA meeting on my birthday—the reason we’re urged to do that—is not for you, but you do it for others, to indicate it’s possible, which in the depths of addiction doesn’t feel possible,” he explained in the interview. “I think it’s our duty, even with, you know, a very small amount of fame, which I sometimes have, to go, ‘Oh s***, that guy suffers, too.’”

Zegers credits his sobriety for landing him his part as Mel on Fear the Walking Dead as well as his marriage with his wife, Jamie, with whom he has twin daughters.

“It’s the greatest accomplishment of my life and I don’t like to undermine it because I don’t think I have a wife, a family, I don’t think I’m on Fear The Walking Dead without that,” he said.

Fear the Walking Dead is a prequel spinoff of AMC’s popular series, The Walking Dead. Despite being a member of the cast, Zegers is kept in the dark about plot twists as well as how long his villainous character will survive.

“It’s an interesting villain because he’s not running around beating his chest, or trying to be intentionally scary or fear-provoking, but he just presents them with the facts,” he commented. “As an actor, you have to think, how do I make this work and what is it? How am I able to convey being frightening to somebody with what I have?”

But his scariest moments come from raising his daughters.

“There’s no easing into parenting if you have twins, but it’s the greatest thing I’ve ever done,” he said. “We think we’re self-aware and you go, ‘Oh, you know that I can get frustrated easily,’ or ‘I’m super self-conscious’ or, ‘I have a short temper,’ and then you see a physical embodiment of you at two-and-a-half, and they just have no filter and you’re like, ‘Oh my God, it’s me when I’m in traffic!’”

View the original article at thefix.com

29 May 2018