{"id":64947,"date":"2018-02-14T17:08:48","date_gmt":"2018-02-14T17:08:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/uncategorized\/2018\/02\/14\/army-vet-joins-pot-users-in-lawsuit-to-declare-marijuana-safe-under-us-law\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T12:34:53","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T12:34:53","slug":"army-vet-joins-pot-users-in-lawsuit-to-declare-marijuana-safe-under-us-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/veterans\/2018\/02\/14\/army-vet-joins-pot-users-in-lawsuit-to-declare-marijuana-safe-under-us-law\/","title":{"rendered":"Army vet joins pot-users in lawsuit to declare marijuana safe under US law"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">NEW YORK \u2014 Army veteran Jose Belen says the horrors of the Iraq War left him with post-traumatic stress disorder, and the drug that helped him cope best with the symptoms was one his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/veterans\/2018\/01\/05\/va-says-justice-department-crackdown-on-marijuana-wont-hit-veterans\/\" title=\"\" class=\"\" target=\"_blank\">Veterans Affairs doctors could not legally prescribe<\/a>: marijuana.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cOnce I did use cannabis, immediately I felt the relief,\u201d said Belen, who is now working with other medical marijuana users to mount a long-shot court challenge to federal laws criminalizing the drug.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The 35-year-old, married father of two is one of five plaintiffs in a lawsuit claiming that the government\u2019s decision to classify marijuana as dangerous is irrational, unconstitutional and motivated by politics, not hard science.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/veterans\/2017\/11\/02\/poll-more-than-90-percent-of-vets-support-medical-marijuana-research\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"188\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/635894974338581809-gettyimages-89185855jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">Poll: More than 90 percent of vets support medical marijuana research<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">The poll, conducted for the American Legion, gives supporters another lobbying tool to persuade lawmakers to expand research options.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Government lawyers will argue Wednesday before U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein in New York that the law is well-grounded and the case should be dismissed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The suit originally was filed in July as a growing number of states have broken with the federal government and declared marijuana to be legal. Thirty have now legalized it in some fashion, including six for recreational use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The lawsuit challenges the listing of marijuana as a Schedule I drug, a category that includes heroin and LSD. The federal government says drugs under the classification have no accepted medical use and cannot legally be prescribed.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/news\/your-military\/2017\/12\/03\/smoked-pot-and-want-to-enlist-army-issuing-more-waivers\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"203\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP17334722523199.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">Army now forgiving of past marijuana use to attract recruits<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">Smoked pot? Want to go to war? No problem.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The lawsuit names the Department of Justice, Attorney General Jeff Sessions and the Drug Enforcement Administration as defendants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The other plaintiffs include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span class=\"js-paste-start-NTYPGZPN5ZGWTHKF53JHKSENCQ\">\u2014 <span class=\"js-paste-end-NTYPGZPN5ZGWTHKF53JHKSENCQ\">Former NFL player Marvin Washington, the co-founder of a company that sells hemp-based sports performance products;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2014 A nonprofit organization called the Cannabis Cultural Association that helps minorities benefit from the marijuana industry in states where it is legal;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2014 Twelve-year-old Alexis Bortell, who takes marijuana to control epilepsy, and 7-year-old Jagger Cotte, who uses marijuana to treat a severe neurological disorder called Leigh\u2019s syndrome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Poised and outwardly calm, Belen, who lives in Orlando, Florida, said he left a post-military career in insurance to found an organization called Mission Zero that works to end suicide among veterans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"693\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP17334722523199.jpg.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-67611\" srcset=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP17334722523199.jpg.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP17334722523199.jpg.jpg?resize=300,203 300w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP17334722523199.jpg.jpg?resize=768,520 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">In this June 28, 2017, photo, marijuana plants grow at the Desert Grown Farms cultivation facility in Las Vegas. (John Locher\/AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Medical research on marijuana has been sharply constrained by federal law, but Belen said he found it effective for taming PTSD symptoms while other medications pushed him closer to depression and possibly suicide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He said it is unfair that federal law prohibits him from crossing state lines with the drug, even when traveling to states where it is legal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI went to Iraq to free the oppressed and I view this no different,\u201d Belen said. \u201cThe oppression is only being done by our own government.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The plaintiffs have asked the court for the broadest of remedies: a permanent injunction preventing the government from enforcing the Controlled Substances Act as it pertains to cannabis. It isn\u2019t clear what the practical effect of such a ruling would be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The government argued in its motion to dismiss the lawsuit that if the plaintiffs want the drug reclassified, there are other options, including an administrative petition to have marijuana rescheduled or asking Congress to change the law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In a court filing, government attorneys said the administration \u201cuniformly rejects the notion that there is a fundamental right to use marijuana, including for medical purposes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Marijuana got its Schedule I designation as part of the ranking or \u201cscheduling\u201d of drugs under the 1970 Controlled Substances Act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to the lawsuit, Republican President Richard Nixon ignored an expert panel\u2019s recommendation that possession of cannabis for personal use be decriminalized because he wanted to use drug policy to target anti-war protesters and black people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The lawsuit quotes Nixon domestic policy chief John Ehrlichman, who was quoted in a 2016 Harper\u2019s Magazine story as having said: \u201cWe knew we couldn\u2019t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The plaintiffs say marijuana doesn\u2019t meet the Schedule 1 requirements of having a high potential for abuse, no medical use in treatment and no possibility for safe testing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The lawsuit notes that in 2014 the Justice Department and the Treasury Department\u2019s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network issued guidance for how banks could provide services to marijuana businesses that were legal under state laws.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cOn the one hand the federal government wants to put people in jail, while at the same time the federal government currently has a policy to encourage banks to go into business with cannabis companies,\u201d lead attorney Michael Hiller said. \u201cThey\u2019re attempting to reserve the right to prosecute people for engaging in the very conduct that the federal government has encouraged.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Or, used to encourage. Sessions, an opponent of legal marijuana, last month reversed an Obama administration policy of backing off of strict enforcement of federal law in states that have voted to legalize the drug.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Encouraging federal prosecutors to hit hard, he said that Congress had decided that \u201cmarijuana is a dangerous drug and that marijuana activity is a serious crime.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>He is set to appear in a New York courtroom on Wednesday for arguments in a lawsuit that claims classifying marijuana as a dangerous drug is irrational and unconstitutional.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":100804,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":19,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[101,12,26,19],"tags":[],"coauthors":[774],"class_list":["post-64947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-news","category-newsletters","category-veterans"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"44TCBOD2I5B3XPOAN5L4JZE3HM","arc_canonical_url":"\/veterans\/2018\/02\/14\/army-vet-joins-pot-users-in-lawsuit-to-declare-marijuana-safe-under-us-law\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented 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