Sergeant Michael Krawitz [1981-1986]
United States Air Force Disabled veteran
Medical marijuana user
Sgt. Krawitz was forced to leave a promising career in the United States military after a medical board determined him to be disabled. He was scheduled to reenlist into the Army and begin a course of instruction towards becoming a helicopter pilot. This all was cancelled and instead he received compensation and was given an Honorable Discharge from the USAF.
Sgt. Krawitz held the title of Electronic Warfare Systems technician and repaired Avionics on-board B-52 bombers during the height of the cold war. He graduated from his year long electronic technical training with a 96% grade point average and received all perfect performance reports during his 4+ years of service.
Sgt Krawitz was injured in an accident while serving on the island of Guam. The accident was determined to be "in the line of duty" by the Air Force.
Starting at the Naval hospital on Guam and continuing after being medevacked to an Army hospital in Hawaii Sgt. Krawitz received many surgeries to put him back together.
As of this date, November 2007, Sgt. Krawitz has been operated on over a dozen times and is on the second revision of his total artificial hip, he lacks his spleen and has had his pancreas and intestines repaired by surgeons.. Multiple arm, leg and skull fractures, nerve damage and muscular damage have left him in constant agony. While traveling abroad in the 1990's Sgt. Krawitz was first prescribed Cannabis. As a child of the 1970's he was well aware of marijuana's use as a pleasure producing substance but as a patient has found it to be an invaluable adjuvant medicine. As an adjunct to opiates it is possible to reduce the amount used of each to levels with negligible side effects as they act synergistically with each other.
After over 20 years of surgeries and medical treatment at Veteran Hospitals and after attaining the highest disability rating the Veterans Administration gives, Sgt. Krawitz was recently handed a piece of paper to sign "or else". The so called "pain contract" called for voluntarily giving up the Constitutional protection every citizen enjoys, to be secure in their person and property, and instead spelled out how veterans in pain are now to be subjected to unreasonable bodily fluid search for evidence of illegal drug activity. The contract specifically calls for law enforcement involvement as necessary. Although his doctors were quick to assert that evidence of medical marijuana use would not be used as grounds to discontinue pain treatment Michael heard from other veterans who were punished for medical marijuana use and he quickly learned that his refusing to sign the contract would cause the VA to withhold his pain medication and to this date Michael is suffering excruciating unnecessary pain that until this time was adequately managed.
Sgt. Krawitz says "I swore an oath when I joined the US military to protect the US Constitution from all enemies both foreign and domestic. The drug war is the greatest attack on the US Constitution I have seen in my lifetime. Pain contracts and urine testing for illegal drugs amounts to waging the war on drugs against legitimate patients. Veterans deserve more respect than to be assumed to be illegal drug users and to be forced to prove they are not. It is unacceptable that I should have to prove my innocence before I can receive my full veterans medical benefits. Veterans should be able to freely discuss their medical marijuana use or indeed any drug use with their doctor without fear of reprisal"
Copyright Veterans for Medical Marijuana Access