“The doctor assured me he could prescribe me enough… I said, ‘Sure, you can, but I can’t afford it.’”
By Hayden Betts and Stephen Simpson, The Texas Tribune
Wesley Barnes, 55, a Gulf War veteran, has battled chronic pain and PTSD since his exposure to sarin gas overseas. After leaving the Army in 1994, he spent years dependent on prescribed opiates.
“There’s really nothing at the VA to help with pain or anxiety that isn’t addictive,” said Barnes from his home in Onalaska, about 30 miles east of Huntsville. “I was a zombie on a couch.”
Barnes qualified for Texas’s medical marijuana program, also called the Compassionate Use Program, shortly after its expansion in 2021. He paid $600 in doctor’s visits to sign up, and he paid another $600 to $800 a month to buy legal medical cannabis.
“The doctor assured me he could prescribe me enough,” Barnes recalled. “I said, ‘Sure, you can, but I can’t afford it.’”
Barnes briefly turned to purchasing cannabis illegally before discovering he could treat his pain with legal hemp products. He could buy for $40 what cost him $220 on the street.
“Don’t make me go back to the black market,” Barnes said.
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