“What is the Veterans Action Council (VAC)?”
The Veterans Action Council (VAC) is an all volunteer group of veterans, and venerated professionals in our respective fields. We were founded from a buddy check during quarantine in July 2020 via social media, and had our first zoom meeting on August 3rd, 2020.
What are you doing?
The Veterans Action Council (VAC) promotes and coordinates efforts on issues facing veterans' access to alternative treatments and therapies, promoting the physical and mental health of veterans and their families. Our first order of business was to get down on paper what it was that we were all experiencing in our corners of the country, each of us residing in states with various cannabis legalization/access. That letter led to us creating, and subsequently publishing the VAC “Green Paper”.
The Green Paper is an historical document of great significance, it was first submitted to the Clinton Administration in 1993 as a policy recommendation for how the federal government should pursue the medical cannabis issue. Alice O’Leary Randall entrusted us with this document to include work that has been done since it was initially submitted. The current iteration includes the veteran component of the cannabis movement, and work at the United Nations that culminated in that body recognizing the medical utility of cannabis on December 2nd, 2020.
Our Green Paper has since been submitted to the United Nations, where we held our first intervention as a group in April 2021, and also submitted an additional letter for their consideration. We submitted our green paper to the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy when they petitioned the public for comment on their drug policies, and how certain demographics have been especially negatively impacted by them. The trifecta for our Green Paper came when the “Sponsoring Offices” of the Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act petitioned the public for comment on their draft proposal for legislation ending the federal prohibition of cannabis.
Now we are preparing for intervention work at the United Nations in New York, and Vienna in March, 2022. From there we will be partnering with the NCIA for lobbying in Washington DC in May, 2022.
Who is working with you?
Multiple veteran organizations have contributed to the work we have been able to put forward over the last year, these span coast to coast, and international as well. In addition to our fellow veterans, we are fortunate to call LEAP, Patients Out of Time, the Cannabis Nurses Association, the Scottsdale Research Institute, MAPS, and many other organizations allies.
