I’m a veteran with PTSD, and medical marijuana changed my life. Tell the DEA to stop blocking groundbreaking research that could bring medical marijuana to other vets like me.

Since my time on active duty in Iraq, I’ve suffered badly from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). I’m haunted by nightmares and flashbacks, remembering the improvised explosive device that nearly took my arm. My PTSD got so bad that I became prone to outbursts of anger and violence. I tried therapy, different kinds of medication, but it just kept getting worse — until I began using medical marijuana.  After I registered as a patient in in my home state of Maine, where medical marijuana is legal, I finally felt like myself again. I stopped having so many nightmares when I was asleep, so many outbursts when I was awake. For years researchers have been trying to study if marijuana can help veterans and others with PTSD. But the DEA has been blocking the research. The DEA would rather force veterans like me to go untreated than allow research to prove whether medical marijuana can help. I started a petition on Change.org asking the Drug Enforcement Administration to allow a study on the medical benefits of marijuana for PTSD. The Food and Drug Administration has already approved protocols for the proposed study on marijuana and PTSD. And just last week, the National Institute on Drug Abuse gave the study their approval as well. The DEA is now the one and only agency blocking this potentially revolutionary study. PTSD is the second-most common illness facing today’s veterans. Tens of thousands of service members suffer from stress rooted in their time overseas. And while many are able to find some relief from traditional medical treatments, others are left seeking something that will work for them — and scientists think that medical marijuana may be the answer. Please click here to sign my petition to allow a study on the medical benefits of marijuana for those suffering from PTSD. I know firsthand how devastating PTSD can be and I would be dead or in prison without medical marijuana. Thank you for helping me and other veterans like me to find some relief. Thank you, Sergeant Ryan Begin, United States Marine Corps (Ret). Belfast, Maine

The Affordable Care Act had its most successful day ever and more than 7 million Americans have now enrolled:

And we’re starting TODAY by calling out everything terrible in the just-released Paul Ryan Republican Budget. Check out our new ad:

Over the past months, I’ve been working on a report documenting the practices of Kuala Lumpur Kepong Berhad (KLK), one of the most notorious producers of Conflict Palm Oil on the planet. I knew when I started that KLK’s practices were devastating, but nothing could have prepared me for what RAN has uncovered.

The sheer magnitude of the abuse that KLK has engaged in—from destruction of pristine tropical forest in Indonesia, to attempted land grabs from Indigenous communities in remote areas of the island of Papua New Guinea, to outright slavery and child labor—was shocking.

The worst part? Cargill is buying palm oil from KLK and then selling it to consumer product companies that make some of the most popular brand-name products in the world.

The expanse of this egregious behavior is breathtaking. And unfortunately, due to the murky world of palm oil traders and suppliers, KLK is able to continue to operate with absolute impunity while major traders like Cargill continue to purchase the palm oil it produces to sell to food manufacturers in the United States and around the world.

Tell Cargill’s new CEO, David MacLennan, that it’s time for his company to cut Conflict Palm Oil from its supply chains.

As long as Cargill continues to purchase Conflict Palm Oil, no questions asked, from reprehensible companies like KLK, KLK and its peers have absolutely no motivation to change. Why stop using child labor or stealing land when nobody is holding them accountable?

This has to change, and it will with your help.

Cargill needs to implement a responsible palm oil sourcing policy that blacklists any company that produces Conflict Palm Oil and engages in horrific human rights abuses immediately. Time is running out. Cargill is lagging behind other traders that have realized that business as usual is no longer tenable.

Tell Cargill that its dirty secret of cheap Conflict Palm Oil is out, and you won’t tolerate the human rights abuses from Cargill’s trading operations and partners.

Please send your message to Cargill’s new CEO. It’s crucial that Cargill hears from you.

		For the forests and the people that call them home,
		Robin Averbeck Senior Forest Campaigner