Brian Mast: “I am here to speak on my amendment No. 21. This is something that we have dealt with here in Congress before.…”

“I am here to speak on my amendment No. 21. This is something that we have dealt with here in Congress before. Specifically it relates to veterans' access to cannabis. The story that I will tell in advance of this is simply this: I woke up in Walter Reed Army Medical Center not too far from here a number of years ago, and when I woke up, I was missing two legs and a finger. I had been out of consciousness for a week plus. What I woke up to was being on a laundry list of medications. I had an epidural. I had oral morphines and oxies. I had antidepressants, anti-inflammatories, and heavy sleep sedatives. I had a Dilaudid drip and a number of other things that I can't even remember at this point all at once. I had never been on any of these things before in my life. Immediately, as soon as I woke up, I started to wean myself off of these drugs because I was saying to myself: I might be very uncomfortable, but I don't want to be dependent on sleep sedatives. I might be in a lot of pain, but let's start by getting off of this painkiller and this painkiller and this painkiller. I am not depressed, so take this antidepressant away. These narcotics were beyond painful to come off of. I was down to the lowest amount after about 6 months of the last narcotic, which was an oral morphine. Going from the lowest amount twice a day 6 a.m. and 6 p.m.…”