Five kids ripped from family after veteran father pursued cannabis treatment for PTSD: 'They're using my kids as a pawn to take away freedoms I fought for'

Tuesday, May 10, 2016 by: J. D. Heyes
Tags: cannabis legalization, veteran, medical police state

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(NaturalNews) Okay, the fun is over with this pot "sort of" legalization thing. Now it's getting serious.

With some states allowing recreational and medical use of pot, some states only allowing medical uses, some states not allowing either, and the Obama administration selectively enforcing federal pot laws, so much confusion has been created over what is and is not permissible, that now it has cost a Colorado father and veteran his children.

As reported by the Denver Post, Raymond Schwab moved from Kansas to Colorado in 2015, so that he could receive treatment for his post-traumatic stress and chronic pain with medical marijuana. Both recreational and medical uses of pot are legal in the state.

Not so much in Kansas, however, where state officials removed the five youngest of his and wife Amelia's six children.

"They're basically using my kids as a pawn to take away freedoms I fought for," he told The Post. "It's a horrible position to put me in."

He and his wife said that Kansas officials took the five kids into custody a year ago, and have only allowed the couple to visit them three times.

Family squabble turned disastrous

"I don't think what we're doing is illegal, immoral or wrong," said Amelia, highlighting in crystal clear terms the insanity of conflicting statutes regarding the various legal and illegal uses of marijuana between states, the Obama administration (which is refusing to enforce federal prohibitions), and Congress (which has so far refused to take up legislation that would either require the administration to enforce current law, make all uses of pot legal in all states, or some sort of compromise legislation that would leave it up to individual states but protect the rights of citizens in states where all use is legal).

To Colorado, the Schwabs are just trying to alleviate a medical condition. To Kansas, however, the Schwabs are unfit parents. The Post reported further:

"They're not the only Kansas parents at risk of losing their children over cannabis use. In Garden City, medical marijuana advocate Shona Banda was arrested on child-endangerment and felony drug charges after her 11-year-old son talked about his mother's drug use at school.

"Kansas has rejected legislative efforts to permit medical marijuana use. Colorado legalized medical marijuana, then passed a referendum that allows recreational use as well."

The case involving the Schwab's children is as convoluted as it is tragic.

Raymond, a 40-year-old Gulf War vet, served in the U.S. Navy from 1994–1996, later qualifying for a 50-percent disability (The Post did not explain what happened to him or why he is partially disabled). He lived in Colorado when the state legalized medical marijuana, and obtained a card from state officials so that he could legally use it. Drugs he was prescribed by Department of Veterans Affairs doctors only made him "worse," because he says, "they were making me crazy." He even developed a heroin addiction that he says cannabis helped him overcome.

Wait! Why is Kansas involved in Colorado business?

A turning point came when the VA offered him a job in Topeka, Kansas, helping fellow vets with benefits in 2013, one he says he "loved."

Two years later, though, he decided to transfer to Denver, where cannabis is legal. As the family packed to move, a family squabble ensued, and Amelia's mother essentially kidnapped the five youngest kids, took them to a police station in Kansas, and said they were abandoned (not true). She later regretted doing that, but Kansas child protective services kept the kids nonetheless, and now the agency, along with a Kansas judge, are demanding that the couple give up cannabis and test clean for four months before they can get their kids back.

Raymond worries that he won't make it that long. And, understandably, he also remains skeptical.

The sad thing is, these kids should never have been entered into the Kansas child protection system in the first place, because the charges were bogus (which officials now know), and what the couple was doing in the neighboring state is legal under Colorado law.

And yet, this kind of lunacy will continue until Congress or the White House – or, realistically, both – come together and fix the problem of unbalanced marijuana "justice."

Sources:

DenverPost.com

MedicalMarijuanaUpdate.com

Natural.news

Science.NaturalNews.com