Helmand Valley Growers Company (HVGC) Intrinsic Medical Cannabis For Alleviation Of PTS

WB: Please tell me about yourself. What was your path to our plant? How has the plant helped you?

BB: I grew up in Doylestown Pennsylvania and attended the University of Massachusetts then after the events of 9/11, I joined the Marine Corps. I transferred to Villanova University where I received a commission into the United States Marine Corps and started off in the infantry then went into Marine reconnaissance. I spent a majority of my career as a Marine Raider in the Marine Corps Special Operations Command. I was stationed at Camp Lejeune, NC for about 7 years, then Camp Pendleton in California for 2 years. I’ve served in Iraq, Africa, Southeast Asia and Afghanistan.

I never really looked closely at cannabis until after I was out of the military for about 2-3 years. It was then that I really started noticing what was going on with the opioid and suicide epidemic with veterans and being disabled veterans ourselves, we began to understand the limits on the VA as far as PTS is concerned. In fact we really started noticing what was going on with medical cannabis through one of our team members, Andy Myers. One day he told me ‘I basically have given up a fifth of Jack for a joint and I have never felt better.’ So this was really intriguing and I wanted to deep dive into that and see if there was some potential as far as medical cannabis being a viable alternative for veterans versus some of the opioids that they were prescribed.

In our efforts to be diligent, around the end of 2016, we began to talk to members of Congress to see exactly what they needed to possibly push this onto the federal side and get it into the VA. They told us, if we’re able find data through working with American doctors, that we would have a strong case to make.

From that point, we developed our non-profit, Battle Brothers Foundation to begin the process of collecting data around medical cannabis research. Additionally, we didn’t want to work towards just developing only a cannabis-based solution to all these issues, we wanted to take a more holistic approach to helping vets from a personal, medical and economic approach where we can help those transitioning back into society through mentorship and help guide them with their VA disability claims. If they do require some treatment for alcohol, opiates, PTS or all the above, we also want to be able to send them to a treatment center where they can get the help that they need. The last part is placement so that veterans have that sense of purpose like they did when they served in the military.

As we began to move forward and started to help others, we thought a really terrific way to help raise funds for our research would be to also have a for-profit company, so in 2017 we launched Helmand Valley Growers Company so that we could devote 100% of our profits towards our veteran medical cannabis research.

The reason why we named it that is within our unit at First Raider Battalion, when you served in the Helmand province you became part of the Helmand Valley Gun Club and you get an HVGC tattoo. Being that our research and passion is focused around helping veterans and relieving PTS symptoms, we felt it would be a way to honor our veteran buddies who served in the Helmand province and kind of keep that name alive. I started medicating with cannabis back in 2017 and it’s really become part of my routine. I don’t generally need it during the daytime, but at nighttime it definitely has made a huge difference in helping to decompress and relieve some of my chronic pain. More importantly, I can relax and get a really good night’s sleep, which is probably some of the best medicine you can ever have.

MC: I joined the Marine Corps out of Galveston, Texas a few days after high school and I spent 20 years in the Marine Corps, retiring as an E-9 Master Gunnery Sergeant.

I’ve had several combat deployments both in Iraq and in Afghanistan and finished the last 10 years of my career in Marine Special Operation Command.

I finished my tour working in operations at the battalion level ultimately retiring as a senior enlisted leader in special operations battalion. Personally, I never medicated prior to coming back from service. I encountered a slew of medical issues that were highlighted or brought to the surface through my final physical exam that were unknown to me. It was normal everyday life for to have chronic headaches and migraines. I just thought it was what I had. I didn’t realize that I had neurological symptoms associated with the stresses of combat and the effects of explosions and direct combat engagements.

I was diagnosed and essentially prescribed a medicine cabinet full of pills. I was assigned a brain surgeon who I saw several times a week for a sleep related issues, brain scans and other treatments. I quickly realized that I didn’t want to live out of a bottle and I chose to use the prescription pills that I was basically swimming in, very sparingly. This isn’t a knock on the health care that I received on active duty or as a veteran. The healthcare that I received was top notch. Unfortunately the VA only has the tools that it has in its toolbox right now. So after talking with Andy and knowing that opioids was a big deal because I was in touch with them personally and I knew the suicide epidemic was huge cause because I watched friends in pain and I followed it very closely, I wanted to do something about it. I’ve been watching the cannabis industry evolve and I was interested as to how I could participate. Through reconnecting with Andy and Bryan, this project brought me back into the team which I was longing for and into a position where I could again resume my service in support of our nation’s heroes. What gets me out of bed every single morning is changing the face of healthcare for our veterans. And not just our veterans, anyone and everyone who has come in contact with trauma in their life.

WB: Tell us about what it is you’re working on and how you’re achieving your goals.

BB: We just launched our recreational brand in February. It’s been very well received. Currently we’re in eight dispensaries and continually expanding. Through our nonprofit Battle Brothers, we’re working with Niamedic, a research firm based in Israel that has offices in America. 100% of our profits are going towards developing our first research plan to study the symptoms of PTS by utilizing medical cannabis. Our first study will probably happen in early summer and will include approximately 60 veterans. We currently have 3 different oils available, indica, sativa and a hybrid in full gram vape cartridges and we intend to add a number of new products before the end of the year.

WB: What obstacles do you see that currently are standing in your way achieving your goals?

BB: The biggest obstacle is that Cannabis is still federally illegal, which limits some of the research and even makes funding challenging. It’s nearly impossible to work with universities due to the restrictions they have by the federal grants they receive and they can really only use medical cannabis sourced from the University of Mississippi through the NIDA program. That’s why we’re really hoping things open up on a federal level to allow for more more rapid expansion. If we can start doing interstate commerce in the future, we can generate more research funds and ultimately help more people around the country.

WB: Do either of you have mentors or people that you can speak about that had a major impact in your life?

BB: For me it was my high school football coach Mike Pettine, who unfortunately passed away in 2017. He was a very tough and demanding coach. I recall when we won our state title in my senior year and I was one of last ones to take off my uniform, he looked at me and he said ‘Hey, this is not the end of our relationship, it’s only the beginning.’ And it’s amazing because he was the guy who used to make me throw up before practice because I was so scared of how tough practice was going to be, then you get to a point as an adult and you just see how that was always a phone call or email away.

I told this true story at his celebration of life. I was in a sniper hide in Iraq and it was during the rainy season so literally the hole that I was in is filling up with water. I fell asleep and all of a sudden I’m transported back to Doylestown, Pennsylvania, August football camp. I’m out there for my first practice during two a days an I’ll never forget, my feet are wet. I’m stretching out and coach Pettine was jumping all over me about how bad I played the day before. At that moment, I woke up, I feel the wet sand, feel the weapon across my chest and I looked around and I thought, thank God I’m in Iraq – his practices were that intense.

He wasn’t a big fan of that story but he was essentially teaching us the lessons of life through football and preparing us to overcome obstacles. Just the brilliance in the basics of blocking and tackling, doing the little things right and everything will come together. It’s amazing to see that work in action on the battlefield.

MC: My father was really the my mentor. I learned through his hard work. He was a guy that if he didn’t know how to do something, he taught himself. He lives and sleeps by his schedule of the day. He was a self-taught man and he taught me the value of hard work.

The guys who were the true leaders in my life were the generation that went before Bryan and I, who really put in the hard work and would carry the weight of the world on their shoulders. They blazed the path before us. They were the World War II veterans who we got to share time with before many of them have passed away. We got to sit and just glean from their knowledge and their experience and listen to what they experienced, the hardships they endured and what they were able to accomplish.

Men who truly believed in the nation. Who truly believed that through hard work you could achieve whatever you set your mind to. Just having the privilege of being surrounded by those types of people was inspiring and it helped mold me to become who I am and helped me define ethically, morally, spiritually what I want it to be.

WB:What are your six and 12 month goals?

BB: As far as HVGC, one of our main goals is to have our product available throughout California. We plan to expand into Northern California within the next 3-6 months. Then within the next 12 months, we’d like to go multi-state and looking more at the Michigan market right now. We want to validate in Michigan by doing another retrospective study and build our brand awareness so that we can assist veterans with the same issues that veterans in California are battling.

As for Battle Brothers, I believe in the next six months we’ll, have our first study published with 60 veterans on the symptoms of PTS and within a year we’ll most likely have completed or will be in the process of our second study, which is going to be a little bit more aggressive around 200 to 400 veterans participating in cannabis research with the genetics that we develop from our first study.

MC: I agree with Bryan. We’re coming in and doing our daily syncs, understanding what’s going on in the world around us, analyzing that and then turning that into an action plan and then executing an action plan. It’s just what we do day in and day out.

WB: What is your favorite kind of food and do you cook?

BB: I enjoy grilling. Ribeye steaks are my go to.

MC: I just love to cook. I had amazing fish tacos the other night. Doing a nice pork chop in a in a cast iron skillet with roasted cauliflower melody and home-style mashed potatoes with skin on – that’s definitely my go-to dish.

WB: What is your passion.

BB: On the personal side, for me it’s undoubtedly family. On the professional side my passion is truly veterans. To Matt’s point, I think it’s just something naturally inside of us that we want to serve and help the greater good. Helmand Valley Growers Company and Battle Brothers are my passions – to see if we can make a difference here in the veteran community and also the medical community by validating how medical cannabis can benefit people.

MC: My passion is to truly provide a sense of hope, to anyone. Being able to do this with and for our veterans obviously just an absolute commitment of mine. It’s huge. I have a friend who medicates and has gone into lockdown with his family. He just doesn’t feel comfortable leaving his home and he’s stressed out because he feels very uncomfortable going to a dispensary during a time like this. So we’re finding ways to help people like him, to bring a sense of hope and ease and relieve some of the stress for them. Seeing the glimmer of hope in someone’s eyes where it went from just the dead thousand yard stare, that’s what truly drives me every single day. It’s the opportunity to make today better than it was yesterday for whomever I come in contact with. I love it.

Helmand Valley Growers Company (HVGC)

Bryan Buckley, CEO

Matt Curran, COO

Bios HERE

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