Original subtitles

- [Man] I mean, I don't want to leave it like that.

If they need me home, I'll blow off the rest of the trip

and I'll just drive straight home.

That's not impossible.

I'll just drive back out to Arizona,

pursue this interview, and I'll just make do.

All this stress is not good for you.

It's not good for the baby, and I don't want you

to be in this constant upheaval of stress.

So, tell me what you want to do.

If you want me to blow off the rest of the trip,

I will do that.

I will drive straight home,

And I'll be there in a few days.

(rain falling)

- Well, it just keeps raining.

This is the second hurricane I've had to deal with

on this trip, and the stress that I was feeling

this morning is just kind of leaking

on through the roof at this point.

If I haven't mentioned it by now,

I have a pregnant wife at home,

and she is done with me being gone.

And with almost a full three weeks into the trip,

and I just made the turnaround point,

I had to call and tell her that one of my interviews,

my last and most important interview,

just got pushed back from a Friday to a Monday,

extending the trip an additional three days.

She didn't take it well.

She hung up on me, and now I've got

to deal with this rain.

I don't know.

I'm just really starting to question

what the point of this is, so,

mile marker 4701.

(cars zooming)

(coughing)

- When we were assigned to Mosul,

we had a kind of a rough spell of,

I'd call it a kind of a three-to-five-day deal.

It was a lot of small things sort of added up

to one big thing.

Because after that engagement at the combat outpost

and the unfortunate civilian casualty

that we not too long after were hit

by a roadside bomb.

When we deployed over to Iraq,

armored Humvees weren't a thing.

When the threat evolved into the roadside bomb

and we started debating, "Well, you know,

"how are we going to combat that?

"What do we have that's going to stop it?"

My name is Rob Delaney.

I am a retired Army officer.

I did 21 years in the United States Army.

My first 10 years as an enlisted soldier,

a non-commissioner officer in the 75th Ranger Regiment.

- Lieutenant Cohen is just being told

that he shouldn't go in this mission, Pandora Three,

because he was wounded the other night

in the IED accident, or explosion.

- Hyan had a local news team embedded with our unit,

and, you know, their job was to report

on what we were doing, where we were doing it,

and be able to tell that story back home.

And obviously that's a good thing because that time

in early 2000s, there wasn't a lot of methods

for what, you know, what we were doing,

and what soldiers were doing for that message

to get back to the family members.

- And so he should be coming up to me in a minute

and telling me that he needs to go on a mission.

- They wanted some footage, so they left me

with a small handheld, you know, Sony camera.

- Got to really bare bones block of instruction

from the photo journalist.

And you know, "Hey, this is how you work it.

"This is how you shoot,

"and this is what you should do,"

to make sure that the footage

that I was able to get was quality

and they could use it to help continue

to tell our story back home.

- Travel vlog.

Tomorrow hitting the road for a 7,000-mile journey

over 3 1/2 weeks, give or take a few days.

And this is my mobile command center.

End of August, beginning of September.

Packed up ready to go.

(gentle instrumental music)

They say life is a journey

and it's not about the destination.

They say to live a great story.

My name's Korey Rowe, and this is our story,

the story of veterans in America today.

I served with Bravo company, 2nd Batallion

of the 187th Infantry Regiment out of the 101st.

That's me in the back.

My unit invaded Afghanistan and Iraq,

back when the wars just started.

Things were a bit different back then.

But, today, when I try to catch up with my friends,

from no matter the tour, nor the cycle,

the story's always pretty much the same.

I feel like I'm going to be a voice through this

that shows people the human stories

and the humans behind the word veteran

and behind the term PTSD.

I want to show the human lives and the human side

of the real cost of our deployments

into Afghanistan and Iraq.

I want to show people that the effects,

whether someone came home or not, are forever.

Alright, so this is for record-keeping purposes only.

I'm just kind of interested in filming a little bit

of behind-the-scenes stuff talking to you, my camera friend,

as I travel across the country.

- Being able to talk and communicate

is essential in combat.

Korey Rowe had a bit of a reputation for not necessarily

doing the right thing, you know,

that probably needed a bit of direction.

But from a technical perspective, I wanted somebody

who, you know, was carrying a radio

that I was expected to talk on

when I pushed the button, that the thing was going to work.

- Along the way, I'm going to stop and interview

former members of the military, speak to some specialists

about post-traumatic stress disorder,

and try to get a handle on life

in America for veterans today.

The reason that I wanted to do, I think, this whole thing

was so I could give people some sound advice

from the stories that I've gone through.

Some of the people that I want to go catch up with

are no longer with us, and one of those stories

is one that I've really wanted to tell,

which is about my friend Jesse Snider.

- Two men were arrested after police found

a drug operation and possible bomb-making materials

in a home near Cutler in Carroll County.

- [Female] 27-year-old Jesse Snider's

being held on felony charges.

- Officers located 25 firearms in the Snider residencne.

- The Indiana Homeland Security Hazardous Materials Team

was also called in to the 17-acre property.

- [Female] Snider is a former Army soldier

and current postal worker.

Police say his motive is unclear.

- Over 5,900 rounds of ammunition,

cases of assault rifle and handgun magazines.

- [Female] Homemade C4, which is an explosive material,

two pipe bombs and a military sight

for a TOW missile launcher.

- According to court records, the FBI and the ATF

executed the search warrant, along with local authorities.

- Charges include nine felonies and three misdemeanors.

Here is a look at what Jesse Snider is facing

from the Carroll County prosecutor.

Possession of a destructive device,

possession of a machine gun,

dealing and possession of marijuana.

(static)

- Travel vlog, on the road, 200-something miles in,

just east of Palm Springs, the arid desert

between California and Arizona.

Popping off some quick shots with the camera

so I can get the diversity of our country as I cross it.

Here we go, 7,000 miles, day one, coming at you,

from the middle of nowhere.

My first stop was Phoenix,

where I met up with two of Jesse's lifelong friends,

who grew up with him in Indiana.

(birds chirping)

- I still visit Jesse at his grave.

I go back, and I swing through the cemetery

'cause it's out in my neck of the woods,

and I stop by and say, "You dumbass.

"Man, I miss you."

The way I look back at it is kind of that idyllic

Middle America kind of an upbringing, as I recall.

It was the days before cellphones and really before,

I mean, there was internet, but by and large,

it was the days before internet.

It was a lot of fun.

You know, I grew up out in the country, about 80 acres,

with a creek and a pond, and a bunch of woods,

and it was a lot of fun.

I would say a great way to grow up.

Certainly look back very fondly at that.

- I met him the first day of kindergarten.

I got in trouble with him for the first time

the first day of kindergarten, and been friends ever since.

- I met Jesse on the bus, and I was having a conversation

with a guy in my class about, you know,

the typical junior high Indiana boy conversation.

I wanted a .45 someday.

My friend wanted a nine millimeter someday,

and Jesse happened to be in the seat in front of me.

And he kind of popped up and turned around,

and said, "You've gotta go with the .45

"for the man-stopping ability."

- You know, guns are my thing,

but Jesse's thing was really guns.

If he knew anything about a gun,

he knew everything about a gun.

(gunshot blasting)

- Jesse was a gun guy.

He was always a gun guy.

I met him over a gun conversation.

And much of the time we spent together

was out in the woods shooting and.

(footsteps and leaves rustling)

(gunshot blasting)

- [Korey] I met Jesse in Iraq.

When we got home, we used to go up

to his cabin on the Wabash.

- [Korey] Shoot guns and hang out.

Jesse taught me more about guns than the Army did.

- [Korey] He also taught me how to be safe with them.

(gunshots blasting)

- [Steve] A lot of people from little towns across America

join the military as a chance to get out

and see part of the world and have some opportunity.

And I think a lot of that was what he was lookin' for too.

(gunshot blasting)

(laughing)

- He initially was doing well.

He got a job at the post office,

which I think he loved.

It suited his style quite a bit.

But, then the next thing I know,

I'm hearing essentially, I probably was contacted

by 10 people said, "Hey, did you hear about Jesse?

"Did you hear?

"What's the story?

"What's going on with Jesse?

"What happened, what happened?"

(gentle instrumental music)

- [Korey] PTSD comes in many forms.

And while it may seem unique case-by-case,

overall, each story reveals a common theme.

- Grew up in Safford, Arizona.

It's a kind of a small town in Southeastern Arizona.

You know, I had a great family life.

You know, in high school I was kind

of the all-American kid, you know?

I was an Eagle Scout, award recipient.

I was the captain on the football and basketball teams.

I had some offers to play at some small colleges and stuff.

And I had a friend that was killed in Iraq

that I grew up with and graduated with.

And it kind of opened my eyes

to what was going on in the world.

And coming from a military family.

My dad served in Vietnam.

Both of my grandpas served in Korea.

It kind of was just, you know,

a thing where I was like, "I really want

"to go and serve my country."

And that's what I did.

I was in the psychological warfare,

so I was attached to a 3rd Group Special Forces Team.

I ended up going to Afghanistan twice.

And I loved my job. I was, you know, lived out in the village.

Got to grow my beard and wear civilian clothes

and stuff like that.

It was just cool, a cool thing to do.

I loved the people of Afghanistan.

I loved helping them.

The places where we were at,

the Taliban was just very, I don't know.

It was their strongholds.

It was a safe haven for them.

And so, we were clashing all the time

and fightin' a lot.

I lost some friends.

Had some very close calls throughout

the 18 months that I was there.

- I'm Paula Schnurr and I'm the Executive Director

of the National Center for PTSD.

- I'm Rachel Stewart.

I am a former VA psychologist.

I was trained at the White River Junction VA

in Vermont with the National Center for PTSD,

Executive Division.

- What we're trying to do is put

the best information wherever it needs to be.

So, for you as an individual veteran deciding

do you want treatment.

Do you even have PTSD?

We want to offer something to you.

- You know, if it weren't in Afghanistan,

we were back home doing pre-mission training

to go to Afghanistan.

And so, from that first tour,

when lots of things happened, you know,

I never had time to kind of decompress

and think about what was happening.

I was right back over there.

The second tour was probably even worse.

- PTSD is a disorder that can happen

to people when they've experienced their traumatic events

such as being deployed to a war zone,

a car accident, a sexual assault.

- It really is a set of problems

that overall affects someone's quality of life

and their functioning.

So, their ability to work,

their ability to have healthy relationships,

and their ability to have the life that they want.

- When I came back after that second time,

I'd had a back injury.

The Army prescribed me opiates,

and I knew that I had some issues.

I was actually diagnosed with PTSD at Fort Bragg.

And after you get that kind of diagnosis in the military,

you know, your career's pretty much over anyway.

And so, I decided just to just get out

after the enlistment and come back home.

I was using Oxycontin for the physical pain,

for the emotional pain and my tolerance

was growing higher so I didn't have what I needed.

So, I always ended up, you know,

buying some pills on the street

from friends that I had grown up with or whatever.

And you know, I had been gone for four or five years

so I really didn't know the layout

of everything in Safford.

I ended up having some friends call me

that I had grown up with.

They said, "Hey, you know, I know you know

"where to get some pills.

"Can you help us out?"

And I thought, "Yeah, I'm going to go get pills

"for myself, so why don't I just help you out."

You know, and they ended up being confidential informants

for the police department.

Got home in April of 2011 here in Safford

and within three months, I got charged

with five different sells of a narcotic drug.

- [Rachel] There's a whole opioid epidemic going on,

not just in veterans, but across the nation,

across the world.

- Sometimes these substance abuse problems

take on a life of their own,

and you can develop physical addiction

for some substances as well.

And so, PTSD might have helped initiate the disorder,

but it's no longer the only thing maintaining.

- When you have post-traumatic stress,

you really want to not feel what you're feeling.

You also don't want to think about

what your mind is thinking about.

You also don't want to be triggered.

You don't want to not be sleeping.

You don't want to have anger

and irritability throughout the day.

You don't want your nervous system

to be triggered into fight or flight mode.

- After the arrests and everything

that, you know, for about two years after that,

I had went to heroin and I was, you know,

I was shooting $200 a day of heroin.

And I have a scar on my arm from it.

At that time, I didn't have any veins anymore

to shoot up, so I'd have

to just muscle the shot or whatever.

You know, and not even getting high.

Just getting well, livin' in Phoenix,

livin' on my brother's, my older brother's couch

and just kind of, you know, doin' what I could

to survive really.

And that was because I went to the VA,

tried to get an appointment in Phoenix.

At the time, that was the scandal goin' on

with the Phoenix VA.

That was actually before the scandal broke,

so I was one of those veterans

that got put on the secret waiting list.

- Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki

was in the hot seat on Capitol Hill today

facing tough questions from lawmakers

investigating allegations that veterans

may have died while awaiting treatment

at a VA hospital in Phoenix.

- This is a Fox New Alert.

At least 40 United States veterans have died

while waiting for medical appointments

at the Phoenix Veterans Affairs Hospital in Arizona.

And according to reports, many of the men

were placed on a secret waiting list

and were forced to wait months to see a doctor.

- So, I went and said, "You know, I need some help."

You know, and they said, "Okay, your appointment,

"the closest appointment we have is six months from now."

So, I went back six months later after, you know,

my life had just kind of spiraled downward

and the heroin and everything.

And they said, "Oh, we don't have any record

"of an appointment for you."

- [Reporter] 40 veterans may have died

while on a secret waiting list

for primary care appointments at a Phoenix VA.

Now lawmakers are demanding answers,

but hospital director Sharon Helman

denies knowing anything saying,

"No secret waiting list has been identified internally.

"We still have not seen the list of the 40 deaths.

"We have not seen these documents."

- So, I had to wait an additional three months.

So, it was nine months.

In that nine months, I mean, by the grace of God,

I was alive 'cause I had friends

that were overdosing and dying.

And you know, it was just, it was a horrible, horrible time.

- Okay, so, let's see,

today is my third day on the road.

End of the third day on the road,

I've gone 1,000 miles.

I've done three interviews.

I drove from Los Angeles to Phoenix.

In Phoenix, I interviewed Corey and Steve

who were friends with Jesse Snider

who we'll talk more about.

From there, I drove to Safford this morning

and interviewed Chris Taylor.

And Chris Taylor was just a jaw-dropping interview.

Mile marker 0731.

I'm about to leave Arizona.

I'm in Southeastern Arizona.

I just left my interview from this morning,

a special operations guys who went through the ringer.

Man, it's really going to be an exciting story.

I'm really looking forward to putting this together.

But, headed towards Oklahoma.

Just livin' the dream.

I love the road.

So, I'm backin' up the footage, chargin' batteries,

dryin' out the cooler.

Alright, I'm going to get back to work

backin' up these files.

(phone ringing) And there's my call.

Oh, hold on.

(gentle flute music)

I left the arid deserts of the Southwest

and journeyed on further northeast

towards Miami, Oklahoma.

It was time to start checking in

on the guys from my old unit, the Rakkasans.

- I've been goin' to powwows since I was little, you know?

Started out at powwows.

We usually camp.

And everyone that's here that I've known

most of my life, for all my life,

we don't call each other friend.

We call each brother or cousin,

Mom and Dad, Auntie, Uncle.

We're all related in some way,

even if it's just by what we call the Indian way.

(Native music)

We're at Ottawa Powwow Grounds in Ottawa County

outside of Miami, Oklahoma.

We're at a powwow.

It's kind of a celebration that we, as Indians,

or Native Americans do.

We camp out and we have songs sang.

And tonight, there will be the Gourd Dance

which is a veterans' dance.

And then, after that, there will be a war dance,

and that's where all the feathers

and the fancy dancin' comes out and everything.

(Native music)

I'm proud of my service.

I'm proud of the first time I was in,

and I'm glad that I went back in

'cause I met some great guys.

We went to combat together,

and I'm proud to call them my brother.

One of the things people don't realize,

per capita, the Indians have the highest number

of Natives that go into the military per capita

out of, you know, non-Indian, blacks, Mexicans.

'Cause for us, we've been fightin'

for this country since day one.

It's considered an honor to be able

to fight for this country.

(gentle flute music)

Woodrow Greenfeather, I was raised in this area

that we are in now, Ottawa County, Oklahoma.

Graduated in '91.

I really didn't know what I wanted to do with life.

I went, started bein' an EMT.

From EMT, I went to bein' a firefighter.

From firefighter, I went to bein' a police officer.

- I started out right out of high school

at 17 years old.

Did a bunch of time in the Marine Corps.

My full-time gig was as a cop.

Did a brief period of time on patrol

and wound up goin' to a multi-jurisdictional narcotics unit.

2 1/2 years as an undercover agent,

bought dope and guns and.

My name's Eligio Castillio.

Everybody called me Lee.

I wound up goin' back to active duty.

Wound up with the 101st Airborne

at Fort Campbell, Kentucky.

- And even though I was a cop,

and I was on the front lines at that time,

I just felt like I could be doin' more.

- So, I got to Fort Campbell on September 9th, 2001.

- My name is Joseph Boyd from Hermitage, Pennsylvania.

I signed up for the Army.

I think I was 19.

Two months later, 9/11 happens.

- And 9/11 happened, so I went back in the Army.

I got to choose where I went which was 101st.

From there, I went to 3rd Brigade, 187 Rakkasans.

- (chuckling) I got to the Rakkasans.

Great bunch of guys, you know, wonderful guys.

Still keep in touch with them more than I do

anybody else.

- [Joey] Hard-nosed grunts that got dubbed on.

- From a reputation standpoint,

the Rakkasans are considered to be

a very, very good unit.

- [Man] Ready with the rip.

Show the rip.

- [Male] Stand the door.

- [Man] Ready with the green.

Show the green.

- [Male] Go!

(dramatic instrumental music)

- One of the most famous and hardest infantry battalions

in the Army.

The most deployed conventional unit they have.

- [Jon] Rakkasan means falling umbrella man in Japanese,

- [Larry] And this is their symbol, the Tori.

The Rakkasans are very proud of that symbol.

You see it a lot around Fort Campbell

and on their uniforms, and it just shows up

in a lot of places.

- Yeah, they have a lot of combat knowledge behind them,

'cause it's been, you know, wars kind of never stop.

They just haven't.

They'll always be there.

There will always be a need for the Rakkasans.

- Mile marker 2350.

I'm in Fort Campbell, Kentucky at my old base

here at the Rakkasans.

I'm underneath the giant Tori here,

a couple of gravestones.

That one is my squad leader.

This is my fellow RTO right there, Yates,

and this is where I grew up.

It is really weird to be back here.

I'm not entirely sure how I feel about it.

This is the Rakkasan headquarters where I used to train.

I lived here for four years.

Well, two years, two years overseas.

Nerveracking'.

I don't miss this place, but I miss this place.

- You know, we were first conventional troops to go,

Task Force Rakkasan.

We got there in January of '02.

- I think I was in Fort Campbell for about a week,

and then we went to Afghanistan.

The first one I ever rode.

I think it was about three weeks,

basically, into the Army, and we did a mission

in Takhar, Afghanistan.

There was three birds.

I was in the last bird.

And we went down hard, and flipped

for about half a mile, quarter mile, something like that.

(beeping and crashing)

It was really brutal.

And then, I woke up and people were pretty mangled, on fire.

It was a wreck.

- Throughout 18 months of being outside the wire

all the time, I had lots of engagements.

But, one in particular, after the sun came up,

we got into this area where I remember seein'

it was just a very beautiful apricot orchard.

And it was in May, so the flowers

had bloomed and everything.

And I remember walkin' through.

And as soon as all of the element was in the orchard,

we just got lit up.

(gunfire blasting)

Whenever we'd get into a firefight like that,

we know that we have to hold on long enough

for the JTAC to call and get close air support.

(explosions blasting)

(radio chattering)

- [Man] They ain't alive no more.

- I knew in my mind, 'cause I had been in it before,

just kind of hold on until that happens.

And the problem was that the JTAC,

the Air Force guy who talks to the airplanes,

it was his first mission.

First time he'd ever been in combat.

And so, he froze up.

The jets came on station and nobody was there

to talk to 'em.

(radio chattering)

I think that that feeling when I hear the A-10s,

or whatever they were, up overhead,

I know that, "Alright, I'm going to survive this

"because they're going to lay down all kinds of firepower

"and we're going to get out of here."

You know?

And so, when that didn't happen,

when I had that feeling of like, yes, you know?

"I'm going to overcome this."

And then, realizing that nobody's talkin' to the jets.

They have to leave without dropping any ordinance.

That feeling of despair was just so overwhelming

because my interpreter was here in front of me

bleeding out.

Some commandos were next to me that were shot.

You know, it was just chaos.

- We don't know with any sufficient precision

who's going to develop PTSD.

- People who've been in combat

automatically are assessing threat wherever they go.

(dramatic instrumental music)

- So, I think it's day eight on my trip so far.

I'm in mid-Virginia.

I've gone 3,183 miles so far.

Done seven or eight interviews on this trip,

and it's rainin' really bad for the second day.

I wanted to pull over for a few minutes

and just kind of see if it could slow down.

Part of a hurricane kind of worked its way up

to this section of the country,

and I kind of feel like it's been

my own personal raincloud for the last couple days.

Starting to get tired.

I'm not even to the halfway point yet,

and I don't seem to have enough time

between stops to rest.

I got probably four or five more stops

till I'm at my midway point and where I'm starting

to work my way back.

So, I just wanted to do this quick check-in.

Get back and, get back to drivin'.

Alright, that's enough for now.

- I work at a cornstarch factory.

It's Tate and Lyle.

And I pack starch.

Put starch in a bag, and/or a rail car and/or a semi.

- The suspects 17-year-old Jesse Snider

and 28-year-old Justin Erdie face felony drug charges.

- My name is Justin Matthew Erdie.

(gentle instrumental music)

But, I still have a nickname.

They call me the Unibomber

and everybody knows who I am in the whole plant.

- I'm from Manchester, Connecticut,

and I'm a professional shirt-folder.

- Yeah, me and Snider were always right next to each other

like for everything, so that happened fast.

Like, "Oh, you like guns?

"I like guns.

"That seems cool, alright."

- Came to hang out with my buddies.

You know, get some good old-fashioned times down,

do a little shootin', some paintball,

hang out, drink some beer.

- He was hilarious too.

He had a sick sense of humor like me.

That's probably why we bonded so quick.

- That night, okay, we played paintball.

- He was a picture guy too so we were constantly like,

"Hey, you know," same picture just reversed of whatever.

We were both big on the pictures.

I was expecting literally some shit

out of Forest Gump and it was.

(laughing) I just was.

It was crazy and intense, but I didn't mind

the long walks for no freakin' reason

and gettin' up and gettin' yelled at

and workin' out and.

It was fun, like "Fuck, get on the fuckin' ground!"

We were lookin' for Omar, man.

You had to find Omar.

Omar wasn't there.

(water running)

Grew up not too far from here, Manchester,

next town over.

Played hockey in high school, and off to the Army.

- [Korey] Did you do any exploring

in the Baghdad airports. - Of course.

- Oh, my God, that was awesome.

Some more of that chaos moments

where it's just tunnels for miles.

Here's a big piece of poop I found.

I took a picture of it 'cause it was so massive.

It was impressive. (laughing)

I'd never fuckin' left New England, never.

Like when we went, I had never been to Disney.

Never been anywhere.

"I want to go somewhere.

"I want to do something."

That's what I wanted to do literally. (laughing)

- Plain and simple, did it in the garage over there

playing paintball.

We were using fireworks to signify the start of a round.

And after about an hour of playin',

sure as hell the man shows up.

- [Justin] Had to be about midnight, one o'clock.

I don't remember.

I got tired.

Went in the house just to go to sleep.

- [Jon] Cops come, we're in full battle paintball stuff.

Come out back here just, you know,

figure it's a misunderstand of sorts.

- Laid on the couch for a while, you know,

and I hear the dogs start whimperin'.

And so, I get up, let out.

- I forgot about how long after a bag, you know,

we were there playin' paintball

and in comes the, you know, the cops rush in

for no fuckin' reason.

"Oh, we got a call you were poaching."

Which turned out to be bullshit.

They were just bored and heard fucking fireworks going off,

the signal at the start of the round.

- [Reporter] 28-year-old Jesse Snider was arrested

in October of 2007 on charges of marijuana possession,

possession of machine guns and bomb-making materials.

- [Jon] We're good to go.

We're rolling.

Sounds good. - Alright.

- [Jon] One more time, give me your full name.

- Jesse Wayne Snider.

I'm 28 years old.

I've served in Iraq in the infantry during the invasion.

Avid gun enthusiast, first rifle when I was five,

probably a .22.

First pistol when I was nine, a nine-shot .22,

a High Standard Sentinel, and it's been off ever since then.

(gunshots blasting)

Yeah, I was in the infantry.

I signed up for 5 1/2 years Airborne Infantry unassigned.

I actually ended up at Fort Campbell.

(gunshots blasting)

I had some friends in from the Army.

- Is that Tabasco in or something?

- Do you want a bite? - Yeah, why not.

Next thing you know, tac lights, pistols.

- Flashlight's in my face.

I had no idea.

I thought they were paintball guns,

but when I opened the door, I realized they were real guns.

- So, then it was, you know, step out,

hands up, all that.

So, we walked in front of them, guns still drawn.

As we're walking, he tells everyone to come out.

Everyone comes out from behind the barn.

They get 'em all in line, you know, crossed feet,

hands above their head, all in line,

administering Breathalyzer tests,

the people that are underage.

And mind you, that's also on private property.

You know, they had no right to do any of this.

They violated everyone's civil liberties

while they were here.

Even the judge said that.

- [Reporter] Circuit Judge Don Curry has ruled

that evidence collected by police cannot be used

again Snider.

A DNR officer and Carroll County Sheriff's Deputies

went to Snider's property on County Road 400 South

near Cutler to investigate shots fired

and complaints of illegal deer poaching in the area.

- He was parked down here watchin' us

with binoculars for 2 1/2 hours.

- [Korey] Were they writing this up right down the street?

- [Justin] Right down here.

I don't know how.

Pulled right in there. - Oh, that's where

he was sittin'? - Yep, that's where

he was sittin'.

When I was walkin' out, I was like,

"Oh, man, this is pretty serious."

At first I was like no big deal.

Then, when I seen maybe eight to 10 people.

I don't remember how many people were here.

On their hands and knees with their, you know,

on their knees with their hands behind their head.

I was like, "Man, what's goin' on?"

- Well, we're basically sitting here like this.

Like this for a good half and hour to 45 minutes

while they take us one by one.

- [Reporter] In his decision, Judge Curry found

there was nothing about their conduct,

nor had any officer witnessed any criminal activity

that would justify citizens being ordered

about their private property at gunpoint.

- He's got Jesse, who lives here,

'cause you know, they found whatever.

They pretty much have him in handcuffs at the time.

- You know, pretty much searched the place,

found a big thing of pot.

- Charged with nine felonies and three misdemeanors

ranging from dealing in marijuana

which is not a, I was growing marijuana.

I wasn't dealing.

It was for my own personal use.

It was, I wasn't dealing it.

That's the bottom line.

Destructive devices, pipe bombs which was

an empty pipe with caps on it.

You can go to Menards.

You can go to the hardware aisle

and do the same thing.

Grab two end caps, screw it on a threaded pipe

on each end and that's not a bomb.

It has to have an explosive material to be a bomb.

- They eventually found a pipe in the van

and they got it out and they arrested me.

Said I was under arrest for paraphernalia evidently.

- The judge also ruled warrants obtained later

were based on inaccurate information,

and any evidence seized during the search is in.

Carroll County Prosecutor Tricia Thompson says

she's "reviewing the options".

(easygoing instrumental music)

- [Korey] This victory for local law enforcement and media

quickly turned into their darkest nightmare,

as the case was overturned and the judge ordered

all of Jesse's firearms returned to him.

Every pistol, every rifle, every bullet

and even the cannon.

- The decision was made to drop all charges

on 28-year-old Jesse Snider.

Carroll Circuit Judge Don Curry ruled in April

that warrants used to search Snider's property

were obtained under inaccurate information.

As a result of that ruling, Thompson filed a motion

to dismiss the case due to insufficient evidence.

Thompson has filed a notice of appeal

to gain the evidence back.

- 28-year-old Justin Erdie was also arrested.

He faces a misdemeanor charge of possession

of paraphernalia.

- You know, you still have rights in this country.

You just have to pay for 'em.

- The media had a heyday with it,

especially the local news reports.

- I'm disappointed with the newspapers and the news

and how they tried to overexaggerate this

and make it sound so much worse

than what it really was.

They didn't even respect.

They lied in the reports and that kind of thing.

They didn't respect his service to the military.

- They just made me out to be someone I'm not.

You know, I like guns probably more

than the average person,

but it doesn't make me a bad person.

- And I do believe that Jesse should

really get his job back.

It's been almost a year now, and they have

no grounds for firing him.

- They act like I'm some terrorist

which couldn't be further from the truth.

- He had a good too.

I think he worked with the post office.

He lost his job,

and it was just horrible for him.

He was fuckin' terrible.

- That really hurt him.

It was kind of a message from the post office

that we don't believe you.

We don't trust you.

We don't like you.

- He had gone to foreclosure and lost his home.

And at that point, you know, I think he lost

a lot of hope in that moment.

- It's pretty much ruined my life

for shotty police work.

I mean, there's those times in your life

that things happen and you know from the rest

of your life there on out, it's not going

to ever be the same.

And that's one of these cases.

- [Announcer] On News Channel 18, news from where you live.

(static)

- Travel vlog, mile marker 3851.

I am leaving New London, Connecticut on a ferry

across the Long Island Sound

to go to Eastport, New York.

Meet up with a Vietnam veteran

and who happens to be my uncle.

So, yeah, take a little boat ride today.

Journey continues.

- They couldn't get ammunition into Quang Dong Ha

because the road was mined.

There was only one road in called Highway One,

and they were blowing the choppers up.

So, they sent us in with 180 ton of live ammo.

Battle speed, as fast as we could go is six knots.

180 ton of live ammo sittin' on the deck.

I was a River Rat in the United States Army.

When I got into the city of Quang,

the first trip, they were loadin' 2 1/2 ton trucks,

Deuce and a Halves, with dead American bodies.

And they were comin' across the river in sampans

hangin' out of them and they were just hoistin' them.

- [Announcer] Japan surrendered.

- When the Second World War people came back,

they came back as heroes wherever they were.

And so, you know, they were credited

with what they had done.

But, they came back as humans,

and they mostly came back on ships.

And they had what they called now mustering pay.

So, they didn't just come back

and then the next day they were out.

They came back and they were declassified.

They went as a group.

They could explain to one another.

They could talk to one another about their experience,

what had happened, how they felt,

where they were going.

In Vietnam, you were there one day

and you were here the next day.

My name's Lawrence Keating.

I'm a clinical social worker.

I'm in private practice now.

Just developed in Vietnam because when

the guys came back, they didn't assimilate well,

as I didn't assimilate well.

And so, if they came back and they were still

in the military, and they didn't assimilate well,

then they got a bad paper discharge.

- Different, I wasn't used to I guess barracks mode,

and it was fucking stupid and pointless half the times.

Like, "Alright, you guys have nothing to do?

"Go clean your weapons for eight hours."

I'm like, "Alright, cool, PT, yay."

You know, I still like the fun aspect

of the going out and training.

You know, shoot houses, ba-ba-ba-ba-ba.

But, I don't know what the heck happened.

- This is what happened to the tons of Vietnam veterans.

They came back.

They were still in the military.

They got in trouble.

They get in trouble, how come?

Well, because they don't assimilate.

Well, if you have that kind of an experience,

it's very difficult to just go from one thing

to the next.

- You know, worked up just thinkin' about it.

It was terrible.

I'm either worrying about my leg or my back,

and fuckin' my ear that still rings to this goddamn day,

and there's nothing anyone can do.

Sleep at night, it has been hard.

Like unless I either drink myself to sleep,

smoke myself to sleep, I can be up till

four or five in the morning.

- We don't get high.

We get numb, and so it numbs us out.

And the numbness erases that.

- Lots of drinking.

I've had a drinking problem since,

not as bad as I used to, but I mean, we're talkin'.

You were with me.

I'd fuckin' black out like what,

three times a week sometimes?

- 'Cause it works temporarily.

You know, it's like I say to people.

"When you're drinkin', you don't feel depressed?"

And they say, "No."

I say, "Well, you don't feel depressed

"till the next day."

Now the depressant becomes worse.

- And finally, they got me for the court martial

for having dirty urine.

(gentle instrumental music)

- I was pretty much on my own.

By the time I was 16, 17, I was working,

going to school and contributing at home

paying bills, buying groceries.

It was a tough life.

There's a lot of ebbs and flows, a lot of changes.

You had to adapt.

You had to move.

And that's ultimately what led up

to me joining the military in general.

I'm Forrest Rosenbach.

I'm a Security and Fire and Life Safety Technician.

I thought that it would be a good opportunity,

you know, quid pro quo.

I give them something.

They give me something and I could come out better

and bigger out of it.

Boy, did that not happen. (laughing)

- Forrest, I met him. (chuckling)

I miss that guy.

I don't know.

He's just like, he's a great friend of mine,

and he was in the infantry too.

- I think a lot of the issues that I had

were not necessarily military-wise,

but more of growing up wise, becoming an adult wise.

I mean, I was 17.

I had never had a bank account before.

I had never, any of that.

I mean, I wrote a check while I was at Fort Campbell

at a Walmart.

They cashed it three weeks later,

but I wasn't balancing a checkbook.

I had no idea.

So, I spent that money.

They had a hard time getting a hold of me.

A warrant went out.

I ended up getting arrested for it.

The military police had to come get me for it.

And it was dumb, I mean, just because I had no idea.

Nobody taught me that.

There was a health and welfare check on our barracks.

I don't know why.

It was our normal PT time.

Instead we went in formation in front

of our barracks, and MPs and canines came through

and they walked through our barracks.

- A wooden pipe with resin in it. (laughing)

That was it.

There was no weed.

There was no nothing. It was just a little wooden pipe with resin in it

in a backpack in my closet.

- Same thing with him, piss test and off to the world.

- Came in the form of notice

that I was being court martialled.

- No, just the one bad drug test and that was it.

- Well, what most people believe

that the people get high.

I use an analogy.

If I did this to your big toe,

how would you know it?

And everybody said, "My toe would hurt."

And I'd say, "No, it sends a message to your brain."

Your brain knows it hurts.

'Cause if I wanted to remove your toe,

I would anesthetize you and remove your toe

and you wouldn't know it.

Well, that's what we're doing emotionally

with the drugs and alcohol.

- I tried to go see people

at Fort Campbell when I was there.

They're like, "You're fine."

Oh, alright.

Fuckin', I tried AA and all that stuff.

Frickin', I don't know.

I would love to go to the VA to find that out,

but guess what?

I did not serve honorably.

- I believe it was January of 2005

when my court martial happened.

And I was sentenced to 60 days

at Fort Knox military prison.

And because I was taking anti-anxiety medication,

when I got to Fort Knox, they had to put me

on suicide watch until a counselor

or their social worker could come

and visit with me and clear me.

Of course, I got there on a Friday evening

and nobody was going to be there till Monday,

so they put me in a cell with no blanket,

no pillow, no amenities.

They took all of my clothes.

Gave me a paper gown and that was it.

And that's how I was to be for the next 72 hours, naked.

Within like an hour, I was down to Tarzan

'cause every time you moved, and you know,

you're tryin' to sit down.

You're tryin' to figure out what you're going to do.

It's rip, rip, rip, falls off, fuck.

It's comical now, like I can sit back

and laugh at it now, but at the time,

it was fuckin' terrible.

I mean, I had female guards that would come

bring me food, my junk hanging out.

And it's cold in there so (laughing)

it's nothin' to brag about it.

And it was bad.

It was not cool.

- Now the person becomes suicidal,

has suicidal ideation, has suicidal thoughts,

not usually when they're drinking

because they're numb.

That anesthetizes them.

- VA recognizes that many veterans

with less than honorable discharges

have mental health issues that may have

precipitated the less than honorable discharge.

- Left there, went back to Fort Campbell for a bit,

and gathered my things.

Stayed with Melanie for like a couple weeks

and then went home.

Started scratch.

I've had a great career in pizza delivery since. (chuckling)

- Well, at the time, it sucked.

Everything was war.

I mean, it was 2005.

I was trying to readjust to civilian life,

and everywhere that I went to apply to,

"Were you military?"

And then, there'd be side notes with it

that you have to answer this question.

And so, being 19 years old,

'cause that's all I was at the time, 19.

I mean, I'm applying at gas stations

because that's the only place that I can get a job at

because I have a bad conduct discharge now.

- They got the bad paper discharge.

Now they didn't qualify anymore for the VA benefits.

They got the discharge because of the PTSD

that was untreated.

- Marker 4279, week two, day three.

I'm in middle of Vermont at Quechee Farms,

no Quechee Inn at Marshland Farms

in kind of like the middle of Vermont.

Woke up this morning for some early morning drum flights

with all this fog.

It's absolutely fantastic.

Clearly I have not made myself pretty yet,

but you know, the story must go on.

(gentle instrumental music)

I'm at my most northeastern turnaround point

just outside of White River Junction.

So far, the trip has gone really, really well.

I managed to block out the days

that I needed pretty well.

I got where I needed to be on time,

and in general, it's been wildly successful.

I even picked up a few interviews

that I didn't have scheduled,

and I didn't have blocked out, but I got 'em.

So, it just adds to the story.

You know, it was really, really nerveracking

for me to get into some of these conversations

and situations with guys that I haven't seen

in about 15 years.

The anxiety of driving up to their house

and reengaging with them.

You know, about five minutes after I got there,

it was like we never parted ways.

- On a trip like this, and I'll pass 7,000 miles

before the end of it. I'm at about 4,200 and something now,

and I am just turning around to head back west.

You know, you just got to do it a mile at a time.

(easygoing instrumental music)

I tried to pull over on a road that was quiet,

and of course, I pull over on what seems

to be the busiest road in the entire world.

The light's perfect and it's beautiful outside right now

as I am on the side of a Vermont road.

But, I am headed south and west in the right direction.

I got a bunch of interviews and stuff

still to do on the way home,

but at least I'm headed in that direction.

So, it's been 2 1/2 weeks, mile marker 4301

and listen to some tunes.

Music up, windows down.

Let's do this.

Got to do that first mile,

then do another mile after that

and make it to your first location

and just repeat that process every day.

And despite the fact of the anxiety

or the self-doubt, or the insecurities

that I feel along the way,

I just have to keep moving forward.

And I have just gotten to take in some

of the most absolute beauty of this country.

I mean, everything that it has to offer.

And you know, with that, I would just encourage anybody

if they ever see my little vlogs here

to go ahead and do that, to get out there,

to take that first mile and just do it.

Because we live in such a diverse nation

that has such immense beauty

that you're foolish if you don't get out there

and see it for yourself.

And don't fly.

Drive.

(dramatic instrumental music)

- From the helicopter when I was on fire

pullin' people through that fire,

it felt like I was on fire.

It felt like I had just burning inside of me.

And when I came home, I just let that out.

I told 'em I'm going to be number 23.

And the guy pointed to the door

and said, "Half the people in the waiting room

"feel the same way."

Basically like you ain't special.

What was harder almost.

Was war harder or was coming home harder?

Because in your mind, when you come home,

everything's still as you left it.

The people have moved on and you know,

lives have changed over that year.

And when you come home, it's just,

you still think that you're a year back almost.

I had no transition.

It was basically like droppin' me out

into the wild almost, you know?

When you take, especially an infantry soldier

with the 101st Airborne, and especially the Rakkasans,

and you just drop 'em out into civilian world

with not even a couple days or a week to adjust,

it's a hard adjustment for sure.

- I'm State Senator Daylin Leach,

17th Senatorial District Montgomery and Delaware County.

I'm not your standard senator.

That is one of the things I least want to be in the world.

I got so many veterans coming to me

and saying variations of, "I was in Iraq.

"I was in Vietnam. "I was in Afghanistan.

"I have post-traumatic stress disorder.

"I've been medicated with, you know,

"Klonapin and Ativan and all these other drugs

"and I feel like a zombie all the time

"and I'm self-medicating with alcohol

"and I feel suicidal.

"And I just don't feel like a human being anymore."

- I did the VA for a while

and all they did was just medicate.

That's what their cure was, their cure.

I could fill trash bags with the bottles that it's in.

Just send in the mail, in the mail, in the mail.

- As a country, we need to be open

to all kinds of different things

that can help our veterans because right now,

we're not doing what we need to do for them.

- That was their fix-all basically.

"And if this one doesn't work, take this one.

"If that doesn't work, take two of these."

- We have such an epidemic of veteran suicides

in this country in part because

of the post-traumatic stress disorder.

- Any kind of alternative treatment.

If we study it out in an unbiased way,

and results are there, then we should,

we should let people try it.

- I mean, instead of fillin' 10 bottles,

why don't you give 'em a little bit of marijuana.

- This may not work for everybody.

Nothing works for everybody, but if this can have

a dramatic impact on these veterans,

I mean, I don't understand how anyone

could deny them something that would help them.

- It helps with A, B, C, D, E.

You don't have to take five pills for that.

- Someone told me recently that pot and PTSD

is like the Wild West.

We don't know.

Uncharted territory.

- So, are there benefits from it?

And I think we're still out on that,

but I don't think we ought to take

all this off the table until we know

where we're going with it.

- So, I get it, but I'm just thinking

broad therapeutic potential.

We need to better standardize the delivery

of the medications.

And so, the issue of whether people should get high

is a separate issue. I'm definitely not able to comment on that.

I just think we need to explore like manufactured drugs.

- We are breeding CBD hemp here

and growing CBD hemp here

to reach out to the wide population

for medical benefits because it's non-psychoactive.

It's more widely accepted.

Most people think of cannabis plants

as having psychoactive properties

which are not something the general public

wants to deal with.

- I'm Sean Stockmeyer,

President of New Earth Bio-sciences.

We process industrial hemp into extracts and derivatives.

We basically extract the CBD from the industrial hemp,

concentrate it to pharmaceutical grade CBD.

- [Ryan] Once we take the hemp out of the field here,

it goes to a separate facility where it's getting

dried, cured and then, from there,

it goes to an extraction facility

where it is being turned into CBD concentrates.

One of the things that does really well

for veterans that are coming back with PTSD

is it helps relieve anxiety.

It really calms 'em down.

It quiets their brain.

- Hundreds of them have either in the phone

or in personal meetings or in letters

or in emails communicated to me

that this has been a lifesaver to them.

And they are doing it illegally,

and they're risking all kinds of things.

(rain falling)

- So, it just keeps rainin'.

This is the second hurricane I've had

to deal with on this trip.

And the stress that I was feelin' this morning

is just kind of really done through the roof

at this point.

This morning I'm stressed.

I got a long road ahead of me.

I got a lot of stops.

I got another looks like week and a half

before I'll make it back to California.

My wife is stressed.

If I haven't mentioned it by now,

I have a pregnant wife at home

and she is done with me being gone.

And with almost a full three weeks into the trip,

and I just made the turnaround point,

I had to call her and tell her

that one of my interviews,

my last and most important interview with Dr. Sue Sisley,

just got pushed back from a Friday to a Monday

extending the trip an additional three days.

And now, I got to deal with this rain.

I don't know.

(thunder booming)

I'm just really startin' to question

what the point of this is, so.

Mile marker 4701.

- I know when Jesse got busted,

he had a very small closet grow.

It was not a big grow.

It was basically just a little closet space.

- The suspects, 27-year-old Jesse Snider

and 28-year-old Justin Erdie face felony drug charges.

Officers responded to a call of shots fired Saturday

at a party at a home on County Road 400 South.

Dolan says, "The officers found

"a marijuana growing operation,

more than 30 grams of plants."

- I wish there could be a more uniform law

with regard to things like what is available

for patients who need it?

And perhaps if he had had access

to that medicine in Indiana,

he would have never ended up in the situation

where he ended up.

- He couldn't get hired at a good job

like the post office anymore 'cause

the charge is still pending.

And even after the charges were dismissed,

people were like, "Well, we're not going to hire you."

Several months later, he told me

that he lost the house that he had just bought.

That's where I saw the start of the, I don't know,

downward spiral I guess.

- And it was just horrible for him,

just fuckin' terrible.

- And kind of never got back on track,

at which point he had moved to California.

- He was just doin' the California thing

what Californians do, chill out and grow pot.

But, he was nothin' like I had ever seen him before.

He was on a lot of stuff.

We're talkin', like he was sucking

on fentanyl patches at one point.

- He definitely was a little bit different.

It was kind of hard to put your finger

on exactly what it was, whether it was just,

you know, wartime experience or something else I think.

- (sighing) I think Steve called me and said

he got a call from one of his friends in California

that said, "Hey, I just took Jesse to the hospital.

"He was dying on his floor," or something.

He had overdosed on something.

And I think it turned out later,

it might have been fentanyl patches

that he got from the VA.

- It just sucks seein' him like that.

He was literally just like, everything,

fuckin' pain pills and whatnot.

- [Steve] The last time I saw him he was,

he looked skinnier than I remembered him.

- And a lot more drinking too.

I mean, he always drank like nuts, but mixin' that

with like fentanyl patches and shit.

And it was bad.

- I got a phone call from his brother,

and I had company at the time,

and I did not take the call.

- I was actually here at Steve's house.

- [Steve] And a moment later, he called back again

which gave me a pretty bad feeling of apprehension.

- Dick was callin' back.

He looked at his phone, looked at me

and went outside to answer it.

- That call was, I suppose, not the greatest surprise

I've ever experienced, which breaks my heart to say.

- Steve was outside for a few minutes.

And he comes back in the door

and just looks at me and,

waves for me to come outside.

- A while later, we hear that he died.

I don't know how.

I don't know why.

I think they found him like on the side of the road

and he was just layin' there.

I don't know if he overdosed, don't know.

- [Corey] Well, at the time, Steve was going to find out,

basically said, you know, they found him

on the street that they don't know what happened.

And a week later, they think it's an overdose.

- Don't know.

I think about him every day.

- I don't think I would still trade it

because of the fact that I love this guy

and his family so much from growin' up with him, you know?

They were always genuine people to me,

and I think in the end, that's what I'm going to cherish.

So, I still visit Jesse at his grave.

I go back and I swing through the cemetery

'cause it's out in my neck of the woods.

And I stop by and say, "You dumb ass, man,

"I miss you."

- Now, this is what I remember Indiana bein' like, flat.

Flat corn fields and whatever else they grow here,

mainly corn.

- [Female GPS] Turn left onto West 60 South,

then your destination will be on the right.

(gentle instrumental music)

It's a red stone.

I know that.

I guess we should just get out and look.

You take that side.

I'll take this side.

Wish you were here, man.

Jesse passed away in March 2014.

He lived, came from here in Lafayette, Indiana.

He moved to California, we think,

because he wanted to grow weed.

But, I moved to California about the same time.

And when I got out there, he called me.

I was supposed to go up and meet up with him,

but I didn't because Danielle flew into town.

And I have a voicemail from him

that I've been saving for about 2 1/2 years.

It's from 2014 from Jesse.

I haven't listened to it yet.

It's only 12 seconds long.

I know what it says though.

It's going to say, "Hey, fucker, what are you doin'?

"Call me back."

I know that's what it's going to be.

So, here we go.

Put the speaker on.

(muffled speaking)

And that's ironic.

- Nothin' there? - Nothin' there.

No, it is.

Hold on.

My speaker's not working.

What's this?

I didn't think it was there.

Speaker on.

- [Jesse] Hey, fucker, I know you're awake.

Just give me a call when you're going

to be going this way.

I look forward to seein' you, bro, later.

- Start with hey fucker. - I knew it.

It's what he always called me, you know?

Oh, I was worried that there wasn't anything there.

- [Jon] Mine always start with, "Hey, cheese dick."

- Cheese dick? - Yeah.

You're fucker and I'm cheese dick.

(laughing)

- I'm so glad that that was there.

- I'm going to listen to it again.

- [Jesse] Hey, fucker, I know you're awake.

Give me a call when you're going

to be going this way.

Look forward to seein' you, bro, later.

- I didn't go see Jesse that weekend

because Danielle came.

When I called him and told him I couldn't come,

I could hear it in him that he broke,

that he's just like that was it.

He was already in a really bad place.

Jon had told me.

His family has told me.

His friends have told me.

He always was invincible.

Wasn't he?

Well.

I'm going to say goodbye to you, Jesse.

I've been waitin' till now.

- We'll regroup one day. - Definitely.

- Until we form again, my friend.

Till we form again.

Travel vlog, mile marker almost 6000.

I don't really know.

My brain is fried.

My body's like fried.

I feel like I'm melting into a sack of inefficiency.

I have like 1,100 miles to drive to Denver

which is the second to last stop

before I'm done with this insane trip.

And I'm going to try to get there in one day,

but 1,100 miles in one day,

makes my melted brain hurt even more.

Alright, we're in like the final half of this trip,

final 25%, so half of a half only back west.

Fuck!

(instrumental rock music)

- Often when we're considering legislation

that other states have passed, important legislation,

we go to those states and see what's going on.

So, on the same logic, we went out to Colorado

to understand what the industry actually looks like

on the ground.

It's one thing to read an article.

It's another thing to actually go

and touch things and talk to people who are doing it.

- My name is Irene Aguilar.

I am a state senator representing

Southwest Denver's District 32.

- I'm Adam Foster.

I'm a lawyer at Hoban Law Group.

- My name is Codi Keto.

I was a sergeant, served in OEF Eight Afghanistan.

- 'Cause one of the things people say is,

"Well, we can't legalize it because

"yeah, yeah, what you smoked in the '70s is nothing like.

"It's totally different now.

"It's much more potent.

"It's a whole different drug."

So, I wanted to see if that was true.

So, we smoked some, and I tweeted that.

And within half an hour, suddenly I got 30 calls

from the New York Times, BBC, CNN, everyone

'cause I was the first incumbent legislator

who admitted smoking in our history.

- Prior to being a state senator,

I worked as a primary care doctor

for Denver Health and Hospitals for 23 years.

I will admit that I came into the legislatures

thinking that, "Boy, you know,

"we just legalized medical marijuana

"so people can get marijuana."

- At the time, the VA had said

that if people were using cannabis consistent

with their own state's medical marijuana laws,

then their VA benefits would not be in danger.

But, in Colorado, you could not use cannabis

because PTSD had not been recognized

as a qualifying condition.

- End up meeting some patients whose lives

have been really been changed

by using medical marijuana that show me

that there are people for whom this really is

the drug of choice.

- There was a grave concern that they could put

their VA benefits in jeopardy by using medical marijuana.

That really was the point of the suit

to allow veterans and other folks suffering from PTSD

to be able to obtain the recommendation

for cannabis from their treating physician

and to have their use of cannabis

evaluated by the doctor in terms

of a comprehensive treatment plan.

- Where they can get what we look for in medicine,

which is decreased symptoms, improved function

with minimal side effects.

- The first thing that happened when we came home

was one of our, I believe he was an automobile mechanic,

Bridgewater.

He killed himself in his vehicle

like with a note and everything,

like one of the first weekends we were home.

And that hit deep.

We were all like, "Holy fuck,

"like that shit was crazy."

But, it kept happening like amongst our units.

Finally, about four or five months later,

it hit home like real hard with us.

And it was such a weird scenario.

Like he was already sleeping.

He came up out of his bed.

And he got out of bed, like got his pistol out

and he just walked into the living room.

The look in his eyes like it was just like

such a weird scenario, and especially the way

that he was acting.

And he pointed the gun like at all of us kind of

in a sweeping direction like in a manner

that he wouldn't normally do.

And my reaction at the time was like,

"Don't flash us with that gun, man.

"That shit is loaded."

Travis looked at both of us kind of like

it's not loaded or like he didn't believe us or something.

And just took the gun to the back of his ear

and pulled the trigger.

(gunshots blasting)

- I was gunner, didn't have a strap down,

got ejected from the turret.

Took a turret shield to the face.

Knocked out like a good quarter-size chuck of my jaw.

- I was in an accident in Hawthorne, Nevada,

and we had seven men die and eight men injured

in a mortar accident up there.

- I was infantry, but I was basically

the liaison between the guys on the ground

and the intel guys.

So, I went out on every patrol with my guys.

And anytime, you know, I'd do evidence collection.

I would identify enemy KIA.

- I was in Ramadi, Iraq in 2008,

and then I was in Afghanistan in Trek Nawa

with Hunter and Brandon in 2010.

- Got out with a TBI, spinal injuries,

cervical, thoracic and lumbosacral.

I had partial paralysis, numbness

and they had me on a lot of drugs.

- When I first got back, I was trouble.

I didn't know what to do with myself.

I didn't have purpose.

I'd get in a lot of fights.

I was pretty mean.

- I was in therapy at least once a week.

I was doin' physical therapy

a couple times a week as well.

- Heck, I was on Oxycontin, 160 milligrams a day.

I was on Roxicodone for breakthrough pain.

That was about 60 milligrams a day.

- Oxycontin and Oxycodone.

They were stacked.

One, my Oxycontin, was like a long-term release,

and then my Oxycodone was a smaller dose

with a quick release throughout the day.

Also, morphine, 30 milligrams.

- [Brandon] I was given a benzo.

I think it was lorazepam.

- Also, two benzodiazepines at the same time

as I was on all these other opiates.

- I was having like anger outbursts,

and they just wanted to kind of like numb me out.

- Valium for muscle spasticity 'cause

of the spinal injuries and Xanax for the PTSD attacks.

- It did quite the opposite,

like I wasn't in control of myself

and I wasn't able to remember things.

I would black out.

Like it was a pretty intense drug.

- I didn't even know my name most days.

I literally was either, you know,

screamin' at the ceiling or fallin' asleep

in the middle of my sentences.

There was no in between.

It was, I didn't know whether I was comin' or goin'.

It was hell.

It was absolute hell on earth.

- Once I came out here, I kind of let go

of all of that.

I got off all the prescription medications.

- I'm from Upstate New York,

and when I first ETS-ed, I went back to Upstate New York.

And I was a criminal for smoking,

for cultivating, for any sort of extraction process

'cause then that's a controlled substance.

Holy shit, you know what I mean?

They talkin' huge felonies.

- When I would have my anger outbursts,

I would immediately jump to taking that pill,

and smoking cannabis for me was like

a recreational thing.

You know, I wouldn't think like,

"Ooh, I'm really fired up right now.

"I should go smoke a bowl."

- I had a friend, old friend,

and he suggested to me that,

"Hey, have you tried this, you know?

"I've read some stuff and maybe it'll help.

"I don't know, maybe it won't."

And I was kind of volatile at the time,

and I was just like, "What?"

You know, like, "You want me to add another

"psychotropic medication, an illegal drug, you know

"on top of everything I'm already on?

"No."

- But, once I did substitute that,

I did find that it was extremely helpful.

- As soon as legalization popped out here in Colorado,

I was like, you know, like, "That's where I need to be."

I can't be considered a criminal

just for medicating myself properly

because other people think it's wrong.

- And he was like, "I'm not your doctor.

"You don't have to ever do it again

"if you don't like it."

And no one, no doctor had ever said that to me.

It's always like, "You have to take this.

"And if you come in and you pee in a cup

"and you don't have this in your system,

"you get yanked off of all your, you know,

"your support, your benefits, all that stuff."

Nobody had ever said, "Hey, it's your choice.

"You can do whatever you want. "You can be your own doctor.

"You can just give it a shot.

"You can try it."

And I did.

I sat there, I waited.

I was like, "Well, is it going to do anything?"

And the next thing I knew, I was lost in a daydream.

- I moved to Lakewood, Colorado.

I go to school here now.

I grow my own cannabis.

I'm not considered a criminal.

I essentially replaced five pharmaceuticals with cannabis.

- And I hadn't been lost in a daydream,

just a simple daydream, for four years maybe.

But, my brain recognized what had just happened,

and it was just like, "Oh, my God,

"you just had five minutes of peace,

"a complete and utter peace."

(gentle instrumental music)

- So, the bill has been signed by the governor.

He took until the last day he could sign it

to sign it, so it is now effective in our state.

So, what that means is that if you have

a diagnosis of PTSD, you can see a medical provider

and they can authorize you for a medical marijuana card

to use marijuana for your PTSD.

- People who were against the bill would say,

"Well, this is just anecdotal evidence," right?

And so, you would have all these people

telling really compelling stories like our plaintiffs

about how, you know, from their perspective,

medical cannabis literally saved their lives.

Nothing had worked.

They were thinkin' about it in their own life.

They found this.

That was the life preserver that allowed them

to kind of reintegrate into society

and to lead normal lives.

So, you know, when you hear someone look you in the eye

and tell you that, that's pretty compelling stuff.

When the opponents are looking at it,

I mean, they can't really say, "Well, you're wrong."

You know, I mean, that's someone's own experience.

It's their own story.

And so, a lot of the time, they would say,

"But, that's just anecdotal evidence.

"It's not somehow real science."

- When you have PTSD, when you get so numb,

you don't really have a lot of pleasant experiences, right?

So, I get it, but I'm just thinking

broad therapeutic potential.

We need to better standardize the delivery

of the medications.

- You know, they make glaring the side effects

of marijuana that the person won't have ambition.

That long-term, they lose memory.

They can develop paranoia.

We know that.

- The jury's out.

A lot more research is needed on marijuana and PTSD.

(gentle instrumental music)

- In Colorado, if we collect money

from the people for a specific purpose,

we need to use it for that purpose.

When many more patients signed up

for medical marijuana than we anticipated,

we found that we had too many funds

in our medical marijuana cash fund.

And so, about two years ago, we passed a bill

and had our Department of Public Health and Environment

create a scientific advisory committee

that actually is funding some research projects

on the medical use of marijuana in our state.

And so, one of the projects we funded

with Dr. Sue Sisley is on PTSD and marijuana.

- Suzanne Sisley, who's a psychiatrist

based out of Scottsdale, received a $2 million grant

from the Colorado Department of Public Health

and the Environment, the CDPHE, to study the effect

of smoked cannabis in military veterans with PTSD.

She is in the process of implementing that study.

- And so, hopefully in the next few years,

we'll be getting the data we need

to support these anecdotal and story,

case stories that we're seeing of people

doing so much better.

- My relationship with the veteran community

started about 20 years ago when I first met them

at the Phoenix VA Hospital.

I was immediately enchanted with this group.

I just, I loved their candor, you know,

the bluntness was really resonated with me.

And they quickly became my favorite patients.

Like these were the patients, even when I went

into private practice, that I looked forward

to seeing the most each day was my veterans.

So, my name is Sue Sisley.

I'm an MD.

I practice internal medicine and psychiatry,

and I'm the Principle Investigator

over this clinical trial here.

At this lab, we're doing

a triple-blind randomized control trial looking

at military veterans that have treatment-resistant PTSD

and evaluating the safety and efficacy

of four different varieties of whole-plant cannabis

that we've purchased from the federal government.

And then, seeing how the military veterans respond

to this treatment.

(gentle instrumental music)

Do we just have to constantly pummel these veterans

with the same old antidepressants

that have a clear black-box warning on them

that this could increase suicidal thinking?

Do we have to just continually put them

through the gauntlet of all these, you know,

addictive, sedating psychotropic medications

or could we, you know, think broadly

and think about other botanical medicines

that might provide benefit to the veteran community?

It's a drug like anything else,

so there are risks and benefits, right?

I don't want to give you the impression

that I'm pro-cannabis because I'm really just pro-research,

and I believe that this plant deserves

to be studied in a rigorous, controlled environment.

So later on, when we unlock the database,

and unblind all the data, we'll be able

to analyze all of that and get more insight

into how people reacted to these different samples.

Now that I'm seeing patients firsthand

using the study drug day-to-day,

and I'm starting to wonder why we've

so severely restricted this plant.

We've criminalized it at every turn.

It's really, it really may not be warranted.

(gentle instrumental music)

- Travel vlog, mile marker 7311.

(sighing) I'm in Utah at Arch National Park,

Arches National Park at sunrise.

I just about killed myself to get up here,

so did a couple of other people.

Absolutely beautiful morning.

And guess what?

I realized I only got two days left

of this ridiculous adventure.

Pretty happy.

700 miles, I'll be home.

Oh, my God.

- These are the girls.

I recently found out that they were all girl,

which is fantastic.

For me, I mean, having come from the Army

and having gotten in trouble and busted

for smoking pot in the Army,

that really opened my door to fighting

to make this innocent plant something

that people aren't going to go to jail for.

They're not going to lose their kids for.

They're not going to lose everything

that they've worked for and worked very hard for,

not anymore.

Not like I did.

Not like my father had.

Not like millions of other people around the world

and in American especially, veterans and non alike.

Hopefully, in 10, 20 years, the idea

that people were even given tickets

for smoking cannabis would be ridiculous.

And yes, I do feel very vindicated

seeing more than half the country adopt

medical marijuana and to see astonishing polls

that are showing 60-plus percent support

for cannabis legalization across the states.

I feel very vindicated.

(gentle instrumental music) - For lack of better words, we're trigger-pullers

in the infantry.

I found out really fast that no one

really cared about that skillset.

One of my buddies that started the company with me

actually was turned down from a warehouse job

because he was overqualified,

and all he wanted to do was sweep floors for $9 an hour.

My name's Hunter Garth.

I'm the Managing Director of Iron Protection Group.

From our perspective, we thought,

"Hey, look, we have this skillset

"and we don't believe it's being done right in cannabis."

And from there, that ideology took off.

I started Iron Protection Group

with a few guys I served with.

We kind of built it up into this robust security company

that hires veterans.

- I remember doing field ops with Hunter a lot,

and Hunter was always talkin' IPG, you know?

About this veteran contracting-style company.

And Hunter actually did it.

- We started to see our own success

with dealing with PTSD or dealing with the issues

of transitioning out of the Marine Corps

and recognize that it was solely

about us having something to do,

being passionate and being around each other,

probably most importantly.

- Well, right now, we're expanding out to California.

We have an office open in Sacramento,

and then we will be shortly opening one in LA.

And we're looking at a bunch of different markets

across the country as they come online.

- My favorite thing about this organization

is that I'm workin' with my boys

and that we're, you know, guarding cannabis.

- [Hunter] It just kind of fell into place.

The guys started finding a home

and finding purpose and turned the business group.

- [Caleb] You know, not only being a large company,

but being able to help out veterans every day.

And like, it's a pretty cool feeling in all honestly.

- Everything that Hunter's got going on here,

he's helping a lot of people.

He's helping a lot of veterans.

But, Hunter couldn't have done that

if he hadn't helped himself first.

- So, I believe that the most important aspect

of facing PTSD is really finding the purpose

within a group, right?

Finding a tribe setting where

you're needed every single day,

where you love the people around you

and the people around you love you.

And that is the perfect setting for not being depressed,

for what it's worth.

That's what we're doing here.

That's our direct goal, and that's by far

the most positive thing you can do

for a veteran with PTSD.

- The overarching theme that I've tried

to put out there is purpose.

And like find your purpose and really drive

for that, you know?

Like fall in love with that purpose,

like really push towards that.

- Looking inward, and really trying

to clean up your act, looking inward and trying

to be a better person.

- I think if you're doing that every day,

you can't go wrong.

- Today is the end of the 4th week, the 28th day.

I crashed early last night.

Didn't make it as far as I wanted to,

was asleep by seven, and woke up this morning

at like 5:30, a little bit earlier than usual

just with this renewed sense of ability

and gratitude for sure was a lot of it.

And, of course, the realization

that this thing's almost over.

It's only a six-hour drive from Phoenix to LA,

and my wife and baby are waiting for me.

And I'm ready to get there.

I am.

I can see how I've been like fogged up by this

and my mind hasn't been able to get past this,

this block because I've been focused,

so task-oriented on this project

that, you know, boy.

I started thinking about writing a letter

to my future son or daughter.

I don't even know what it is yet today.

About, you know, things that I want them to know

coming into this world, things that I, as the father,

would like them to learn.

Maybe some guidelines.

And it was extremely overwhelming.

I broke down into tears with just

a sense of amazing possibility.

(uplifting instrumental music)

So, that's it.

I'm going to get a good meal in me

and take a shower, put on some clean clothes.

I'm going to knock this out.

I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.