Dept. of Tennessee Stands w/ National Commander Wiley and President Trump on Cannabis Reclassification

Subject: Successful Launch of Tennessee’s Commission to End Veteran Suicide

Date: 19 December 2025

To: Media Outlets

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Department of Tennessee Legion Family & Tennessee Veterans,

I told you when I ran for Department Commander that we wouldn't oppose anything our national organization supports on VoterVoice and we haven't. In fact, we've regularly been in the top 3 every week and consistently in the top 5 month to month. I also said that we wouldn't oppose any resolution passed by our National Executive Committee or anything passed at a Department or National Convention, and we'll not start now.

That said,, on Thursday, December 18th, National Commander Dan Wiley was in the Oval Office standing next to President Donald Trump as he signed an Executive Order which rescheduled cannabis from a schedule 1 to a schedule 3, which opens up all kinds of legal drug trials which the American Legion has long championed, hence our National Commander's inclusion in the event. Bottom line as Department Commander (and personally) I support this and given we back our brothers play, we as a department embrace this fully. Bottom line, we fully support this for all the positive reasons spelled out by countless fellow Legionnaires from multiple generations.

Commander Wiley said while in the White House that "Cannabis being classified schedule 1 blocks large-scale, randomized clinical trials examining cannabis’ impact on PTSD, TBI, sleep disruption, anxiety, depression, and chronic pain … conditions strongly associated with veteran suicide." He went on the say, "Reclassification is not legalization and does not mandate use,” Wiley said. “It simply removes federal barriers to research and informed decision-making. It promotes transparency, clinician oversight, informed consent, and honest patient-provider discussions – reducing unsafe self-medication. Supporting reclassification demonstrates the Legion’s commitment to science, oversight, and saving lives through evidence-based public health policy."

Full Article Here: www.legion.org/national-commander-wiley-praises-executive-order-reclassifying-cannabis

Facebook Post: www.facebook.com/share/p/1UEjr4KRPe/

More About Resolution No. 11

Read it on the Legion archives site here, or full text below.

https://archive.legion.org/node/283

Full Text:

NINETY-EIGHTH NATIONAL CONVENTION

OF

THE AMERICAN LEGION

Cincinnati, Ohio

August 30, 31, September 1, 2016

Resolution No. 11: Medical Marijuana Research

Origin: Louisiana

Submitted by: Convention Committee on Veterans Affairs & Rehabilitation

WHEREAS, Over the past several years, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic

brain injury (TBI) have been thrust into the forefront of the consciousness of the medical community and the general public in large part due to recent combat operations and subsequent recognition of these potentially ‘silent injuries”; and

WHEREAS, Our foundation of knowledge guiding current diagnostics and interventions of PTSD

and TBI has gained through decades of study in the academic medical world; and

WHEREAS, PTSD and TBI produce a complex constellation of medical consequences including

physical, emotional, behavioral, and cognitive deficits; and

WHEREAS, The impact is heterogeneous given the varied types of injury (closed, penetrating,

blast), severity, comorbid conditions, and premorbid characteristics; and

WHEREAS, The Department of Defense (DoD) and the Department of Veteran Affairs (VA)

(May 2007), by consensus, have defined traumatic brain injury as any traumatically induced structural injury and/or physiological disruption of brain function as a result of an external force that is indicted by new onset or worsening of at least one of the following clinical signs, immediately following the event:

1. Any period of loss of or a decreased level of consciousness;

2. Any loss of memory for events immediately before or after the injury;

3. Any alteration in mental state at the time of the injury (e.g., confusion, disorientation, slowed

thinking);

4. Neurological deficits (e.g., weakness, balance disturbance, praxis, paresis/plegia, change in

vision, other sensory alterations, aphasia) that may or may not be transient;

5. Intracranial lesions; and

WHEREAS, TBI is a leading cause of death and disability in theUnited States where one and a

half million Americans incur a traumatic brain injury each year (CDC, 2007); and

WHEREAS, These figures likely underestimate the true incidence of military injuries and those

with mild injuries may not seek health care; and

WHEREAS, Direct costs for hospital care, extended care, and other medical care and services,

coupled with indirect costs such as lost productivity were estimated at $60 billion annually in 2000 (CDC 2007; Finkelstein et al., 2006); and

WHEREAS, These figures do not include the physical, emotional, and social costs to the injured

persons and their family from TBI-related disability; and

WHEREAS, For fiscal year 2009, there were 1,313 veterans who received VA inpatient hospital

care for TBI; and

WHEREAS, The Department of Veteran Affairs defines PTSD as a psychiatric disorder that can

occur following the experience or witnessing of life-threatening events such as military combat, natural disasters, terrorist incidents, serious accidents, or violent personal assaults like rape; and

WHEREAS, From April 2007 through fiscal year 2009, thousands of veterans were identified as

possibly having PTSD or a TBI through outpatient screening of individuals presenting to the VA for health care following deployment in Operation Enduring Freedom or Operation Iraqi Freedom; and

WHEREAS, About 20 years ago, scientists discovered a system in the brain called the

endocannabinoid system that responds to 60 chemicals in marijuana, also known as cannabis; and

WHEREAS, This system plays a role in many of the body’s functions, such as in the heart, along

with the digestive, endocrine, immune, nervous, and reproductive systems; and

WHEREAS, This discovery sparked interest in finding specific chemicals made from marijuana

that could be targeted for specific conditions; and

WHEREAS, Marijuana is classified as schedule I drug and drugs such as cocai

methamphetamine, methadone, hydromorphone (Dilaudid), meperidine (Demerol), oxycodone

(OxyContin), fentanyl, Dexedrine, Adderall, and Ritalin are classified as schedule II drugs; and

WHEREAS, In April 2016, the Drug Enforcement Agency gave its approval to a study on the

effect of medical marijuana on post-traumatic stress disorder, the first randomized, controlled research in the U.S. for PTSD that will use the actual plant instead of oils or synthesized cannabis; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED, By The American Legion in National Convention assembled in Cincinnati,

Ohio, August 30, 31, September 1, 2016,That The American Legion urge the Drug Enforcement

Agency to license privately-funded medical marijuana production operations in the United States

to enable safe and efficient cannabis drug development research; and, be it finally

RESOLVED, That The American Legion urge Congress to amend legislation to remove

Marijuana from schedule I and reclassify it in a category that, at a minimum, will recognize

cannabis as a drug with potential medical value.

“VOLS: Veterans Offering Lifelong Service”

Todd A. McKinley

Department Commander

American Legion Department of Tennessee