Marijuana businesses to offer free cannabis to Michigan military veterans

Since Anton Harb Jr. returned from Middle East battlegrounds where he fought in Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2005, he’s fought a different sort of battle: post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

It’s not a war he fights alone.

Up to 20% of veterans who served in that military conflict have been since diagnosed with PTSD, according to U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs National Center for PTSD.

Harb, with the nonprofit Hero Project USA, hopes to increase free access to something that’s helped him since his own diagnosis: marijuana.

The 40-year-old Macomb Township resident helped create the Veteran Compassion Care program, set to launch in January by offering free commercial marijuana products to 25 selected veterans with PTSD or traumatic brain injuries on a biweekly basis.

Harb didn’t use marijuana until his 30s, after it had already been legalized for medical use in Michigan. He believes it helped him both physically and emotionally and wants others to realize some of the same benefits.

Hero Project USA is creating a network of licensed dispensaries, retails stores, processors and growers that will donate time and marijuana to the project. Initial plans involve creating gift boxes of marijuana products with edibles, smokable flower, vaping products or other cannabis items that may be picked up at no charge to veterans from designated retail locations every two weeks.