Green Entrepreneur by Patrick Wagner 11/16/2020
When three former Marines started laying the groundwork for a veteran advocacy group, the connections between opioid use and suicide became readily apparent, prompting them to look for a way to make a bigger impact.
Bryan Buckley, Matt Curran and Andy Miears started Helmand Valley Growers Company in 2019 as a for-profit cannabis business that would donate 100 percent of its proceeds to Battle Brothers Foundation, a nonprofit founded by Buckley dedicated to researching medical cannabis treatments for veterans with ailments such as post-traumatic stress disorder.
“It’s essentially a call to arms for the cannabis community,†says Buckley, the CEO of HVGC and the president of Battle Brothers.
Miears, now the chief cultivator of HVGC, was the first in the group to champion cannabis, due to the positive effects it was having on his life. Cannabis helped Miears “transition from a warrior to a gardener,†Buckley says.
“Our mission is to provide an alternative to doctors and the health-care system, and that (alternative) is cannabis,†says Curran, the company’s chief operating officer, who acknowledges that cannabis can’t fix every problem, but is “a very effective tool that has marginal side effects when you look at it next to a prescription drug.â€
Buckley, Curran and Miears have first-hand experience with the horrors of war. They served together in Afghanistan’s Helmand River Valley as Marine Raiders — a special operations force similar to Army Green Berets or Navy SEALS, “but better looking,†Curran says.
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https://www.greenentrepreneur.com/article/359208
