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Reducing the suffering of the country\u2019s veteran population remains top of mind for James Trice and Theo Alexander of Complementary & Alternative Medicines of O\u2018ahu, and horticulture therapy coach Wendy Loh.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Among the countless veterans Theo Alexander has worked with over the years, there\u2019s one in particular who still reminds him why he labors so diligently for U.S. service members and their families.<\/p>\n This veteran (who for privacy reasons will be referred to as Tom here) had fought in the Vietnam War, but had since lost the use of his legs, which kept him confined to a wheelchair, and became conversationally incoherent due to the number of prescription drugs he ingested daily.<\/p>\n James Trice When their paths first crossed, Alexander had already opened a care locker in Honolulu, a place where veterans could bring their marijuana plants and learn to grow and harvest cannabis without fear of judgment and rejection from those who still stigmatized the practice. It wasn\u2019t long before a friendship was formed and Tom took an interest in consuming the herb for medicinal purposes \u2014 and with amazing results.<\/p>\n \u201cHe wound up reducing his dependence on his medications from 13 prescription drugs down to just three,\u201d recalls Alexander. \u201cWe were also well on our way to helping him get rid of his remaining medications for diabetes and high-blood pressure as well.\u201d<\/p>\n Yet despite the rapid decline in his prescription drug reliance, Tom was facing a problem. As a recipient of Housing and Urban Development-Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing assistance, his apartment was subject to periodic checks from the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) to assess his living environment, and the presence of cannabis in his abode put his qualification status in jeopardy.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen the VA got to his place one day, the inspector was very harsh with him because she saw his plants,\u201d explains Alexander. \u201cThey started to threaten him, telling him that he was going to lose his benefits if he didn\u2019t lose his plants.\u201d Theo Alexander \u201cI came and got the plants,\u201d says Alexander softly, pausing briefly to reflect on what\u2019s become a painful memory. \u201cUnfortunately, he didn\u2019t make it.\u201d<\/p>\n Tom had used a shotgun to end his life.<\/p>\n For Alexander, his friend\u2019s suicide serves as a frequent reminder of the struggles facing many of the nation\u2019s wounded warriors. It also fuels him to remain vigilant in helping to reduce the number of suicides (in 2016, the average was 22 a day, according to U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs statistics) and remedy what he calls \u201cthe invisible wounds of war,\u201d or post-traumatic stress disorder. \u201cWhen something like that happens to you, it\u2019s like when any mother loses a child \u2014 it becomes your mantra,\u201d says Alexander, noting that National PTSD Awareness Day (June 27) is just around the corner. \u201cIt\u2019s something that you keep challenging yourself to inform people about.\u201d<\/p>\n Today, Alexander and fellow veteran James Trice work to do just that. Both serve as co-founders and CEOs of Complementary & Alternative Medicines of O\u2018ahu (CAMO), a consulting and assessment service that provides health education and patient service referrals to U.S. veterans and their families. Its mission is to reduce chronic disease symptoms caused by debilitating disorders, namely PTSD, through holistic treatments and natural remedies. Among the services it provides veterans with are herbal (cannabis, mushrooms, etc.), horticulture, music, equine, massage and acupuncture therapies. Theo Alexander, at left, and James Trice co-founded Complementary & Alternative Medicines of O\u2018ahu in 2017. Since then, they\u2019ve provided a network of services to military veterans, including herbal and horticulture therapies.<\/p><\/div> Ultimately, he says it\u2019s all about \u201cimproving access to alternative medical services.\u201d But he also insists that CAMO does not work in opposition to the VA; rather, it labors hand in hand with the federal department at improving service members\u2019 overall health while promoting what it calls \u201chealthful living strategies.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re elevating the opportunity for people to have other choices when it comes to their health care outcome. We\u2019re not going to displace anything that the VA or the FDA is doing or recommending or prescribing,\u201d Alexander assures. \u201cWe just want to offer an alternative means to improving health care, and we have very good success rates with these things, whether it\u2019s in equine therapy, which allows our vets to heal through horseback riding, or in music therapy. I mean just listen to music \u2014 who doesn\u2019t get into a good mood when listening to a song you like?\u201d<\/p>\n The organization, which plans to open a new Honolulu office in the near future, has been delivering its services out of the American Veterans Hawai\u2018i offices in \u2018Ewa Beach in recent months. Prior to that, it maintained an office on North King Street.<\/p>\n But regardless of where it sets up shop, CAMO continues to impact the lives of scores of veterans.<\/p>\n \u201cNot everybody goes through the program, but they will come in for the education,\u201d says Alexander, adding that among those who have sought the latter are practicing clinicians, physicians and therapists. \u201cIn health care, it\u2019s called how many lives have you touched. That means how many people have come into contact with your service and had some type of desired outcome, whether it\u2019s improved education or whether they went ahead and joined the program.\u201d<\/p>\n As a nonprofit established in 2017, CAMO relies on fundraising to fulfill its mission. Prior to COVID-19, it held three annual events \u2014 329 Veteran Stand Down, Hawai\u2018i Cannabis Expo and Medical Cannabis Day. This year, the group plans to celebrate Medical Cannabis Day (June 14) and stage its Stand Down event in August to generate much-needed funding.<\/p>\n Aside from raising money to support CAMO\u2019s mission and new location (\u201cTo lease a 10,000-square-foot office for our veterans\u2019 specialty health clinic, it\u2019s going to cost us around $30,000 a month,\u201d notes Alexander), finding volunteer workers remains of paramount importance when it comes to adequately addressing the needs of the nation\u2019s veteran population.<\/p>\n \u201cWe definitely need more medical assistants that are registered and certified, and who can help with patient intake and community outreach,\u201d says Trice, who served as a healthcare specialist and combat medic while in the U.S. Army.<\/p>\n Drop in at her apartment and you\u2019ll discover an urban farm where kale, M\u0101noa lettuce and a variety of other fresh vegetables thrive. Aeroponics is Loh\u2019s preferred method for indoor growing, but she insists that just about any system works.\u02daWhat\u2019s important to her is that people simply get started.<\/p>\n \u201cJust do it,\u201d says the Nike slogan-sounding Loh, who regularly teaches groups of people, including a k\u016bpuna class held each Monday at YMCA in Kaimuk\u012b, about cultivating their own gardens. \u201cAwareness is the key. The more I grow and the more I eat, the more I feel like, \u2018Wow! We should be eating less processed foods and more of the food we grow.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n These days, the former business owner (she ran Kona Paradise Candies until retiring in 2009) has turned her focus to helping another group: military veterans. By partnering with the nonprofit Complementary & Alternative Medicines of O\u2018ahu, she plans to soon offer a horticulture therapy class in Honolulu called Vets On The Tower Gardens.<\/p>\n The program\u2019s aim is to educate service members and their families on ways to carve out healthier and self-sustaining lives as horticulturists while gaining con\u02d9 dence from their growing independence.<\/p>\n \u201cThe program is the perfect fit because we can do it indoors and it\u2019s easier to maintain and manage,\u201d explains Loh.\u201cThe Tower Gardens project uses 95% less water and 95% less space, so if a veteran lived in an apartment and wanted to start feeding his body healthier food, he could do all of it himself and afford it.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s the whole idea \u2014 to teach them to grow their own food.\u201d<\/p>\n For more information about Vets On The Tower Gardens, contact Loh at 808-429-8777 or jpaloha@hawaii.rr.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Reducing the suffering of the country\u2019s veteran population remains top of mind for James Trice and Theo Alexander of Complementary..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":2020,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cover-story"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/hawaii.carpentermediagroup.com\/midweekhawaii\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/mw-cover-061423-camo-ac-12.jpg\")
CEO and co-founder of CAMO<\/p><\/div>\n
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CEO and co-founder of CAMO<\/p><\/div>
\nIn a panic, Tom called Alexander and asked if he could store his cannabis at the care locker until after the VA\u2019s follow-up inspection. Alexander agreed, and drove to Tom\u2019s apartment that evening to do exactly what he promised.<\/p>\n
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\n\u201cWe have a network of services with a number of other people who help us, like Wendy Loh (see accompanying story at right),\u201d says Alexander, a Navy veteran who has an extensive background in health administration, including experience in managing hospitals and rehab clinics on the mainland. \u201cJust like a hospital, you may go in for something but then you\u2019re referred to a surgeon who may be inside the network but not located within the same building. So, we try to follow that model \u2026 we want to refer patients to the therapy or to the clinician or to the service they\u2019re going to need.\u201d<\/p>\nALL ABOUT THE TOWER GARDENS<\/h3>\n
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\nFew people are as prepared as Wendy Loh, especially when it comes to food readiness. For more than a decade, she\u2019s been encouraging others to eat healthy while championing self-reliance over dependency on modern food services.<\/p>\n