Raymond and Amelia Schwab were only trying to take care of themselves, and their family, when their children were abruptly taken away from them by the State of Kansas. Raymond Schwab was honorably discharged from the Navy, but like many veterans now suffers from chronic pain and PTSD. Finding a solution to ailments that affect each second of everyday life isn’t easy, which led Schwab to cannabis, an alternative medicine that gave him the relief he needed. Given the drastic change medicinal cannabis had on Schwab’s life, he and his wife decided in 2015 to move from Kansas to Colorado. After his job with the Department of Veterans Affairs was transferred to Denver, the Schwabs left their four children with family in Kansas while they moved. That was the last time the Schwabs saw their children.
“No one would tell us anything. They wouldn’t tell us the allegations, why our kids were in custody. We thought they were with family, and it was really just an attempt to stop us from leaving the state with our children,” Schwab said, in a video on their GoFundMe page. While moving, the family that the children were with called the DCF, who held a hearing without informing the Schwabs. The children were suddenly no longer in their parents' custody and placed in foster care. As a parent, what do you do? You tell your children, “Don’t take candy from strangers,” not, “Don’t trust the government!” Yet, there isn’t a more accurate way to describe what has happened to the Schwab family—this was kidnapping.
Although the state has said the allegations are unsubstantiated, the Schwabs are still being denied visitation, as well as being forced to go through psychological evaluations, courses on parenting, and—even though they now live in Colorado and Mr. Schwab uses medicinal cannabis for life-altering ailments—drug testing. “We just need people’s help. We need people to see what they’re doing and to be a voice for our family, and for all the families that are suffering under this kind of injustice, and those who are being persecuted for using cannabis as medicine,” Schwab pleaded. “It’s a plant.”
If you can, we urge you to help the Schwabs with their legal fees by donating to their GoFundMe campaign.
