Personal experience is the reason David O'Reilly put himself forward as a candidate for the Legalise Cannabis Party.
He said his use of cannabis oil had made an enormous difference to his quality of life as a treatment to ease the pain of injuries he received during a long career in the Australian Army.
My GP is also extremely pleased with the results and there is nothing illegal about his use, his oil is approved and provided through the Department of Veterans AfFairs.
Mr Reilly believes other people that at present cannot access cannabis treatments were needlessly suffering heavy pain and should be able to readily access it.
He also said it could realise considerable revenue for the government in contrast to vast amounts spent on searching for and prosecuting people that used cannabis currently.
A resident of Traralgon and vice-president of the Morwell RSL, Mr O'Reilly said he wanted to get the message out about the medical benefits of cannabis but could not nominate in his home seat of Gippsland because the party had already endorsed a candidate there.
He had no hesitation accepting when it was suggested he stand in neighbouring Monash.
Mr Reilly joined the Army as a 17 year-old in 1979 where he continued, apart from a short break until he retired in 2011 at the rank of Warrant Officer Class One (WO1), the highest non-commissioned officer rank in the service.
His service included multiple overseas appointments including to Iraq several times, Afghanistan and to Indonesia during the tsunami response.
He continued after retirement to support defence in civilian roles as a fleet manager for combat radios and as quality assurance manager for navy engineering until 2018.
In 2006 he was awarded an Australia Day Medallion in recognition of his service dedication.
The needs of people in Monash are also to the forefront of Mr O'Reilly's thoughts about what government needed to do.
He described the current West Gippsland Hospital at Warragul "a disaster" that needed to be fixed with a new hospital.
Condition of roads were another major problem and a number of towns were "booming" especially Wonthaggi and Inverloch in South Gippsland but were not getting the infrastructure to support their growth.
The state government needs to be doing something to address those issues if it wants money from the federal government, Mr O'Reilly said.