“In Colorado, I can get a safe, good-quality strain specific to what I need,” he said.

In Iowa, he relied on whatever he could buy from the black market, and it wasn't always a trustworthy source, he said.

To purchase marijuana in Colorado, Edwards first had to apply for a state medical marijuana ID. He suffered a back injury in Iraq, and that’s a qualifying condition. PTSD is not.

He said one reason for his move is to raise awareness of PTSD as a qualifying condition to buy marijuana.

If safe, legal access isn’t enough to move, fear was the other motivating factor. And Benton Mackenzie’s trial was the tipping point.

“That could just as easily be me,” Edwards said.

A Scott County jury found Mackenzie and his wife guilty last month of growing marijuana in their home. Mackenzie has said he did it to treat his terminal cancer, although the trial judge barred him from making that defense to jurors.

With a few drunken driving convictions on his record, Edwards said the judge could have thrown the book at him if he was ever caught with pot in Iowa.