I’M A BIG SUPPORTER of allowing armed forces veterans access to cannabis—seeing as how I’m a huge wussy who wouldn’t have made it through three hours of basic training, much less full-on combat. I have enough trouble fighting off a cold.
Recently it seems hell may have frozen over, as the Drug Enforcement Administration has authorized a study to see how the use of smoking cannabis can treat post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). It’s the first clinical study on PTSD to use cannabis in its raw, smokeable form.
This is a really big deal, and potentially fantastic news. But consider this:
• According to the study’s sponsor, the nonprofit Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, researchers will now be allowed to purchase cannabis from the government’s National Institute on Drug Abuse. Which is pretty lame as the federally grown weed being researched at the University of Mississippi is, to use a clinical term, “terrible.” So the study will be hampered by the fact that it’s providing, at best, low-quality cannabis to its test subjects.
• We won’t see results from the study for a while—as late as 2019. (And you thought
it took you a long time to finish a sack.)
• It remains to be seen if more states will come on board in making PTSD a qualifying condition in their medical marijuana programs. Of the current 23 states with medical marijuana programs, only five list PTSD as a qualifying condition to obtain a medical card.
• There are going to be far fewer veterans with us when the study is finally released. It’s estimated that there are 930,000 US veterans living with PTSD. The suicide rate for vets is unacceptably high—50 percent higher than the civilian rate—and the prescription opiate medication overdose rate for vets is nearly twice the national average. Between suicides and fatal prescription overdoses, that adds up to more than 18,000 dead veterans every year, or an average of 50 a day.
Are your eyes watering yet? Mine are. (But I’m looking manly while it’s happening.)
More can be done to help our veterans.
