I’VE NEVER BEEN in the military. It would have been a poor fit for me: I look bad in camo, and the idea of carrying a backpack with 80-plus pounds of gear in high heat sounds really bad. Plus, the whole killing/not being killed thing.
However, I have tremendous respect and awe for those who have enlisted and who serve their country in ways that many of us will never be able to begin to understand.
I’m a strong advocate for doing all we can to support returning veterans, especially when you consider what a pathetic job this country does in caring for them. Veterans have a much higher suicide rate than the civilian population. Many of those who commit suicide suffer from post-traumatic stress syndrome (PTSD), a severe mental health condition caused by experiencing or seeing a terrifying event. That doesn’t mean watching Donald Trump have sex (although that may qualify). It’s more frequently associated with things like natural disasters, terrorist attacks, and military combat.
There are not a great number of drug therapies for PTSD available, and what’s out there doesn’t always work terribly well. But there is something that does work, and it’s—that’s right!—cannabis. A number of studies, both domestic and foreign, show that THC and CBD have profound effects in treating PTSD.
