Prohibition prevents research into the use of cannabis for PTSD in vets

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126827410

Culkin, a New Mexican vet, uses cannabis under the medical mj laws in his state.

(He) started avoiding social situations and was quick to anger. He says the treatment he's received from the VA — mostly counseling and antidepressant medication — has helped. But, he says, marijuana also works well to relieve his anxiety.

To be legal in New Mexico, he had to go outside the VA system and pay for another doctor and a psychiatrist to recommend him for the state's medical marijuana program. Then he spent more than $1,500 to set up a small growing operation in his garage.

...Anecdotal evidence such as this hasn't swayed the VA. The agency responded to NPR's questions on the matter with this statement: "Based on guidance issued by the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Department of Justice, VA General Counsel has advised that completion of a state medical marijuana form is in violation of the Controlled Substances Act and subject to its enforcement provisions. Therefore VA physicians and practitioners may not participate in state medical marijuana programs. VA has addressed issues/questions regarding medical marijuana separately as they have arisen but is in the process of developing national policy."

of course, the VA HAS TO say this b/c of prohibition laws that are grounded in lies. (the most glaringly obvious of these is the controlled substances definitions that indicate cannabis is considered more dangerous than heroin - when it is physically impossible to o.d. on cannabis, for instance, and when studies have shown, for more than thirty years, that cannabis has medicinal value in the treatment of cancer... and MS, among other diseases.)

the kicker in this, too, is that studies have shown that anti-depressants are no better than placebos... yet they are paid for, while cannabis continues to prove its health benefits without the sanction of pharmaceutical industry profiteers.

What a joke. The DEA? We get nothing but propaganda and brutality from those assholes.

Fucking pigs!

Prohibition is really failing everyone here

and profits are obviously more important than providing care and easing the suffering of vets.

Vets get shat upon all the time by this nation.

And, considering that the govt. grows its own for those patients who were grandfathered in on medical mj - the situation is past absurd.

it's repugnant.

Thanks for the thread, Raindog.

Big Pharm dose not like weed.

they have a control group in the vet community that would make this a totally reasonable study.

easing the suffering of those who have experienced trauma is, to me, an act of mercy that is far more important than any other claim any religion might make. I thought it was the goal of health care, too. why are so many in those professions on the wrong side of this issue?

I have to assume it's ignorance.

and IF they really cared about the vets.

and IF they really cared about the vets.