Remember Valor, Duty and Sacrifice This Memorial Day Allow Vets Medical Marijuana for PTSD

ScrogBetty · May 28, 2012

A Big Happy Memorial from our U.S. Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske!

The group Veterans For Medical Cannabis Access [VMCA] issued the following news release after receiving word that their long hours spent presenting scientific and medical evidence of the benefits of medical marijuana, was simply rejected yet again.

Relying on the wisdom of Gil Kerlikowske, the nation's 'drug czar', veterans are reminded on Memorial Day that their sacrifices only gain them a small amount of credibility, certainly not enough to allow them to use a plant that grows naturally out of the ground that is a miracle treatment for the survivors of war and military violence for their nation, who suffer PTSD, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder(source).

The University-controlled study Sisley advocates calls for a triple-blind and placebo-controlled environment. A meticulously prepared proposal recommends a sample base of 50 veterans, whose PTSD symptoms have not improved under current standard medical practices. All participants must agree to abstain from marijuana use for 30 days prior to participation. In two ensuing 60-day periods, the veterans are asked to either smoke or vaporize a maximum of 1.8 grams of marijuana a day (the equivalent of two marijuana cigarettes). The test group will be furnished a weekly supply of various strains of marijuana, with THC levels ranging from 0 percent to 12 percent. Sisley's study objectives are twofold. "With this research, we can actually figure out which symptoms it might help with, and what an optimal dosing strategy might look like." She is also mindful of public opinion regarding medical marijuana. "If we get a chance to do this, we're not taking liberties. This is a carefully controlled, rigorous scientific study. We're not sitting around trying to get these vets high."

If anecdotal evidence were the standard, acceptance of marijuana's calming properties among psychologically scarred soldiers would be a topic relegated to the past. Statistical evidence to support that hypothesis could be petitioned from the state of New Mexico, where medical marijuana is legally prescribed for PTSD. The state's number one diagnosis for a medical marijuana license, a noteworthy 27 percent of the total, lists PTSD as the qualifying criteria for issuance. That statistic comes as no surprise to Sisley, but she stresses circumstantial evidence is not enough to sway the wide range of government agencies she deals with. "We really believe science should supersede politics," she said. "This illness needs to be treated in a multidisciplinary way. Drugs like Zoloft and Paxil have proven entirely inadequate." (Source)

claygooding · May 29, 2012

In 1974 the DEA raided and shut down research being done in a Virginia University using cannabis to treat cancer and the research was showing positive results beyond any cancer treatments offered by any pharmaceutical companies at the time.

If this government is willing too allow citizens to contract and die of cancers that could be treated with hemp or perhaps even contract cancers that hemp could be blocking just too keep hemp off the open market,then allowing veterans to go to prison for using an effective easily produced medicine is nothing but a drop in the bucket of the atrocities they have used on our citizens.

friedfever · May 29, 2012

The drug companies are making way too much money to allow weed to be used. The lobbyists have the ear of ALL the politicians and they aren't going to let anyone interfere with the cancer cash cow.