A loud and clear rejection to adding PTSD to the list of ailments medically treated with cannabis echoed from the packed house where the Colorado Board of Health voted.
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7NEWS reporter Lindsay Watts was in the room as the board made its decision.
However, many board members in Colorado, majority physicians, stand their feet down that they won’t agree to the use of medical marijuana for PTSD. It would also be the first condition added to Colorado’s registry since voters approved medical marijuana 15 years ago.
In California, Delaware, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine, Michigan, New Mexico and Oregon, PTSD is a qualifying condition to obtain medical marijuana.
Dr. Sue Sisley stated that people were anyway going to use it and added that sufferers could obtain their requirement from recreational dispensaries or seek recommendation from a doctor for “severe” pain which falls within a broad category covering some 90% people from Colorado on the marijuana registry of the state. Qualified ailments for pot prescriptions include cancer, glaucoma, HIV or AIDS, persistent muscle spasms, seizures, and severe nausea or pain.
The board listened to testimony from a dozen veterans suffering from PTSD who said marijuana saved their lives. “I’m struggling with the science piece”, board member Dr. Christopher Stanley said.
But several members of the Colorado Board of Health said there is not enough evidence to show marijuana will help veterans.
One physician recently awarded a state grant to study marijuana use by veterans testified that PTSD sufferers are already using pot to treat their symptoms. However, they said no to the measure due a variety of factors, including lack of sufficient research and medical trials on the effectiveness of this type of treatment for PTSD patients.
“The humanity presented today isn’t what we’re ignoring”. Those studies are just getting started.
Yet, due to the opposition, he suggested that the decision be revised in four years’ time when two studies looking at PTSD treatment by medical marijuana and funded at the state level are due.
However, even though the motion was not passed, patients can still continue to use medical marijuana as treatment on their dime.
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Singer, a Democrat, has said he would propose a bill next year to circumvent the appointed board and add PTSD without its approval.
