Feds Stonewall Pot Treatments For Traumatized Vets

[n2doc]

By Katie Drummond October 26, 2011 | 6:30 am | Categories: Science!


An Arizona psychiatrist is tantalizingly close to federal approval for a groundbreaking study of marijuana’s potency in treating PTSD — if only the National Institute on Drug Abuse would stop stonewalling her.

Dr. Sue Sisley, an assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Arizona College of Medicine and a psychiatrist whose practice treats mostly war veterans, wants to add evidence-based science to the ubiquitous anecdotal reports, not to mention animal research, that point to marijuana’s effectiveness at quelling symptoms of post-traumatic stress. Although plenty of vets smoke up, medical marijuana can only be prescribed to PTSD sufferers living in New Mexico — where 27 percent of those with an approved ID card suffer from PTSD, making it the state’s number one qualifying diagnosis — and nary a study has evaluated whether the illicit drug actually works.

“Plenty of the veterans I’ve treated use marijuana, only they usually buy it illegally and use it covertly,” Sisley told Danger Room. “With research, we can actually figure out which symptoms it might help with, and what an optimal dosing strategy might look like.”

With PTSD afflicting as many as 37 percent of this generation’s Iraq and Afghanistan vets, and no fail-proof treatment available, the Pentagon’s already turned an eye to unconventional research. Military docs look into everything from brain rebooting to neck injections. But they’ve yet to offer anybody a joint, and Sisley’s efforts are now at a standstill: After months of back-and-forth, federal regulators just won’t give her proposal the green light.

more

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/10/marijuana-ptsd-study/

[RainDog]

1. cannabis is the ONLY controlled substance that the NIDA also controls for research

why do they have any say over medical research into cannabis when there are already studies from around the world, and in this country, that demonstrate a medical value in other situations?

and, apparently, the quality of the substance they offer for use in studies is crappy.

just another example of how out-of-balance our laws truly are.