Research Team Wants to Study Whether Marijuana Cures Post-Traumatic Stress
Thousands of soldiers return from the conflicts in the Middle East with post-traumatic stress syndrome, a debilitating mental disorder that can produce nightmares, flashbacks, problems with anger management, and disturbances in relationships. Many with the disorder do not respond to conventional therapy or medications, and go on to suffer for years, functioning at lower levels at work, school, and home.
Now research teams from the University of Arizona and University of California, Santa Cruz, are working together to study whether marijuana could help this group of soldiers.
Their proposed study would have 50 combat veterans who have not responded to treatment be divided into two groups. One would be a control group and receive a placebo. The other would smoke or inhale marijuana as often as they want for three months. The research team could then determine if marijuana is effective in reducing symptoms, as some anecdotal evidence indicates. Marijuana used in the study would have to come from the University of Mississippi, which is the facility under contract with the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the one allowed to grow the drug for research purposes.
"We really believe science should supersede politics," Dr. Sue Sisley, one of the leaders of the proposed study. "This illness needs to be treated in a multidisciplinary way. Drugs like Zoloft and Paxil have proven entirely inadequate. And there is anecdotal evidence from vets that cannabis can provide systemic relief."
Marijuana is legal in 16 states and the District of Columbia for medical purposes, but only New Mexico and Delaware allow it to be prescribed for post-traumatic stress. In New Mexico about one-third of the 4, 982 people allowed to have marijuana suffer from post-traumatic stress.
