Colorado eyes PTSD as ailment eligible for medical pot

DENVER (CBS4)- Many military veterans are upset after the Colorado Board of Health failed to approve Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD, as a condition for medical marijuana.

7NEWS reporter Lindsay Watts was in the room as the board made its decision. This rejection has come in spite of a recommendation from the Chief medical officer of Colorado as well a panel of physicians. In the past, the chief medical officer has rejected the petition.

Having PTSD listed as a condition treatable with medical marijuana would allow physicians to recommend strains that provide relief without the drug’s psychoactive properties, and allow for improved tracking of its efficacy, Robnett added.

In California, Delaware, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine, Michigan, New Mexico and Oregon, PTSD is a qualifying condition to obtain medical marijuana.

“We have people who are sick right now that are sick and debilitated PTSD sufferers throughout the state who need safe, legal access to lab-tested medical marijuana, not just recreational marijuana”, Sisley said. She noted that people suffering from PTSD now use the plant to address their symptoms, saying sufferers can obtain the plant at recreational dispensaries or get a doctor’s prescription to obtain one under the “severe pain”.

“You’re a bunch of liars and you all gotta sleep with yourselves!” said one patient after the board voted against the qualification. She said putting PTSD on the registry will make it safer for people seeking treatment. Several veterans in the crowd had testified that marijuana had helped rebuild their lives.

Many of those patients ask pot-shop employees, known as “budtenders”, about using marijuana to treat PTSD, not their physicians, Sisley said.

Colorado has provided about $3.4 million for two other medical studies involving the use of pot for treatment of PTSD. Dr. Tony Cappello, the board’s chairman, called PTSD a awful condition without a clear method of treatment.

“If this research would bring about another angle, at treatment, then I think it’s worth looking at”, Russell Dickinson, a Marine Corps veteran said.

“I just don’t want to turn it into a public experiment”, said board member Janelle Orsborn.

Singer, a Longmont Democrat, has said he would propose a bill next year to circumvent the appointed board and add PTSD without its approval.