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The Herb Cannabis & Wartime PTSD Studies & Updates
Though this is a site on herbs, and I want to cover as many as we can (and we will) and you’re welcome to contribute pages, studies, questions, answers etc. for the Herbology site, it appears the herb cannabis (formerly known as marijuana) is in the news almost daily now.
Because so many of our veterans come home with PTSD, and doctors believe it may be due to the military sending our young soldiers on more tours than in previous wars, it is what happens. In other words, the body and brain’s natural response to seeing friends die, to seeing cities wiped off the map etc. results in PTSD (in fact it would be a bit unusual if it didn’t).
And the old argument of “Well that soldier’s duty wasn’t to kill….Maybe he/she was a medic or an operator of machinery.” Scientists are now saying the PTSD can often be worse in their lives, those not necessarily in the direct line of fire, due to guilt, the feeling they could have done more, etc. Many come home, get treatment and go on about their lives.
Many don’t. Remember, Iraq was “one big EID” and everyone, regardless of their station there, had to be constantly vigilant and the non-combat soldiers and officers were considered “softer targets” hence targeted often by insurgents. In other words, nearly all our military there was affected by seeing, or hearing of one or more of their friends being killed. Again, PTSD is a normal response for that kind of discovery or witnessing it.
Keep in mind not every soldier who works in theaters of war returns with this dreaded ailment. But those who do need to know they are welcome and have a safe place now, and that we care for them, and will care for them. That’s us now. We are adults and can’t just “hope they get help”. Often they need help knowing where it is. Some are frightened and feel they don’t deserve it. Of course they all deserve to recover. Please always, if all your resources allow is to welcome them home, DO SO. That means a lot and can help one with PTSD to get treatment and back into society. We all have that duty as Americans. They did their duty for us. It’s our turn (even if we aren’t gung-ho for war; know that many of them aren’t either. They were merely doing the job they committed to do (and it was for us). Let’s respond accordingly.
Studies show that often PTSD lays dormant and does not manifest until months, even years later. Many doctors are stumped as to the best treatment.
Enter cannabis. As mentioned before, it is difficult to get governmental funding for grants for medicinal herbs unless the agenda of the study is to “find out what is wrong or harmful with them”, often most herbs are not even studied or if so, only to find the negative. And if one looks long and hard enough, they’d find negative in Mary Poppins.
But the facts are this herb is being studied nonstop in countries like Israel, France, The Netherlands, Germany, Austria and many other countries with major medical centers. The studies are very controlled in the U.S. to keep such drugs as Marinol (and about 9 other drugs that mimic THC) in the limelight and the full spectrum herb (there’s not a lot of money for doctors and Big Pharma if any) in prescribing cannabis; hence studies go slow.
But this time, since there seems to be a great deal of evidence that THC is not even the major healing property that works on PTSD (though it certainly helps CBD and other cannabinoids do so, it appears there soon will be a law, (according to the VA) that will allow all our veterans in every state (whether legal or not) to have access to cannabis as medicine as needed. Israel has been doing so with their veterans with PTSD for about a decade now, and the program is working very well. Same is true in several other state-of-the-art countries.
CNN’s medical correspondent and neurosurgeon Dr. Sanjay Gupta said, “Even the head of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, Dr. Nora Volkow, seems to have softened her stance; she told me she believes we need to loosen restrictions for researchers.”
The studies are positive thus far, that it works for PTSD, and for the first time ever the media is quoting from studies in other countries as valid. For years if it wasn’t studied in America, the typical response was, “We don’t really have much information or studies on it yet so I really cannot make a comment”. Those days seem to be coming to an end on all the news networks.
So the major question is “Could cannabis have prevented the tragedy at Ft. Hood yesterday?” Nobody, of course has the answer to that. But one thing we do know. Not having access to cannabis certainly didn’t help him, and he was getting psychiatric treatment (that didn’t seem to be working), or working well enough.
Many states are moving forward now with federal money to study the effects on cannabis on our veterans of war. Some, such as Arizona are blocking the federally approved study.
Since 1969, Mississippi (Ole Miss Pharmaceutical Dept.) has been the most active facility in America to study cannabis. In fact, if the law passes, which it is expected to do, veterans will be receiving the very potent organic cannabis grown right in Oxford, Ms.
However states such as Maine acted humanely immediately and passed the bill into law (veterans there are already receiving cannabis treatment if they have PTSD. Israel has been administering cannabis for soldiers with PTSD for awhile now and, I’m not able to find one mass shooting, one military base shooting etc. that has occurred there. The government agency in charge there reports the outcome as very positive. This does not mean it has not happened, but one can google “Shootings On Israeli Military bases” in every different type of wording….and not find one.
Even given the obvious, that cannabis is helping our veterans with PTSD, there is no proof that it could have prevented the shooting at Ft. Hood. By the same token, there’s no proof that it would not have repressed whatever demons were driving this young man to turn to such extreme violence.
What are your thoughts on the medical community studying and/or administering such herbs for this type of treatment? If you think it’s wrong, what would you suggest instead?
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Rick London is a writer, musician, cartoonist and nature/hiking buff. He is best known for his Google #1 ranked offbeat cartoons “Londons Times” or “LTCartoons.com”. He also has large lines of funny gifts which bear his cartoon images.
Source: http://ricklondonsyndication.wordpress.com/2014/04/03/the-herb-cannabis-wartime-ptsd-studies-updates/
