Pubdate: Sun, 23 Nov 2014
Source: Daily Courier, The (CN BC)
Copyright: 2014 The Okanagan Valley Group of Newspapers
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/5NyOACet
Website: http://www.kelownadailycourier.ca
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/531
Author: Jim Taylor
Note: Jim Taylor is an Okanagan Centre author and freelance journalist.

PTSD VICTIMS DESERVE SCIENCE NOT CENSURE

Early last month, veteran RCMP officer Ron Francis committed suicide. 
Francis claimed smoking marijuana helped him cope with post-traumatic 
stress disorder. The RCMP ordered him to turn in his uniform, and put 
him on sick leave.

Obviously, marijuana wasn't enough to save him.

"The treatment he should have received just wasn't there for him at 
the end," said Francis's friend and lawyer T.J. Burke.

It wasn't there for 16 other RCMP officers who committed suicide over 
the past nine years, along with 15 retired members. Or for 160 Armed 
Forces personnel, also suffering from PTSD.

Canada and the U.S. have both lost more members to suicide than to 
enemy combat in Afghanistan and Iraq.

PTSD has been known for a long time, but has only been taken 
seriously in recent years. The Greeks described it after their 
battles with the Persians. It was called "shell shock" during the 
First World War; military tribunals executed about 100,000 afflicted 
soldiers for cowardice or mutiny. By the Second World War, it was 
called "combat fatigue." American troops returned home with "Post 
Vietnam Syndrome."

PTSD didn't make into psychiatric manuals until 1980.

It's now recognized that it affects not just war veterans. Also 
emergency workers, abuse victims and survivors of disasters.

Hundreds of those people have turned to marijuana for relief of their 
symptoms. After his second deployment in Afghanistan, Fabian Henry 
tried numerous anti-depressants to control his suicidal thoughts and 
violent rages. But only one drug worked for him - marijuana.

"It literally changed my life," Henry told the Globe and Mail. "I 
went from suicidal and homicidal, from threatening to kill people and 
beating people up, to doing yoga seven days a week and spending more 
time in nature with my kids."

There's lots of anecdotal evidence. But, amazingly, it seems, there 
have been no scientific studies of why, or how, or even if marijuana 
actually works. Until now.

Last week, UBC-Okanagan professor Zach Walsh announced plans for 
Canada's first clinical trials of marijuana as a treatment for PTSD. 
Tilray, a Health Canada licensed producer based in Nanaimo, will 
provide the marijuana and also contribute to the study's estimated 
$350,000 cost.

It's about time.

Physical injuries - amputations, chronic illness, disability - 
receive recognition for affecting a person's life. Mental injuries do 
not. Because they're invisible, it's too easy to say, "Smarten up! 
It's all in your mind!"

Psychiatrist Dr. Paul Sedge, who works with veterans at an Ottawa 
mental health centre, identified the automatic objection to such a study.

"Marijuana is a substance of abuse and dependence," Sedge said.

Agreed - marijuana can be addictive.

But I can't help wondering why our society is so paranoid about 
addiction. Four months away from her death from terminal cancer, my 
mother objected to taking an opium-based medication to control her 
diarrhea. She was afraid of becoming addicted.

I'm not defending addictions - whether to drugs, gambling, work, or 
anything else. But the primary charge against marijuana is as a 
"gateway" to more serious addictions. And that's nonsense.

Both tobacco and alcohol are far more potent gateways.

The gateway does not cause the addiction; the addiction looks for a gateway.

Any objective comparison would have to conclude marijuana is less 
dangerous than alcohol, the other pain-killer most favoured by PTSD sufferers.

Alcohol can be toxic; countless people die every year from alcohol 
poisoning. But as Robert Gable wrote in American Scientist, "I've 
found no published cases in the English language that document any 
deaths from smoked marijuana."

Alcohol consumption often leads to violence, especially in domestic 
situations; marijuana tends to have the opposite effect.

Although mild use of alcohol, such as an occasional glass of red 
wine, may enhance health, excessive consumption causes liver damage, 
contributes to heart disease and dementia, and accounts for one out 
of every 15 cancer deaths in the industrialized world.

In fact, according to the Journal of the American Medical 
Association, alcohol consumption is the third leading cause of 
preventable death in the United States.

No similar statistics have ever been compiled for cannabis. Which 
doesn't make marijuana innocuous. But it does emphasize the need for 
a proper study of its supposed benefits.

"There are many existing medications that have more science behind 
them," said psychiatrist Sedge.

That's why this UBC study is important. It will be a scientifically 
valid, triple-blind, randomized test of the efficacy of various 
strains of marijuana, administered through a vaporizer, for treating 
a long-term mental condition. Neither the investigators nor the 
participants will know which strain they're getting, or if they're 
getting marijuana at all.

Out of it, we may finally have something better than anecdotal 
evidence and paranoia to assess whether marijuana really can alleviate PTSD.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom