Search Results: ptsd (115)

After hours of testimony on Wednesday, March 8, a Colorado House committee approved Senate Bill 17-17, which would make people suffering from PTSD and other stress disorders eligible for medical marijuana, in an 8-1 vote. It now moves on to a full vote of the House.

“We’re in the final stretch, and the momentum has really kicked in,” says Cindy Sovine-Miller, a lobbyist working with the Hoban Law Group to help shepherd the proposal through the Colorado Legislature. “There were two and a half hours of testimony of people who were opposed to this bill — testimony from very credible people. The testimony from the people who are actually impacted by this really won the day.”

In a 34 to 1 vote, the Colorado Senate passed the Post-Traumatic Stress Bill; today, March 8, it’s scheduled for a public hearing before the House State Affairs Committee.

Adam Foster, lead attorney on the case, says it’s time for Colorado to join the 21 states with medicinal cannabis laws that have approved PTSD as a qualifying condition.

“Colorado has been the leader in so many different regards with regard to the cannabis plant, but we are very much behind the curve as far as using medical cannabis to treat PTSD,” he says. “Every other state that has considered the issue has approved medical cannabis for the treatment of PTSD, and Colorado is really an outlier in that regard.”

Update: The Colorado Senate just approved SB 17-17; Kent Lambert was the only no vote. It now moves on to the House. Here’s our original story:

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder may be the next addition to Colorado’s list of qualifying conditions for medical marijuana.  On January 30, the state Senate committee on Veterans and Military Affairs heard arguments for SB 17-17, the Post-Traumatic Stress Bill, before a standing-room-only crowd.

State Senator Ray Scott, chair of the committee, called upon victims, veterans, physicians and advocates to testify on behalf of cannabis use for stress disorders, including PTSD.

Coloradans suffering from mental illness have been left behind when it comes to the state’s legalization efforts, according to Teri Robnett, founder and executive director of Cannabis Patients Alliance. That’s why advocates plan to perform 22 push-ups on the steps of the State Capitol on Monday, January 30, as part of an effort to get Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), among other mental illnesses, on the list of qualifying conditions for medical marijuana in Colorado.

Prospects look bright for SB17-017, which would allow medical marijuana use for stress disorders. Groups supporting the bill had a strategy meeting on January 25, at which representatives from the Cannabis Patients Alliance, along with the Strong Alliance and Veterans for Natural Rights, said they are gaining ground.

About a dozen states, as well as D.C. and Guam, have PTSD listed as a qualifying condition for treatment with cannabis — but Colorado doesn’t. Advocates have been hoping to change the minds of officials at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, the agency involved in approving new conditions. The department has denied earlier requests, however, so the bill is a backup.

The fifth time could be a charm: After four previous attempts, Colorado may finally add post-traumatic stress disorder to its medical marijuana program.

On Wednesday, September 21, members of an interim legislative committee voted 5-0 to endorse a proposal that would add acute stress disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder to the list of medical conditions that can be legally treated with medical marijuana in Colorado. The committee’s endorsement does not make the bill law, but will act as a positive recommendation when the Colorado Legislature starts its next session in January 2017.

Controversial cannabis researcher Sue Sisley is on her way back to Colorado today, after six months that have been a “pretty barbaric rollercoaster,” she says. “One injustice after another, and I suspect it will not slow down for quite a while.” But at the end of November, the Arizona-based researcher finally caught a break: Colorado’s Medical Marijuana Scientific Advisory Council chose eight research-grant proposals for the Board of Health to consider at its December 17 meeting — including Sisley’s proposal to study the effectiveness of using marijuana to treat veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder.

Sean Azzariti spent six years in the Marines and was deployed to Iraq twice. Today he’s fighting for the right to use medical marijuana. “When I first got out of the military, in October 2006, I was diagnosed with severe PTSD,” he recalls.
The doctors prescribed heavy prescription drugs, but they didn’t work for him. Instead, Azzariti turned to cannabis. “It saved my life,” he says.


As we’ve reported, the University of Arizona fired the lead researcher of a study that looked at the therapeutic benefits of cannabis for treating people with post-traumatic stress disorder. While no reasons were given, Dr. Sue Sisley says that she was fired for political reasons and not because of her performance.
And now she has filed an official appeal with the university, demanding that continue as assistant professor and assistant director of the Arizona Telemedicine Program. She has support, too. As we wrote earlier this week, an Iraq veteran posted an online petition at Change.org that has gathered more than 31,300 online signatures.

Dr. Sue Sisley.

Back in June, the University of Arizona without warning fired Dr. Sue Sisley, the lead researcher in a program that would have studied the use of medical cannabis for post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms – though many suspect it was for Sisley’s marijuana advocacy.
The move struck a blow to people hoping for clinical proof of the efficacy of cannabis that could increase access to medical cannabis in Arizona and beyond, including Iraq veteran Ricardo Pereyda who created a petition that has more than 29,000 signatures so far (and could use one from you, too). See the petition and links to sign it below.

If it wasn’t for cannabis, Danny Belcher wouldn’t sleep. He’s spent more of his life now away from Vietnam as he ever did there but the memories still cause him to have nightmares. It’s illegal in Kentucky, but Belcher doesn’t care. He’s going to use it. He just doesn’t want to be afraid of being a criminal anymore.
“I realize it’s just a nightmare,” he told a joint committee on Veterans, Military Affairs and Public Protection yesterday according to the the Courrier-Journal. “I will light that pipe up. I’ll be a criminal. I’ll go back to sleep.”

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