Search Results: ptsd/ (10)

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.

The strange (and shameful) tale of Sue Sisley, a woman who was set to lead the nation’s first large-scale study of medical cannabis for vets with returning post-traumatic stress disorder but fired for her outspoken support of medical cannabis at the state level, seems to have found a happy ending.
Monday, the state of Colorado announced that they will put $10 million toward medical research – including $2 million going towards Sisley’s study.

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.

Sue Sisley.

Sue Sisley, the researcher who was going to run the largest PTSD/marijuana study in the country before being fired for political reasons, has been fired again. An apparent victim of hardball politics, the Valley doctor and would-be cannabis researcher was told by the University of Arizona in June to vacate her office at the school’s downtown Phoenix campus.
Now Sisley’s been booted off the Maricopa County Medical Society’s board of officers due to published quotes in September’s Phoenix New Times feature article about her saga, “Weeded Out: How the U of A Fired Pot Researcher Sue Sisley After a State Senator Complained.”

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.”


Arizonans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder now qualify for medical cannabis recommendations in the state, according to a health department ruling Wednesday. This is the first time a condition has been added to the list since voters approved the program in 2010 and is a huge victory for Arizona’s large veteran population.
According Arizona Department of Health Services director Will Humble there is at least one study showing that cannabis can help with PTSD symptoms and that the study, combined with numerous of anecdotal accounts, was enough to sway his decision.

AllGov

A petition which aimed to persuade the Obama Administration to allow military veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder to use medical marijuana was rejected by the White House.

Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), wrote last month that marijuana is not a “benign drug,” and does not meet standards for safe or effective medicine, reports Patricia Kime at USA Today. (Apparently, “real” medicines are supposed to kill people in droves — you know, like all the poisons Big Pharma is peddling. Pot doesn’t do that.)
It’s particularly ironic, in a crazy-making sort of way, for the Drug Czar to answer any questions about legalizing marijuana for any purpose, since he is bound by law to oppose marijuana legalization. But if Kerli was feeling any of the irony, he didn’t let on; he was a good robot, mouthing meaningless platitudes on a dead stage.

Cage Potato

Worth Repeating
​By Ron Marczyk, R.N.
Health Education Teacher (Retired)
The reductionist, “group think,” cold, dogmatic drug warriors of the National Institute of Drug Abuse, the DEA, and the FDA have been digesting their own misinformation for so long they have lost their humanity. 
As counterintuitive as it sounds, the” high” or “feel good” buzz from marijuana is an actual “therapeutic effect” that heals the brain, produces homeostasis and prevents many neurodegenerative conditions.
Brain homeostasis is restored by the direct action of THC/CBD-activating CB1 receptors in the amygdala which regulate our “happiness / emotional salience module.” This pathway is dedicated to seeking for “meaningfulness” in our existence.
This innate drive is the need for self-actualization. THC increases the probability of these events occurring, through inducing metaphysical “flow states” and “peak experiences.” 


Sign These 11 White House Petitions Today!

Welcome to Room 420, where your instructor is Mr. Ron Marczyk and your subjects are wellness, disease prevention, self actualization, and chillin’.

Worth Repeating

By Ron Marczyk, R.N.
Health Education Teacher (Retired)

(Editor’s note: Major props to Morgan Fox over at Marijuana Policy Project, who, as I was preparing Ron Marczyk’s post, published MPP’s list of petitions to sign, here.)

That’s right, from the comfort of your living room, you can have green petition party, punctuated with bong rips if you so desire.
If this community can get all 11 of these petitions maxed out with signatures, it’ll help put medical cannabis issues on the table for the 2012 Presidential race.
Click on the name of each petition to go to the White House page where you can vote for it.

Graphic: Four Twenty Studios

​​​Welcome to Room 420, where your instructor is Mr. Ron Marczyk and your subjects are wellness, disease prevention, self actualization, and chillin’.


Worth Repeating
By Ron Marczyk, R.N.
Health Education Teacher (Retired)

An Israeli study finds that the cannabinoids in cannabis provide relief from anxiety due to stress. This study suggests that a treatment to heal a hyper-alert “fear memory” in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) patients may exist.

Medical cannabis may also enhance PTSD behavior therapy treatments as an anti-anxiety agent that resets a damaged amygdala and may act as a superior psychiatric medicine to present-day antidepressants and anti-anxiety drugs.