First Time Ever PTSD Study Happened A Long Time Ago

This morning my email box is full of claims that "For first time, medical marijuana to be studied as treatment for vets' PTSD" and it seems like everyone is talking about this but no one is even bothering to figure out if that claim is true or not.

"For the first time, the Drug Enforcement Agency has given the green light to a controlled, clinical trial of medical marijuana for veterans suffering from PTSD."

"The proposal from the University of Arizona was long ago cleared by the Food and Drug Administration, but researchers had been unable to purchase marijuana from the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The agency's Mississippi research farm is the only federally-sanctioned source of the drug."

As with everything else, too many people think PTSD was just invented and all the research is brand spanking new.  While it all may seem like news to them, it is far from new to veterans.  Ask any Vietnam veteran and you'll get a clue how long it has been used.

In a letter last week, HHS cleared the purchase of medical marijuana by the studies' chief financial backer, the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, which supports medical research and legalization of marijuana and other drugs.

When did that happen? 2014, so no, all the claims of "first time ever" are wrong because the research had already started long before now and even before 2014. By 2013 Washington and Colorado got the green light from the Department of Justice to use marijuana because research had already shown benefits of it. But it went back even further.

State Passed the Law, but Never Used It
New York Times
By RICHARD PÉREZ-PEÑA
Published: April 20, 2001

ALBANY, April 19— It seemed so revolutionary.

In 1996, California and Arizona legalized the medical use of marijuana. Six states and the District of Columbia followed. A new movement, it appeared, was sweeping the country.

Not so new, actually. New York beat them all by a mile.

In 1980, the Legislature and Gov. Hugh L. Carey, to little fanfare, enacted a medical marijuana law in New York, the first of its kind. But the mechanism needed to make the law effective was never put in place, and it was largely forgotten.

In fact, many of the people involved two decades ago had to have their memories jogged. ''I had forgotten all about this,'' said James R. Tallon, now the president of the United Hospital Fund, who was an assemblyman and chairman of the Health Committee when the panel approved the bill.
read more here