Connect with us

Landmark U.S. Study on Veteran Cannabis Treatment Concludes

Published

on

[dropcap class=”kp-dropcap”]T[/dropcap]he United States government may be hesitant to accept the medical benefits of cannabis consumption, but new research may turn the tide for cannabis research.

One landmark study, which was recently released is the result of a decade of planning and working with government agencies. Veterans who had been using cannabis to self-treat their post-traumatic stress disorder or substitute for pain-relieving opioids were given 1.8 grams of cannabis in varying potencies and were allowed to consume the cannabis by their preferred method, journaling their experience.

The California-based Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies study was conducted by the Scottsdale Research Institute based in Phoenix, Arizona. The study was funded through a $2.2 million grant from Colorado’s department of Public Health and Environment. Researchers are currently going through the results and will publish the results publicly.

“I don’t think we would be at the finish line without the dedication of all these veterans organizations and individual veterans who stood by us all these years,” said Sue Sisley, the study’s principal investigator. “Over the past decade, we had all these veterans standing shoulder-to-shoulder with us, helping to kick down doors. They never relented, and they knew we were determined to persevere.”

The research team had to gain permission from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the National Institute on Drug Abuse to begin and struggled to find enough veterans. It was a challenge because the Department of Veteran Affairs said federal law prohibited the agency from referring veterans to the cannabis research study because of cannabis’ federal status.

“It would’ve been easy to change the study and lose the veteran focus, but we just couldn’t do that,” Sisley said. “We’ve been feeling the weight of these veterans on our shoulders for this entire time.”

The final challenge will be Phase Three of the research, which would test cannabis medication options for going to market. However, since NIDA is the only federally-approved supplier of cannabis and it can only supply cannabis for educational research, the researchers will face major hurdles in their quest to test a possible marketable medical cannabis product for veteran treatment. “This is a classic example of science being trumped by politics,” said Sisley.

Continue Reading
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *