Illinois Ordered to Approve PTSD for Medical Cannabis Treatment

A Cook County judge has officially ruled that Illinois must add PTSD to their list of accepted disorders for treatment with medical cannabis.

According to Air Force Times, the lawsuit the judge was ruling on was filed by an Iraq War veteran who sued the state for not allowing cannabis as a treatable condition. The suite was apparently one of eight that surfaced against the state from angry veterans.

According to Judge Neil Cohen, the public health director in Illinois engaged in a “private investigation” that he deemed “constitutionally inappropriate” when trying to determine whether PTSD should be included on the list of conditions. The ruling orders Governor Bruce Rauner’s administration to add PTSD within 30 days. The health department is currently reviewing this order to see if they will comply and add the condition.

The issue here comes from the fact that even though Illinois allows people to petition the government to add new treatable conditions, and the advisory board voted unanimously to add the condition, Rauner appointed his own medical advisor to conduct a private medical study that deemed PTSD an unfit condition. This process of hiring someone to conduct a study, instead of just taking the recommendation of the advisory board, is not what was agreed upon when medical cannabis was legalized.

The veteran who filed the lawsuit, Daniel Paul Jabs, allegedly “feels this decision gives him and other military veterans suffering from PTSD the respect they deserve from the state and the governor’s office,” according to a statement by Michael Goldberg, his attorney.

This new issue will finally allow Illinois veterans and others who suffer from PTSD access to cannabis as medicine, and will stop the state from blocking cannabis as a treatment for the disorder. This is a small victory for cannabis-medicating veterans everywhere, and hopefully an example the rest of the country will follow.