ptsd

Washington – Gaza’s Attorney General announced Tuesday that the government would start this year enforcing the death penalty for criminals convicted of drug offenses, Ma’an News Agency reported.

 

"Just as drugs will be destroyed, drug dealers will also be hanged,” said the Hamas official. “We will amend penal code law to include the death penalty for this group who wish to ruin society by playing a non-patriotic, inhuman and immoral role.”

 

The announcement came the same day Gaza police burned more than 300 pounds of marijuana and cocaine, along with 200 bottles of alcohol and 2 million pain killer tablets seized over past weeks, Taiwan News reported. Read more »

By KATHLEEN HARRIS, Toronto Sun

 

OTTAWA — Canada's military would use the illicit dance-floor drug Ecstasy to treat soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder if it's proven safe and effective, says a top DND doctor.

 

Lt. Col. Rakesh Jetly, a psychiatrist and senior health adviser for the Canadian Forces, said the department of national defence (DND) is committed to evidence-based care, and would embrace any treatment that has undergone rigorous scientific research to help relieve suffering of battle-scarred troops.

  Read more »

By. Marijuana Policy Project

 

Major news! The Department of Veterans Affairs has formally announced that patients being treated at V.A. facilities will be allowed to use medical marijuana if they live in one of the 14 states where it is legal.

 

This historic development was trumpeted over the weekend in a front-page New York Times story that quoted MPP’s Steve Fox. “We now have a branch of the federal government accepting marijuana as a legal medicine,” Steve told the Times, adding that the department needs to make its guidelines clear to patients and V.A. officials nationwide.

 

Under the policy, V.A. doctors still won’t be allowed to recommend marijuana to patients, but legal medical marijuana users will not be automatically precluded from pain management programs. Previously, many veterans believed they could lose access to prescription pain medications if they were found to be using medical marijuana, and some—including an Army veteran interviewed by The Times—were even told they needed to choose between medical marijuana and other pain medications. This latest policy clarification should prevent similar future incidents. Read more »

By Marjorie Childress

 

New federal guidelines that will streamline the diagnosis of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) for veterans are likely to increase the number of PTSD patients in New Mexico’s medical marijuana program because they will make it easier for veterans to be diagnosed. Out of 14 states that allow medicinal use of marijuana number, New Mexico is the only one that includes PTSD on the list of conditions that qualify for a license. Although the Veterans Administration refuses to allow its doctors to provide veterans with signatures that allow them to get a state license, at 29 percent of the total number of licensees, PTSD patients still comprise the largest group in the state program.

 

Of 1952 active licenses, 564 are for PTSD. The next largest group is for chronic pain, at 319, and cancer patients total 284. The entire list with breakdown by illness is updated weekly on the department of health’s website. Read more »

By John Ingold, The Denver Post

 

Cannabis advocates on Wednesday filed a petition to include post-traumatic stress disorder on the state's list of medical-marijuana-approved conditions.

 

The petition argues that medical marijuana can help with PTSD — especially in veterans — by easing depression, anxiety and nightmares. The petition was formally filed at the state health department by Kevin Grimsinger, an Army veteran and double amputee who said he lost his legs after stepping on a land mine in 2001 in Afghanistan.

 

"People who have served our country or other people who were injured and have PTSD should be able to have access to medicine that helps them," said Brian Vicente, executive director of Sensible Colorado, an advocacy group backing the petition.

 

Colorado voters in 2000 approved a constitutional amendment allowing for the use of medical marijuana for eight conditions. The amendment also creates a petition process by which more conditions can be approved. Read more »

By. Bob Kerrey and Jason Flom

 

The U.S. Veterans Administration (VA) recently adopted a policy prohibiting VA physicians from recommending medical marijuana to their patients, even if marijuana is the safest and most effective medicine to treat Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and other service-related conditions.

 

No doubt the policy stems, in part, from the VA's efforts to address the serious problem of drug abuse among returning veterans. Veterans' advocates and organizations like the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA) certainly share this concern; last fall, DPA issued a report calling for immediate policy changes to improve veterans' substance abuse and mental health treatment.

 

Yet seen from the larger perspective of helping veterans adjust to civilian life, the VA's stance on medical marijuana is counterproductive and harmful. The ban means that--despite their service to our country--veterans who reside in the 14 states that have legalized medical marijuana are denied the same rights as every other resident of these states. Read more »

By. Jeff Brady

 

The Department of Veterans Affairs finds itself in a difficult position because some vets want to use marijuana to treat symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. Pot possession remains illegal under federal law. The VA says that as a federal agency its doctors can't recommend using it.

 

The problem is especially acute in New Mexico, where one-fourth of the state's more than 1,600 medical marijuana patients are PTSD sufferers.

 

'Medical Cannabis Saved Our Marriage'

 

Paul Culkin of Rio Rancho, N.M., traces his PTSD back to 2004 when he was in Kosovo and part of an Army bomb squad. A car crashed into a business. The manager was inside trying to put out a fire. Culkin went in once to try to get him to leave, but he wouldn't go. Read more »

By SUE MAJOR HOLMES

When Paul Culkin came home to New Mexico after serving with an Army bomb squad in Iraq, he tried counseling and medications offered by the Department of Veterans Affairs to cope with his post traumatic stress disorder.

Nothing worked very well. Then he found a new alternative: marijuana.

New Mexico is the only state that explicitly allows people with PTSD to smoke pot under its medical marijuana law - an issue that is getting attention around the country at a time when traumatized vets are coming home from wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in large numbers.

New Mexico's medical marijuana law has created a conundrum for the Veterans Affairs, which does not allow its doctors to prescribe pot because the drug is illegal in the eyes of the federal government. So, patients like Culkin must seek out an endorsement from a private doctor.

Read more »

RT.com

The Russia-NATO Council is meeting in Brussels Wednesday to discuss ways of reducing or eliminating drug production in Afghanistan. But as politicians talk, people continue to suffer from prospering drug business.

Russia is facing a crisis, with an estimated 2.5 million addicts – more than any other country in the world – and 90 per cent of them use cheap Afghan heroin.

Moscow estimates narcotics production in Afghanistan has increased 44 times since the US-led war started in 2001. It says coalition forces are just not doing enough to eradicate the problem. And drugs production remains a major source of income for Taliban militants.

Read more »

By. Allen St. Pierre, NORML

If you’re a veteran from any era and have some time to answer questions about your experiences, your input could be a huge help.

A survey from Dr. Mitch Earleywine, a member of the NORML Advisory Board, addresses cannabis, military experiences, and a whole lot more. Responses are completely anonymous and there’s a chance to win gift certificates from Amazon.com.

Read more »