10 Reasons the US Military Should Use Pot

An eloquent and compassionate argument for the use of marijuana to relieve post-combat pain and stress issues - by Penny Coleman in AlterNet.

"It is just possible that Tim Leary was right when he said that psychedelic drugs cause paranoia, confusion and total loss of reality in politicians who have never taken them."

On top of a 100 percent disability rating with PTSD, "Charlie" - who asked that his real name not be used - came home from Afghanistan with a traumatic brain injury, a back injury and gastrointestinal problems. The VA pulled every magic trick out of its bag to treat him. But nothing worked.

What did work was marijuana.
~~~~

This article is at once hopeful and disturbing. As evidence mounts and more and more scientists, health providers and even the AMA allow that marijuana is an effective and safe treatment for pain and PTSD, marijuana continues to be classed as a Schedule I drug, deemed to be more dangerous than cocaine, oxycodone and methamphetamines, all of which are Schedule II.

Most unsettling is the section on Suicide Prevention, where Coleman cites The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry report that 89 percent of veterans with PTSD are prescribed antidepressants and 34 percent antipsychotics by the VA. Of the specific medications identified as potentially useful, all but two come with warnings of suicide or increased risk of death. Add to that a comment by VA Secretary Eric Shinseki that more vets have committed suicide since 2001 than were killed on the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan and one cannot help but wonder how this situation is allowed to continue...

Can we say Big Pharma? In my opinion Coleman skips over this one a little lightly, pointing out that it is easy enough to grow your own - maybe she's never known anyone who's run afoul of the law for engaging in this most natural of pastimes, this most victimless of crimes - oh, get me going. Even here in Canada where the law is supposedly somewhat relaxed, getting busted for growing pot is not a joke and will interfere with your personal freedom in ways you cannot imagine and over which you have no control.

All in all, a very well written and provocative piece.
Click here for full article.

~~~~
Penny Coleman is the widow of a Vietnam veteran who took his own life after coming home. Her latest book, Flashback: Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Suicide and the Lessons of War, was released on Memorial Day 2006. Her Web site is Flashback.

~~~~
don't Bogart that joint, my friend
pass it over to me...
~~~~