Preliminary results from a decade-long study reveal that people suffering with PTSD who used medical cannabis tolerated it well. However, the researchers also reported that evidence was inconclusive the cannabis was effective.
Several experts immediately raised concerns about the findings including Dr. Peter Grinspoon, a doctor at the Harvard Medical School who is considered one of the nation’s top experts on the healing properties of medical cannabis and the disastrous impace of the decades long “War on Drugs.”
In a Twitter post, Peter Grinspoon says he is looking forward to the next phase of the study.
“Hopefully they will use real, high quality cannabis plants for the next round, not the sub-standard twigs the NIDA (National Institute on Drug Abuse) grows and inflicts on researchers.” – Dr. Peter Grinspoon
Rick Doblin, executive director of MAPS, the organization that facilitated the study, agrees noting that “the difference between anecdotal reports” of the effectiveness of cannabis for PTSD “and these results may be the quality of the marijuana.”
The study, led by Marcel Bonn-Miller of the University of Pennsylvania and Sue Sisley of the Scottsdale Research Institute, was funded by a $2.2 million grant from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) to the Multidisciplinary Association of Psychedelic Studies (MAPS). Researchers fought for seven years to obtain approval to conduct the study, and it took three more years to carry it out.
For years, many military veterans have used medical marijuana to manage the symptoms of PTSD. However, it has been extremely difficult to study the effectiveness of cannabis because of federal prohibition and the many roadblocks set up to discourage the study of the potential positive health benefits of cannabis.
Early on in the study, criticism over the poor quality and low potency of the NIDA-supplied cannabis prompted Johns Hopkins University to withdraw from the multi-year clinical trials. Despite criticism from cannabis researchers and some Congressional lawmakers, NIDA maintains a government monopoly on all cannabis used in federally-approved cannabis research.
Read Bruce Kennedy’s in-depth report on the Leafly website.