Colorado lawmakers push PTSD bill to address pleas for medical marijuana
Efforts over the years to add PTSD as a qualifying condition for medical marijuana in Colorado have been met with failure.
The Colorado Board of Health denied multiple petitions for the inclusion, citing the need for more scientific evidence; bills trips through the General Assembly have been short-lived; and veterans and PTSD-sufferers legal bids were quashed.
2017 brings with it renewed pushes both legislatively and legally to establish PTSD as a qualifying condition.
Ive met a number of veterans who really feel like it improved their quality of life, said Sen. Irene Aguilar, a Denver Democrat and physician who co-sponsored a bill to have PTSD and acute stress disorders be considered debilitating medical conditions under the states medical marijuana law.
In a time when concern is heightened about veterans increased risk of suicide, there should be consideration for all potential options to help prevent that, Aguilar said.
Senate Bill 17, co-sponsored by Rep. Jonathan Singer, D-Longmont, is expected to go before the Senates State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee next week. The initial committee hearing scheduled for Tuesday was postponed as lawmakers evaluate whether there is a legislative mechanism to add a qualifying condition or if that is limited to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, Aguilar said.
Some of the initial opposition to the bill has come from members of the medical community, including the Colorado Psychiatric Society.
Our main concern is really the risk of harm to the individual, said Dr. Jennifer Hagman, representing the Colorado Psychiatric Society.
And the physicians edict of first, do no harm is accomplished with knowledge from rigorous studies, research and evidence, she said.
I would hope that we continue to wait until theres adequate scientific support for using marijuana for this condition, she said. I think its premature and the data isnt there.
The limited data people are working with around veterans with PTSD and marijuana, she said, has shown negative correlations. She noted a longitudinal study of veterans over a period of 30 years that showed some who started using marijuana following treatment had increased incidences of violent behavior.
Hagman noted that more research is ongoing and that the state of Colorado has put money toward research on marijuanas effects on those with PTSD. The study, in the works since 2010, received federal approval in 2016, a year and a half after Colorado awarded the grant.
I think the best thing that could happen is for the federal government to remove marijuana from Schedule I so that research is much easier to do, she said.
Happening in the background of this latest play from lawmakers is an ongoing appeals case in state court that challenges the board of healths 2015 decision on PTSD. And nationally, an increasingly growing slate of medical marijuana states nearly 20 of them have looked favorably on PTSD as a qualifying condition.
Its just an area that they need to permit us to catch up with other states, said C. Adam Foster, an attorney with Denvers Hoban Law Group. Foster represents the Colorado residents and military veterans who challenged the board of healths position on PTSD in district court and subsequently appealed the district courts denial.
Colorados board of health has ...
