It’s a well known fact that many soldiers all over the world come home from service with some form of trauma or other mental illness.
For a long time the traditional therapy for these problems has been anti-depressants and counselling, but these solutions aren’t for everyone.
Catching on to science that stoners have known about for as long as stoners have been around, many veterans are turning to cannabis to help treat their PTSD.
PTSD can be the root cause of many psychological symptoms including insomnia, anxiety, depression and recurrent nightmares.
It is a psychological condition which turns vets to destructive habits and often suicide, with an American Department of Veteran Affairs survey stating that there are as many as 20 veteran suicides PER DAY in the U.S.
Recent studies have shown that CBD, a non-psychoactive component of cannabis, has a significant positive impact on brain chemistry by reacting with serotonin, which interrupts the process in the brain which produces negative associative memories.
More than that, a Brazilian study from 2015 suggests that CBD and THC (the active part of cannabis which gets you high) working together is more effective at changing the way the brain processes painful memories than CBD alone.
So, in the U.S. more vets are taking to various strains of cannabis to help with their symptoms.
It can only be a good thing that people are moving away from substances which do little but mask the symptoms of depression and towards a different approach that might work for them.
This can of course only be done in states where medical marijuana is legal, so it will be interesting to see a comparison between states where vets use weed and those that don’t.
Either way, I hope more is done to work out how these veterans can get the help they need, in America and the rest of the world.
