This article was originally published on the Marijuana Patients Organization site on December 11, 2014.
I have ptsd among other medical issues from Iraq. I grew up with ptsd having survived a violent drug and gang infested neighborhood, then combat as one of the first soldiers deployed in Iraq. As a teenager I never got into smoking marijuana too much. I experimented. After my anxiety from ptsd started showing around my friends, an acquaintance recommended I smoke marijuana, but indica specifically to “chill out” and relax my anxiety. I’ve been smoking over 20 years now, minus the time I spent in military service. None of the plethora of meds the candy dispensers at the VA offer make me feel as normal and relaxed as my old self as much as marijuana does, and marijuana is not toxic to my liver and other organs. I’ve had a few veteran friends die of liver complications already from prescription drugs prescribed by the VA hospitals. The pain of losing a veteran friend after the war to drugs and/or alcohol seems more extreme than those lost in combat because now I have time to process it without interruption. PTSD makes this process a little harsher to deal with.
[author title=”About the Author”]
God bless you for your service young man.
I’m not military but can relate fully with the candy hand outs that have contributed to my now chronic pancreatitis, weed being my only relief from cptsd related aliments last 5 yrs syc med free