Pubdate: Mon, 17 Nov 2014
Source: Globe and Mail (Canada)
Copyright: 2014 The Globe and Mail Company
Contact:  http://www.theglobeandmail.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/168
Author: Wendy Leung
Page: L6

POT A POSSIBLE SALVATION FOR PTSD SUFFERERS

Marijuana producer and UBC are pitching a clinical trial on the impact
of the drug on people with post-traumatic stress disorder

After developing post-traumatic stress disorder during his second
deployment in Afghanistan in 2007, Canadian army veteran Fabian Henry
tried numerous anti-depressants to quell his suicidal thoughts and
violent rages. For three years, he was on as many as nine pills a day.
But only one drug worked for him: marijuana.

"It literally gave me relief and changed my life," says Henry, who now
vaporizes 10 grams of medical marijuana a day. "I went from suicidal
and homicidal ideation, to DUIs, to threatening to kill people, to
beating people up, to doing yoga seven days a week, using cannabis and
spending more time in nature with my kids."

Henry, who served 13 years in the army and carried out six deployments
as a combat engineer, is now aiming to help other veterans and first
responders with PTSD gain access to medical marijuana.

Getting the health community to embrace marijuana as a treatment for
PTSD, however, isn't easy. Thirteen years since Health Canada granted
Canadians access to marijuana for medical purposes, doctors remain
hazy about when, how and if they should prescribe it. Although a court
ruling requires Health Canada to provide access to a legal source of
marijuana when authorized by a physician, the government does not
endorse its use. And groups such as the Canadian Medical Association
and the College of Family Physicians of Canada note there is a lack of
scientific evidence to show its therapeutic benefits.

To help narrow the evidence gap, Nanaimo, B.C.-based medical marijuana
producer Tilray announced Thursday it has teamed up with researchers
at the University of British Columbia's Okanagan campus to conduct the
first clinical trial in Canada to test the impact of medicinal
marijuana on PTSD sufferers. The study, which requires the approval of
the university's ethics committee and Health Canada to proceed, would
provide a rare controlled examination of the drug's efficacy in
treating the disorder. And while some applaud the effort, not everyone
believes such work is in the best interest of PTSD sufferers.

The Tilray-UBC study intends to recruit 40 veterans, first responders
and victims of sexual assault with PTSD, and to administer various
strains of marijuana or a placebo using vaporizers. If approved,
researchers anticipate they can begin enrolling their first
participants by spring and conclude their research by late 2016.
Tilray is currently the sole funder of the study, which is estimated
to cost $350,000, and will also supply themarijuana.

"We need more treatments for PTSD. There's too many veterans and
victims of crime and first responders that are suffering, and the
existing treatments don't work for a number of them," says Dr. Zach
Walsh, one of the principal investigators of the proposed study and a
psychology professor at UBC.

Brain-imaging studies indicate people with PTSD lack certain
neurotransmitters in the brain's endocannabinoid system, a network
that, in animal studies, has been shown to be involved in fear
responses. The brains of PTSD sufferers, Walsh explains, "are hungry
for cannabinoids," which cannabis may help satisfy.

According to Health Canada, statistics for patients who use medical
marijuana to treat PTSD are not available - nor is the number of
sufferers who selfmedicate. But there's a huge demand among afflicted
veterans and first responders, says Henry, who has helped more than
300 individuals access the drug since he opened his Oromocto,
N.B.-based Marijuana for Trauma Inc. eight months ago. They come to
him with a doctor's referral, and he helps them with the necessary
paperwork to obtain the drug from a licensed producer and receive
coverage from Veterans Affairs Canada.

Henry says his not-for-profit company was trying to help RCMP Cpl. Ron
Francis obtainmarijuana when he died by suicide in October. Francis,
who suffered from PTSD, had criticized the force for not providing
services for the disorder, and became known for using medical
marijuana while in uniform.

"This is what happens when you don't get this medicine," Henry
says.

Psychiatrist Dr. Paul Sedge says while the proposed Tilray-UBC study
would contribute to much-needed scientific research, he has serious
concerns about the risks involved with using marijuana. While he
acknowledges that his patients claim it reduces PTSD symptoms, Sedge
does not believe it should be used to treat the disorder.

"There are many existing medications that have more science behind
them =C2=85 where research dollars may be better spent," says Sedge, a
retired member of the Canadian Forces, who now works with veterans at
at The Royal, a mental-health centre in Ottawa.

"The concerns are we know that marijuana is a substance of abuse and
dependence," he says, adding that it's also associated with the onset
of psychotic illness and mood and anxiety disorders, and can worsen
the conditions of those who already have such illnesses.

"The comparison I would make is someone who has panic disorder or
severe anxiety may find that when they have a drink of alcohol, it
calms their nerves. But we would never prescribe alcohol to treat
anxiety," he says. He suggests a safer solution may be found in
synthetic endocannabinoids, such as Nabilone.

Research on marijuana's efficacy is scarce because of the
administrative hurdles involved when testing a regulated substance,
and finding a suitable placebo can be challenging, says Dr. Bernard Le
Foll, a clinician-scientist at the Centre for Addiction and Mental
Health in Toronto. "Very few investigators are willing to put the
effort to go into those directions," he says.

"The reality is that it is [in the] interests of the medical marijuana
grower to develop the evidence about the product they are selling," Le
Foll says, adding that as long as the researchers of the proposed
UBC-Tilray study have some independence from the company to develop
their design, "it should not be problematic."

Philippe Lucas, Tilray's vice president for patient and research
services, says Health Canada's move this year to hand over the
production and distribution of medical marijuana to multiple
authorized producers opens the door to having companies like his
support clinical trials.

"There's very few jurisdictions where this kind of work can take place
without jumping through nearly insurmountable hurdles," Lucas says.
"Research into the whole-plant medicine, like what we're authorized to
produce and distribute to critically and chronically ill Canadians, is
going to be, I think, a nearly uniquely Canadian phenomenon."
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