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State Board Says PTSD Patients Should Qualify For Medical Marijuana

Rusty Blazenhoff/Flickr

Dakota Serna served in the Marines during the Iraq War. He says memories of seeing friends and children killed left him suicidal after he came home. Serna says the only thing that has helped him get his life back on track is using marijuana.

But that puts him on the wrong side of the law as it is currently written.

“Somebody on paper can say that I’m a criminal,” said Serna. “Somebody can come to my house and try to put me in handcuffs. But I’m not a criminal.”

A state board on Thursday agreed that people like Serna should be able to legally use marijuana to treat their PTSD.

“The people who are veterans, the people who have been raped, sexual crimes, deserve this to be passed,” said panel member David Brogren. “I think that it’s time, it’s just time.”

But the board also voted against adding bipolar disorder and insomnia to the list of acceptable conditions under Michigan’s medical marijuana law.

“The weight of the evidence in the consideration of the committee was that there was substantial concern that use of marijuana by a person with bipolar disorder could potentially make their condition worse,” said panel chair Matthew Davis, who is also the state’s chief medical executive.

Davis says insomnia is often caused by other conditions that are already covered under Michigan’s medical marijuana law.