The American Legion, a group representing 2.4 million U.S. military veterans, has called on Congress to remove marijuana from Schedule 1 of the federal Controlled Substances Act and “reclassify it in a category that, at a minimum will recognize cannabis as a drug with potential medical value.”
In a resolution passed at the Legion’s annual convention last week, the organization said it hopes that better research into marijuana and an official acknowledgment of its potential medical benefits will hasten the development of new treatments for post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injuries, ailments that have plagued veterans returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Legion’s resolution, published online by Marijuana.com, noted that the federal Drug Enforcement Administration recently approved the country’s first randomized, controlled trial using whole-plant, smoked marijuana to treat PTSD symptoms. That study will be conducted by Sue Sisley, an Arizona researcher who tried for nearly a decade to get a green light for the research but struggled to find an academic institution to sponsor it. The University of Colorado ultimately agreed to fund the research.
During an address at the Legion’s convention in Cincinnati, Sisley told members that “veterans are exhausted and feel like guinea pigs; they’re getting desperate” and that traditional medications didn’t seem to be providing adequate relief to many vets suffering from PTSD.