Benefits of Marijuana for Veterans

Veterans can definitely benefit from cannabis for a lot of problems, including PTSD, TBI, and chronic pain. as the VA continues to struggle to help all of this, you may wonder how you can get support for this is there a solution to helping them with this? Could it be something that’ll help provide the proper relief for people. Medical cannabis does have a lot of benefits, and while the legality is still a bit dicey in certain areas, it could help. 

Is it Legal? 

The problem with marijuana legalization is that it’s left to the states, while it’s federally illegal. However, for those with chronic pain and other issues, they could benefit from it.  Right now, 33 states and Washington DC have approved it for medical uses. ALS, epilepsy, chronic pain, cancer, and so much more are definitely big things that you should definitely consider using this for. The problem is, because it’s not federally legal, it’s definitely a bit of a hurdle. 

How this can help veterans 

This can help veterans because it can manage a variety of symptoms.  This was first introduced as something for them to use with the marijuana safe harbor act, which got first introduced back in 2019, but then was reintroduced once more in 2021, and it allows physicians to prescribe marijuana to those veterans who are going to use this for a variety of options. The bill also encourages the VA as well to also look at the viability and medical cannabis for managing your chronic pain, helping with trauma and PTSD, along with the abuse of opioids. 

Those who were diagnosed with a PTSD condition discovered that cannabis does have a lot of potential to help manage these symptoms.  Research has demonstrated that it may reduce any chances of flashback by up to 50%, irritability by 67%, intrusive thoughts along with trauma by 62%, and anxiety by up to 57%.  The studies did show that there was some positive benefit on the long-time use of it. 

There is also marijuana which can be used for TBI, or traumatic brain injuries, and it’s something that is oftentimes very serious. The problem is, a lot of TBI instances are not fully recognized, and are oftentimes going unreported, which causes the symptoms to worsen.  Because it’s a condition that is valid medically, scientists have looked to find the correlation between cannabis and this condition, looking for all benefits of this. 

It does exhibit both psychotherapeutic and neuroprotective elements that come with this, and it can have some effects of marijuana on your brain. Then there is chronic pain, which is something a lot of veterans eek out.  There are studies which have found that marijuana is effective for relieving pain, while in most cases, it can manage it, and some even claim that it can work on the same level as a typical pain relief. 

That means, in most cases it can be used as a prescription medication for a lot of problems, and if you’re someone who doesn’t want to currently use pain relievers. The problem with current pain meds is while they’re effective, they oftentimes can be potentially dangerous for some people. That’s because, they can become highly additive as well, and it’s something that a lot of people do need to be mindful of. 

With that said, managing chronic pain, or any of these issues with marijuana, is something that a lot of people struggle with, and it can, with this help you not only feel better, but also give you relief from damaging conditions as well too.