Texas Senator’s Bill Would Help Those with PTSD Get Medical Marijuana

State Senator Jose Menedez filed Senate Bill 269 to allow for a more comprehensive medical marijuana program. Menedez filed this bill to help others with conditions like PTSD to get access to another treatment option. The Senator has veterans, like Amanda Berard, in mind.

Berard suffers from PTSD from her time in the U.S. Army, according to KHOU News. Berard was a combat medic. Sexual assault led to PTSD.

She said, “I experience it with depression and in hypervigilance.”

Her PTSD is treated with a cocktail of pharmaceuticals. She said, “You’re given a cocktail of medication. A cocktail of pharmaceutical pills. I have five or six different medications that I’m supposed to take. The prescriptions, I feel, are like a Band-Aid solution.”

Amanda is working on writing a thesis paper around the effectiveness of marijuana for veterans suffering from PTSD.

Senator Menedez agrees with Berard and groups like NORML, in the regard that medical marijuana should be available just like other prescription drugs.

Senator Menedez said, “I’d like to make it legal for doctors to prescribe or recommend medical-based cannabis. I’m literally saying that now you can have another medicine at your pharmacy.”

Menedez also said, “Why are politicians in Texas picking and choosing which compounds or molecules they can prescribe as medicine? They say they have scientific-based evidence that cannabis medication can help people with PTSD, help pain without side effects.”

Senator Menedez has spoken with veterans and for many, the pharmaceuticals don’t work. In a lot of cases, the pharmaceuticals make their symptoms worse.

Menedez said, “If we feel it’s good enough for those children and those seizures, why do we oppose helping veterans with PTSD? Or someone with cancer? Or glaucoma? What’s the logic?”

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs itself acknowledges that marijuana can be used to treat PTSD.