Colorado’s choice to prohibit the use of cannabis to treat post-traumatic stress disorder has caused a lawsuit by people who suffer from PTSD.
Five people who suffer from PTSD have filed a suit this past Thursday in Denver District Court. They are challenging a decision made in July by the Colorado Board of Health not to make PTSD the first condition added to Colorado’s medical marijuana eligibility in more than a decade.
The PTSD rejection came in contrast of a recommendation from Colorado’s chief medical officer and a panel of physicians. They said that questions remain in reference to how effective marijuana is as a PTSD treatment, yet that people with PTSD are typically using marijuana anyway and that the designation would allow for better understanding about how people utilizing marijuana.
Yet the Board of Health noted that there was not enough valid federal research and denied the request on a 6-2 vote.
An attorney for the PTSD patients, Bob Hoban stated the board applied an improper standard in its rejection.
“The board in effect established a standard that was impossible to meet,” Hoban said. “They insist on having a federal study, which in effect is a futile standard.”
Law officials have 3 weeks to reply to the complaint, which has no hearing date set. A spokeswoman for the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, which is also named in the lawsuit, declined to speak out this past Friday.
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