Veterans key as surge of states OK medical pot to treat PTSD

It was a tell- ing setting for a decision on whether post-traumatic stress disorder patients could use medical marijuana.

Against the backdrop of the nation’s largest Veterans Day parade, Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced this month he’d sign legislation making New York the latest in a fast-rising tide of states to OK therapeutic pot as a PTSD treatment, though it’s illegal under federal law and doesn’t boast extensive, conclusive medical research.

Twenty-eight states plus the District of Columbia now include PTSD in their medical marijuana programs, a tally that has more than doubled in the last two years, according to data compiled by the pro-legalization Mari- juana Policy Project. A 29th state, Alaska, doesn’t incorporate PTSD in its medical m arijuana program but allows everyone over 20 to buy pot legally.

The increase has come amid increasing advocacy from veterans’ groups .

Retired Marine staff sergeant Mark DiPasquale says the drug freed him from the 17 opioids, anti-anxiety pills and other medications prescribed to him for migraines, post-traumatic stress and other injuries.

“I just felt like a zombie, and I wanted to hurt somebody,” says DiPasquale, a co-founder of the Veterans Cannabis Collective Foundation.

DiPasquale pushed to extend New York’s nearly two-year-old medical marijuana program to include post-traumatic stress. He’d qualified because of other conditions but said he felt the drug ease his anxiety, sleeplessness and other PTSD symptoms and spur him to focus on wellness.

“Do I still have PTSD? Absolutely,” says DiPasquale, 42. But “I’m back to my old self. I love people again.”