Colorado Senate Committee Votes to Allow those with PTSD and Acute Stress Disorder to Use Medical Cannabis
A Colorado Senate committee has given unanimous approval to legislation that would add two ailments to the list of qualifying medical cannabis conditions.
Senate Bill 17, which passed the Senate Veterans and Military Affairs Committee with a 5 to 0 vote, now heads towards a vote by the full Senate. It would add post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and acute stress disorder as conditions that qualify an individual to possess, use and purchase medical cannabis; they of course would first need to receive a recommendation from a physician.
Acute stress disorder, which is much less talked about than PTSD, is “characterized by the development of severe anxiety, dissociative, and other symptoms that occurs within one month after exposure to an extreme traumatic stressor (e.g., witnessing a death or serious accident)“, according to PsychCentral.com. “As a response to the traumatic event, the individual develops dissociative symptoms.”
Senate Bill 17 is sponsored by Senator Irene Aguilar and Representative Jonathan Singer. If passed into law, Colorado would join Minnesota, New Jersey, Michigan, California, Illinois, Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, New Mexico, Arizona, Washington, Rhode Island and Oregon as states that allow those with PTSD to legally use medical cannabis.
Click here for the full text of the measure.
