Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a challenge in and of itself to treat, but when it manifests in war veterans who present with other problems such as physical injuries that include brain trauma, it can be a killer, literally. One such vet, Jon Lubecky, was so stricken with PTSD and brain injury that antidepressants couldn’t even prevent him from attempting suicide.
But now, as CBS News reports, Lubecky’s life has taken on new meaning with the help of a MDMA, the active ingredient found in the street drug ecstasy. MDMA treatment has proven so successful in other veterans that it may be available by prescription in 2021, after it concludes the third phase of FDA testing.
It’s amazing whenever I hear something like this, because the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) have always dug their heels in, fighting the use of substances that could be helpful, and keeping them on the DEA Schedule 1 controlled substance list. You need look no further than the DEA’s scheduling of cannabidiol oil (CBD) to prove my point. CBD doesn’t contain the psychoactive part of marijuana, yet the DEA ignores that fact.
Science is very much aware that CBD is a therapeutic option that has shown huge benefits for seizure relief, as well as for Parkinson’s and other chronic problems like pain and muscle spasms. It goes without saying that CBD, aka medical marijuana, is a vastly underutilized treatment, primarily because of the DEA’s and FDA’s restraints on its use.
When it comes to traumatic brain injuries (TBI), such as that suffered by sports players as well as military personnel, those who have a TBI attest that emotional dysregulation, irritability, foggy thinking and sleep problems compound the injury. So, to deny anyone who might have a chance of recovery with CBD is unconscionable.
Considering CBD is nonpsychoactive, there's really nothing for the DEA to be concerned about. You cannot get high from it and it's not addictive. From these facts alone, it makes absolutely no sense to regulate CBD as a Class 1 narcotic.