Marine Corps veteran Ed Erdos tried medical marijuana to ease his pain, and found that it also eased his mind.
He enrolled with the Health Department's Office of Medical Cannabis last year in search of relief from the pain and muscle spasms caused by injuries he suffered in a helicopter crash. But along with pain relief came relief from the anxiety, intrusive thoughts and fear that haunted him for years as a result of service-related post-traumatic stress disorder.
"It works," said Erdos, who spent five years "bunkered," barely able to leave his home. Now, when he visits the bright, airy lobby of the LeafLine Labs patient care center in St. Paul, he wears a big smile under the brim of his Marine Corps hat. He no longer takes any of his old anxiety meds. He has the confidence to get out and visit his buddies at the American Legion and VFW.
The cannabis prescription the pharmacist hands him each week, he said, "has improved my quality of life to the point where I can function on a daily basis."
Millions of Americans suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder. Minnesota is the latest state to offer medical marijuana as a possible treatment option.
The Minnesota Health Department's Office of Medical Cannabis opened enrollment to people diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder on July 1, and the state's eight clinics will open their doors to those new patients in August.
Ten PTSD patients applied, and one had been enrolled in the program by the end of the first week, the Health Department reported. But some patients already enrolled in the program, like Erdos, noticed their pain medication had side benefits.
The cannabis oil, he found, offered swift relief to the pain that shot down his damaged spine and knotted his muscles so badly he sometimes dropped to the floor in agony. But Erdos found an unexpected side benefit to the medication the state legalized two years ago — it seemed to ease the service-related PTSD that had trapped him in his home for nearly five years.
