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Colorado may allow medical pot for PTSD

Colorado’s top medical official will seek approval of pot for post-traumatic stress disorder.

DENVER – Colorado may add post-traumatic stress disorder as a condition to be treated with medical marijuana – a dramatic turnaround after years of rejecting appeals to make PTSD the first ailment added to the state’s medical-pot program since it was approved by voters in 2000.

The addition of PTSD would be the first mental-health disorder for which Colorado doctors could recommend pot.

Colorado’s chief medical officer, Dr. Larry Wolk, will forward the addition to the full Board of Health for approval this fall.

The addition would be a dramatic turnaround for an agency that has rejected PTSD at least three times for inclusion on the marijuana registry.

Wolk, who as recently as last year testified against making PTSD an ailment eligible for pot, said his mind was changed by overwhelming evidence that people with PTSD are already on the medical registry, just listing “severe pain” as their ailment.

“We don’t want people to suffer as a result as a result of not being able to access (the registry) honestly,” Wolk said.



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