An Iraq vet fights to treat PTSD with pot
A friend’s suicide motivates his activism.
Scott Murphy shook loose marijuana from a child-safe prescription bottle onto a table. A baby’s pacifier and diaper wipes lay nearby. A folded American flag sat in a glass case on the mantle behind him.
In many ways, the Army veteran is no different from any young father. But Murphy, 32, is a medical marijuana activist.
He had to re-learn how to walk after crashing his motorcycle in 2002, but he didn’t let it stop him from fighting in the Iraq war from 2007-2008. Years later, after his deployment, it caused him chronic pain and degenerative arthritis.
The suicide of his close friend, Stephen Sheaffer, a fellow soldier and Field Artillery Specialist, is what motivates his dedication to medical marijuana activism.
“He reminded me a lot of myself when I was younger,’’ Murphy said through tears. “He had a lot of struggles.’’
Sheaffer took his own life at the age of 22, after being kicked out of the military for PTSD-related behavioral issues. He was using prescription drugs and receiving mental-health care around the time that Massachusetts was preparing to legalize medical marijuana.
“Medical cannabis may have done nothing at all for him,’’ Murphy said. “But with so many veterans saying cannabis has saved their life, it really just should be an option between a doctor and a patient.’’
Department of Veterans Affairs doctors can’t grant or even recommend medical marijuana cards for debilitating pain or PTSD symptoms. This is true even in states where medical cannabis is legal, because marijuana is illegal according to federal law.
That means veterans must find a private doctor to prescribe it. Until recently, it was illegal to even research the effects of the drug. Experts credit that lack of research as the main reason some doctors don’t recommend it.
In June, on the same week that Massachusetts’s first medical marijuana dispensary opened in Salem, the White House lifted a federal ban on researching the health benefits of the drug. Some doctors already favor it over prescription drugs despite the fact that its long-term effects are largely unknown.
“I worry less about withdrawal or overdose with medicinal cannabis,’’ Dr. Jeremy Spiegel, a psychiatrist and PTSD expert in Danvers said. “PTSD is a living hell for people who have been through hell. Those emotions stay with them and are revived by the smallest reminders of their trauma.’’
[fragment number=0]
Murphy doesn’t have PTSD. His 15-month deployment running field artillery in Fallujah, Habbaniyah, and Ramadi aggravated his injuries and the steel rod in his left femur, causing chronic pain. After being prescribed a mix of painkillers for a few years, he decided to instead use pot.
Murphy fills his prescription at Massachusetts’s first medical cannabis dispensary in Salem.
While Massachusetts can give veterans like Murphy access to pot outside of the VA, federal drug laws currently consider pot to be a Schedule I controlled substance, along with heroin and LSD.
“I’ve seen a number of veterans, people who have PTSD from serving in Afghanistan or Iraq, who derive benefit from marijuana that they do not derive from anti-depressants,’’ Dr. Israel Stein, a Quincy-based specialist in narcotic addiction and medical marijuana, told Boston.com.
Based on patient testimony, medical cannabis is believed to help manage anxiety, insomnia, and depression. A VA gag order currently prevents all of the department’s physicians from talking about medical marijuana or offering their medical opinion on using it.
Now the president of Veterans for Safe Access and Compassionate Care, Murphy uses his firsthand experience to inform his activism. For example, he says his pain doctor, a VA physician, knows he uses medical marijuana. They can’t talk about it.
“We haven’t had that real conversation about how to best use it … I shouldn’t have to be my own doctor,’’ he said. “It shouldn’t be this secretive.’’
That could soon change. A bill called the “Compassionate Access, Research Expansion, and Respect States Act of 2015,’’ introduced to Congress last fall, aims to downgrade marijuana to a Schedule II drug and would give the VA the opportunity to change its policy. Murphy has played an active role in public support of the act: making calls to government officials from his Newton home, attending meetings at the Massachusetts State House, and speaking at rallies in Washington D.C. with groups like Americans for Safe Access.
He says he finds it important to present himself professionally so VSACC’s mission isn’t mistaken as an intent to legalize recreational cannabis.
“I’ve seen at hearings, people in tie-dye t-shirts … Some people take it as a joke,’’ Murphy said.
“If you’re trying to get people that are against marijuana, and you’re fulfilling a stereotype, the chance that you convince them to change sides is zero.’’
Senator Elizabeth Warren recently called upon the FDA and DEA to update Congress on what they’re doing to facilitate new cannabis research.
Massachusetts legalized medical marijuana the same year that 3,335 veterans in Boston were identified by the VA as having potential to benefit from PTSD and depression services.
Spiegel and Stein say they can’t speak to the long-term effectiveness of the drug, because it hasn’t been researched by the FDA. They only know that their patients often prefer it over anti-depressants or habit-forming sleeping pills.
“They call it a combat cocktail,’’ said Dr. Suzanne Sisley, the principle investigator in an FDA-approved Arizona study on PTSD and medical cannabis currently underway. “They end up with 15 different prescriptions for all their symptoms within the first year of returning from combat. The patients basically end up like zombies.’’
Sisley says former soldiers have told her that, until recently, the VA used drug tests to ensure patients weren’t using marijuana. Spokesmen for the VA told Boston.com that consensual drug tests have been “used to inform changes to the treatment plan if indicated, but are not used as a basis for denying VA treatment.’’
Murphy switched to marijuana after using Tramadol, which is now a controlled substance, and Vicodin. He now consumes medical cannabis buds through a vaporizer, or in a liquid form called tincture that is squeezed under the tongue. The liquid form he favors is currently only available in Maine, as the Salem dispensary provides marijuana buds only.
Massachusetts is slated to have a medical marijuana dispensary in each county. As of now, the Salem location is the state’s only one.
Sisley said fighting PTSD with marijuana rather than opioids could help lower the all-time high suicide rate among veterans. Some veterans who have been prescribed pills for the disorder have used them to intentionally kill themselves, she said. Others have accidentally overdosed on them.
“I’ve had veterans in my practice kill themselves,’’ Sisley said. “At one point the national average was 22 per day.’’
Murphy says he’s looking forward to seeing if the VA will renew its directive order preventing its doctors from talking about medical marijuana after it expires in January 2016.
In the meantime, he’ll continue lobbying in a suit and tie.
State-by-state guide to U.S. marijuana legislation:
[bdc-gallery id=”108563″]
To comment, please create a screen name in your profile
To comment, please verify your email address
Conversation
This discussion has ended. Please join elsewhere on Boston.com