There’s such a long list of awesome things about smoking weed that I’m starting to lose track of all the benefits. One thing I’m pretty sure I never heard of before though: marijuana might be able to cure post-traumatic stress disorder.
Post-traumatic stress disorder is a serious psychological disease that can flip lives upside down. So if smoking a little ganja can possibly prevent it, shouldn’t we issue it to soldiers right away? Well, it’s still in its early stage of testing as scientists have only proved that it works on rats.
According to Dr Irit Akirav, the leader of the study, there’s a “critical window of time after trauma, during which synthetic marijuana can help prevent symptoms similar to PTSD in rats”. That “window of time” is within 24 hours of the trauma happening. That’s a pretty tight timeframe (especially given the work the army does) but according to the study, the rats that were administered marijuana within 24 hours didn’t exhibit any PTSD symptoms after while those who didn’t use marijuana or used marijuana 48 hours after trauma, still had signs of PTSD.
Whenever they’re ready to test on humans, I’m sure they’ll have a ton of volunteers willing to try it out. All in the name of science, right? [AFP via Death and Taxes Mag]
Image: Jason Swarr/Shuterstock