PTSD and Cannabis: Health Ministry Lies? Now?

Since many Israelis have been suffering terrible PTSD snce October 7, 2023, one might expect that the Ministry of Health would take an interest in relieving what is becoming a virtual epidemic.

By virtue of a recent “reform,” that was on its way before Black Saturday, licenses for medical cannabis are now in the hands of the Sick Funds. This by itself is strange, since the Sick Funds systematically refused to consider treatment with cannabis for PTSD and have absolutely no experience with it. The “reform” actualy interrupted the continuity of care for all PTSD patients who were treated almost exlusively by private physicians by default. Now the care of these physicians was interrupted, and for no apparent reason, let alone clinical consideration.

But in Chelm like in Chelm. The new “groups” created by the Sick Funds to manage PTSD were at a loss to make any clinical decisions. So a new application (or even a renewal) required a “recommendation” regarding dosage, from guess who? But are the recommendations honored? Of course not, because the MOH has some restrictions that it has decided to apply globally which overrule what in the rest of medicine is called “medicine.” In other words, someone anonymous creature ( probably not a physician) overrules the judgment of the treating physician, without examining the patient or assuming reposnsibility for care. Thre is a serious “No No” [ in Hebrew: NuNuNu] in the rest of medicine, but not when “medical” cannabis seems to yield to other considerations than, say, the patient’s care.

Here is the latest example. I requested a license for a patient who has lots of experience using cannabis, smoking what is called T20C4 (concentrations of THC and CBD). My request was refused and here I quote, “For the PTSD indication neither high doses nor high concentrations of THC are recommended. ” Then I was referred to the “literature.”

This “literature consists” of two papers that anyone who wants  to can press the link and see on NCBI. The interested reader will see that neither paper says anything of the sort.

1. Rodas, JD et al. (2024): This is just a review of other papers and says nothing about dose or concentration regarding PTSD.
2. Stancui CN et al (2023): Just barely mentions 10  PTSD patients, nothing about dose or concentration.

In clinical fact (based on 15 years of experience with hundreds of people) some folks need less concentrated and some folks need the most concentrated forms of THC. I think everyone knows that.

The issue here is : What makes the Ministry of Health propound outright lies to a treating (here: recommending) physician?

Over the years I have worn out myself and presumably my reader(s) proposing answers to the mysterious and frankly outrageously harmful practices of the Ministry and its YaKaR Meidcal Cannabis Unit. So I will stop here with the question. And invite anyone better at this than me to investigate what on earth is going on.