POT LIFTS SOLDIER FROM ROCK BOTTOM

Chris Hillier's life arc bottomed out in a Vancouver back alley,
across the country from his Newfoundland home and a world away from
the war zone that broke him.

Homeless, penniless and addicted to crack cocaine, Hillier slept
behind a community centre, at the intersection of Hastings and Main,
the notorious epicentre of the city's drug trade.

Three years earlier, Hillier was in the midst of a successful military
career, serving his country as an air force firefighter aboard HMCS
Preserver in the Middle East in the months after the 9/11 strikes on
the U.S.

His tour with Operation Apollo took him to the Gulf of Oman, the
Arabian Sea and the Persian Gulf. But the constant stress of working
in a theatre of war left him with post-traumatic stress disorder, a
condition he believes was worsened by conventional pharmaceuticals
prescribed by military doctors.

Today, Hillier is off the streets and clean because, he says, of a
treatment that few in the Canadian military like to discuss: medical
marijuana.

Hillier, 35, is one of just a handful of veterans who are treating
their PTSD with cannabis and getting it paid for by Veterans Affairs
Canada. The department says 26 vets are getting support for
participation in Health Canada's Marijuana Medical Access Regulations
program. Ten use it to treat PTSD, even though the Canadian Forces
shun the drug for medical use.

The use of marijuana to treat PTSD is a contentious issue,
particularly in the U.S., where thousands of veterans have recently
returned from war zones. Despite advocacy by some doctors and pressure
from soldiers who served in Iraq and Afghanistan and claim the drug
helps them, the U.S. military has resisted calls to make it available
to injured soldiers.

The U.S. Veterans Administration also does not consider marijuana a
suitable treatment for PTSD and will not help its clients obtain it in
any of the 16 states it is available medicinally.

The Canadian Forces won't consider prescribing marijuana to active
members who might have the same health issues, either.

"The CF are committed to evidence-based medicine that has been
thoroughly tested in multiple trials and published in peer-reviewed
journals," Canadian Forces Health Service spokeswoman Colleen Boicey
said in an email.

"There is insufficient evidence for the safety and efficacy of medical
use of marijuana in the treatment of PTSD."

A 2007 directive sent to Canadian Forces doctors specifically forbids
them from helping patients get marijuana. The forces will pay for
authorized Health Canada marijuana if members get approved by another
doctor, but base pharmacies will not participate in its supply.

To treat PTSD, the forces say they have a mental health program that
"provides dedicated and responsive care for ill and injured CF members."

But Hillier blames that approach for pushing pharmaceutical drugs on
him and putting him on the path to cocaine addiction.

Though he hadn't been diagnosed, Hillier was already showing signs of
PTSD when he came back from the war. He lost interest in his work. He
was argumentative and couldn't sleep.

"I went from being a shining star to the bottom of the barrel,"
Hillier says.

He chose not to renew his military contract and by the time he left,
he was dealing with serious drug addiction. There was an assault
charge on a police officer. Another charge for uttering threats. He
lost custody of his children.

"It was really a downward spiral," he says. Only after he started
using marijuana in Vancouver did he find some relief.

He shook his addiction to hard drugs and eventually told his doctor in
Newfoundland the secret behind his recovery.

She finally agreed to sign off on his application to enter Health
Canada's medical marijuana program.