POT PRESCRIPTION RAISES FORMER SOLDIER FROM "' THE BOTTOM OF THE BARREL'

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and the Psychiatric Drugs Prescribed
Through the Canadian Forces Led to a Bout With Crack Addiction in the
Downtown Eastside, Says Chris Hillier

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, the Mississauga, Ont., native is off the streets and clean
because of a treatment that, he says, 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 that is paid for by Veterans Affairs Canada.

The department says 26 vets are part of Health Canada's Marihuana
Medical Access Regulations (MMAR) 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 pressure from soldiers who served in Iraq and Afghanistan ,
and advocacy by some doctors, 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 refuses to help its clients obtain it
in any of the 16 states where it is available medicinally.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in September
rejected a request to authorize marijuana testing on 50 veterans with PTSD.

The government said it had questions about the qualifications of the
researchers and safety concerns about vets taking the drug outside of
a medical facility.

The Canadian Forces will not 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 peerreviewed
journals," said Canadian Forces Health Service spokeswoman Colleen
Boicey 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.

"No CF physician, third-party contract physician ... or a physician
engaged under a DND contact will assist the patient to complete the
submission to Health Canada under the MMAR," says the directive,
released to Postmedia News under the Access to Information Act.

The forces will pay for authorized Health Canada marijuana if members
are 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 issues. 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.

It helped control his anxiety and let him sleep. He put on weight he
had shed during his addiction.

Hillier went home to Newfoundland and entered rehab. Doctors gave him
psychiatric drugs - Zoloft, Risperidone, Seroquel - but he flushed
them down the toilet and kept using cannabis.

"I was buying it on the street, growing it illegally in my basement," he says.

"It's what worked. Despite the fact it was a crime, I had to have
some quality of life. I had to have some stability. The conventional
drugs just created more problems."

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.

Veterans Affairs agreed to pay for the marijuana, as long as he
bought it from Health Canada's supplier, Prairie Plant Systems. He
found, however, that the strain of government-sanctioned pot
increased his anxiety. Now he grows his own and his wife bakes it
into cookies. If his stress level gets too high, he smokes a joint.

Hillier is enrolled in a Veterans Affairs vocational training
program, learning to work in information technology security.

He says he is disappointed that the Canadian Forces aren't more open
to marijuana to treat active service members dealing with stress disorders.

"The health and quality of life of our men and women in a uniform
could be really improved," he says.

Hillier says marijuana can be more effective in treating the PTSD
symptoms than the anti-anxiety pharmaceuticals that the military
health system prescribes. The forces and Veterans Affairs should
offer the best treatment for members with PTSD, just as they would
for soldiers with physical injuries sustained on duty, he says.

"They have a legal and moral obligation to fix you."