Ukraine 'Global Epicenter Of PTSD': Cannabis Can Help, But It's Stuck In Legal Limbo

Ukraine's health ministry recently confirmed that some 57% of Ukrainians are at risk of developing PTSD due to the now 20-month-long war with Russia.

Despite research that cannabis can help treat PTSD symptoms, it is not available yet for medical research or treatment in Ukraine, though it has moved closer to decriminalization over the past year.

At the Forest Glade Centre for Psychological Health and Rehabilitation of Veterans near Kyiv, a variety of treatments are utilized to help veterans. Kseniia Vosnitsyna, Forest Glade’s director, compares it to the need for a variety of different weapons on the battlefield.

“It's exactly the same with us. We need an arsenal as well. The broader it is, the more effective our treatment can be,” she said in a report by a BBC diplomatic correspondent in Kyiv, Paul Adams.

“They take it not to get high, but to get rid of the symptoms which bother them. Of course, they often do it more than they need, but at the moment, there’s no other way. Unfortunately.”

The Forest Glade Center is pushing for the legalization of cannabis, MDMA and psychedelics for treating PTSD as well as traumatic brain injury. She said many veterans are already self-medicating with cannabis, but there is no legal way to access it.

In June, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed his support for legalizing medical marijuana, scientific research and controlled Ukrainian production, but a draft law on the issue has not yet been passed.

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Professor Viktor Dosenko from the National Academy of Science told the BBC he is frustrated with the massive untreated PTSD in Ukraine. 

“We have to do clinical research, to get more convincing evidence that it works,” he says, “because we really are the global epicenter of PTSD.”

“Unfortunately, none of this research was ever done in Ukraine because we have a law that forbids it.”

He noted the draft law that passed a first reading in mid-July did not change the status of cannabis as a prohibited substance, causing widespread confusion.

“All the world’s best practices … no matter how difficult or unusual they may seem to us, should be applied in Ukraine so that Ukrainians, men and women … do not have to endure the pain, stress and trauma of war,” said Dosenko.

Photo: Shutterstock.