VANCOUVER — 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 the Carnegie 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 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 who claim the drug helps them, 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 will not help its clients obtain it in any of the 16 states it is currently 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 peer-reviewed 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, including those contracted through Ottawa’s Calian, specifically forbids them from helping patients get marijuana.

“No CF physician, third party contract physician (e.g. Calian) 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 the Citizen under the Access to Information Act.