Illinois residents have petitioned the state to add more than 20 medical conditions to the medical marijuana program, including anxiety, migraines, insomnia and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Petitioners identifying themselves as veterans of Vietnam and Iraq asked that PTSD be included, making emotional pleas for help, according to 269 pages of petitions obtained by The Associated Press through the state’s Freedom of Information Act. The state blacked out the names of petitioners before releasing the documents to protect patients’ privacy.

“I am a Vietnam Vet and can only imagine how things would have been,” wrote one petitioner for PTSD. “While visiting in Colorado I had the benefit of trying cannabis in candy form…. and I felt wonderful. No thoughts of violence, self-deprecation, or hopelessness. My life would be different today.”

Medical marijuana is legal in 23 states and the District of Columbia. California allows doctors to recommend it for a broad range of conditions, including arthritis, migraines and “any other illness for which marijuana provides relief,” according to the language of the 1996 ballot initiative that made the state the first to allow medical marijuana. [Read more at the Chicago Tribune]