VA Opposes Bills Broadening Medical Marijuana Access for Veterans – Do You?

What’s the story?

• Officials from the Department of Veterans Affairs said the agency opposes three separate medical marijuana bills currently under consideration by members of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs.

Which bills does the VA oppose?

• H.R. 1647, the Veterans Equal Access Act, would authorize VA health care providers to offer recommendations and opinions to veterans regarding participation in state marijuana programs.
• H.R. 712, the VA Medicinal Cannabis Research Act of 2019, would direct the secretary of the VA to carry out a clinical trial of the effects of marijuana on certain health outcomes of adults with chronic pain and PTSD.
• H.R. 2191, the Veterans Cannabis Use for Safe Healing Act, would prohibit the VA secretary from denying a veteran benefits because the veteran participates in a state-approved marijuana program.

What are both sides saying?

Those favoring expanding access

• “It’s overwhelmingly clear amongst the American people and amongst the veterans across the country that this is an issue that they are keenly interested in and want to have access to,” said Rep. Julia Brownley (D-CA), the chairwoman of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs subpanel on health.
• “One of great tragedies of our time is the failure to adequately address the needs of veterans returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan. We sent more than 2 million brave men and women to fight under very difficult circumstances,” said Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) who proposed the Veterans Equal Access Act.

“We can all agree the need to provide the care to veterans when they return home with wounds both visible and unseen.”

Critics of expanding access

• Dr. Keita Franklin, national director of suicide prevention for the department’s Office of Mental Health and Suicide Prevention, testified during the hearing that the Cannabis Research Act was too ambitious to garner the VA’s support.

“Any trial with human subjects must include an evaluation of the risks and safety and include the smallest number of participants to avoid putting subjects at increased risk unnecessarily so,” she said. “For these reasons, we don’t support this proposed legislation.”

• Franklin and VA administrators also oppose medicinal pot given its status as a Schedule 1 drug under the U.S. Controlled Substances Act.
• The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration “advised VA that no provision of the Controlled Substances Act would be exempt from criminal sanctions as a VA physician who acts with intent to provide a patient with means to obtain marijuana,” Franklin said.

“As long as cannabis or marijuana remains a Schedule I drug, then we are going to look to the DEA and the Department of Justice to give us their opinion on what our prescribers are able to do,” added Larry Mole, chief consultant for the VA’s Population Health department.

 What do you think?

Do you oppose the VA expanding access to medicinal pot? Take action and tell your reps how to vote on the above legislation, then share your thoughts below.

—Josh Herman

(Photo Credit: Veterans Cannabis Project via Twitter)