House lawmakers have introduced legislation that would make it easier for veterans to get medical marijuana in states where that is legal.
The Veterans Equal Access bill, sponsored by Reps. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., and Earl Blumenaur, D-Ore., would allow Veterans Affairs Department doctors and health care providers to complete the paperwork needed to participate in state medical marijuana programs.
VA now prohibits medical providers from writing prescriptions for medical marijuana. Rohrabacher said he finds it "unconscionable" that the department's doctors "cannot offer a full range of treatments ... which in many cases has been shown to have worked."
"Our antiquated drug laws must catch up with the real suffering of so many of our veterans," Rohrabacher said. "This is now a moral cause and a matter of supreme urgency."
Twenty-three states, the District of Columbia and Guam allow medical marijuana, but post-traumatic stress disorder is a qualifying condition in just seven of those, with Arizona set to become No. 8, starting Jan. 1.
A recent Veterans Health Administration study of 60,000 post-9/11 veterans found that roughly one in six meet the criteria for PTSD, with 16 percent of those who deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan screening positive and 11 percent of nondeployers having symptoms.
With some studies indicating that troops with physical pain and mental health issues often abuse opiates — one study of an Army infantry unit after an Afghanistan deployment indicated that 40 percent took the drugs and had not had serious pain in the month before they responded to a survey — the lawmakers said medical marijuana could keep veterans from becoming addicted to potentially harmful medications.
"We should be allowing these wounded warriors access to the medicine that will help them survive and thrive, including medical marijuana, not treating them like criminals and forcing them into the shadows. It's shameful," Blumenauer said.
Veterans Affairs medical providers are encouraged to treat PTSD patients with "evidence-based" practices — therapies proved to to work in rigorous scientific research.
Recommended treatments at VA include cognitive behavioral therapy, prolonged exposure therapy and eye movement desensitization and reprocessing as well as medications, including anti-depressants.
There has been no research in the U.S. on the effectiveness of medical marijuana on relieving PTSD symptoms in veterans. A study was approved last year by federal regulators but that work has been put on hold while the lead researcher, Dr. Susan Sisley, and her sponsor, the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, find a location to conduct it.
Sisley had planned to perform the research at the University of Arizona in Tucson but her contract was terminated by the school in August.
The state of Colorado may host at least half the study. The state Medical Marijuana Scientific Advisory Council on Monday recommended that Colorado provide a $2 million grant to support the research.
The Colorado Board of Health will consider the recommendation on Dec. 17.
New bill would allow the VA to recommend medical marijuana for patients
A small suitcase with Mason jars of medical marijuana at the Laguna Woods, Calif., retirement community's medical marijuana collective.
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WASHINGTON — Arguing that medical marijuana may help wounded warriors with anxiety and stress disorders to "survive and thrive," Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., and Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., have introduced legislation that would allow Department of Veterans Affairs’ doctors to recommend the drug for some patients.
The Veterans Equal Access Act and would challenge the VA’s policy that forbids doctors from consulting about medical pot use. Earlier this month, The Washington Post reported about the issue.
"We should be allowing these wounded warriors access to the medicine that will help them survive and thrive, including medical marijuana, not treating them like criminals and forcing them into the shadows," said Blumenauer in a statement.
The federal government classifies marijuana as a Schedule I drug, the same as heroin and LSD, deeming that it has no accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse. That means that VA, which runs the largest network of hospitals and health clinics in the country, cannot prescribe pot as a treatment, even for veterans who live in a state where medical marijuana is legal. VA says that its physicians and chronic-pain specialists "are prohibited from recommending and prescribing medical marijuana for PTSD or other pain-related issues."
Medical staff are also prohibited from completing paperwork required to enroll in state marijuana programs because they are "federal employees who must comply with federal law," said Gina Jackson, a VA spokeswoman.
Over 20 percent of the 2.8 million American veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan suffer from PTSD and depression, according to the Blumenauer statement. In addition, a recent study found that of the nearly one million veterans who receive opioids to treat painful conditions, more than half continue to consume chronically or beyond 90 days, their statement said.
Another study found that the death rate from opiate overdoses among VA patients is nearly double the national average.
"In states where patients can legally access medical marijuana for painful conditions, often as a less-addictive alternative, the hands of VA physicians should not be tied," the statement said.
Researchers in the United States and several other countries have found evidence that cannabis can help treat post-traumatic stress disorder and pain, although studies - such as those looking into the best strains and proper dosages - remain in the early stages.
Michael Krawitz, executive director of Veterans For Medical Cannabis Access, said they "are very proud to stand by Congressman Blumenauer and support the Veterans Equal Access Act."
"The Veterans Health Administration has made it very clear that, as federal employees, they lack the free speech necessary to write the recommendations for Veterans to comply with state programs," said Krawitz. "This legislation is needed to correct that legal situation and repair this VA doctor patient relationship."
The status quo has numerous harmful effects, said Blumenauer. "It forces veterans into the black market to self-medicate," he said. "It prevents doctors from giving their best and honest advice and recommendations. And it pushes both doctors and their patients toward drugs that are potentially more harmful and more addictive. It’s insane, and it has to stop."
Though pot is still illegal in the eyes of the federal government, 23 states permit medical marijuana use, including Oregon and California.
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