Politics
Massachusetts Bill To Let Military Veterans Get Medical Marijuana Without A Doctor’s Recommendation Advances
Massachusetts lawmakers have given initial approval to legislation containing provisions aimed at increasing military veterans’ access to medical marijuana and adding new qualifying conditions to the state’s medical cannabis program.
The House of Representatives on Wednesday approved on second reading a supplemental budget bill that touches on a number of issues, including one section that would potentially allow veterans to receive a state medical cannabis card without having to get a recommendation from a doctor.
The initial version of the legislation was filed by Gov. Maura Healey (D), though some provisions of her initial proposal were amended or removed by the Way and Means Committee on Tuesday. Third reading of the legislation in the House remains pending, after which point it would advance to consideration in the Senate.
Because the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) continues to prohibit its providers from filling out medical marijuana recommendation forms, many of their veteran patients are forced to either seek outside, often expensive physician consultations or go without legal access to medical cannabis.
But under the legislation that is now advancing, veterans in Massachusetts would be able to become registered medical marijuana patients by providing state officials with “official documentation from the federal Veterans Administration indicating a diagnosis of a debilitating medical condition; provided, that the [Cannabis Control Commission (CCC)] shall not require a written or electronic certification from a healthcare professional.”
In other words, VA doctors wouldn’t have to specifically recommend medical cannabis in order to help their patients get legal access and could instead just diagnose them with a qualifying condition under the state’s law.
That latter clause of the provision in its current form is a change from Healey’s initial proposal, which had more simply read that veterans under statute could use VA diagnosis documentation to get medical marijuana “without the need for a written or electronic certification from a healthcare professional”—without any reference to CCC.
The bill as initially approved by the House also adds post-traumatic stress disorder, opioid use disorder and “a medical condition that produces chronic pain” to the definition of a “debilitating medical condition” that could qualify patents for medical cannabis. The version that was filed by the governor did not include opioid use disorder.
While veterans and other adults over the age of 21 are already able to buy recreational marijuana in Massachusetts, medical cannabis purchases are exempt from sales, excise and municipal taxes that apply in the adult-use market.
Medical patients also have higher purchase limits than adult-use consumers, and have access to higher potency products than are allowed in the recreational market.
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The governor’s measure, if enacted into law, will also help to ensure veterans’ continued access to cannabis if voters approve an initiative on the November ballot to roll back recreational marijuana legalization.
The measure would repeal laws allowing the regulated commercial sales of recreational cannabis and home cultivation while maintaining legal possession and continuing the medical marijuana system.
Despite the anti-marijuana measure qualifying for next month’s ballot, recent polls show that a majority of Massachusetts voters oppose Question 8.
In April, Healey signed legislation to double the legal marijuana possession limit for adults and revise the regulatory framework for the state’s adult-use cannabis market.
In 2024, the governor approved a military veterans-focused bill that includes provisions to create a psychedelics working group to study and make recommendations about the potential therapeutic benefits of substances like psilocybin and MDMA.
Photo courtesy of Mike Latimer.
