Politics
Senators Pass Measure To Let VA Doctors To Recommend Medical Marijuana To Military Veteran Patients
A key Senate committee has adopted an amendment to a defense spending bill that would allow U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) doctors to recommend medical marijuana to military veterans living in legal states.
Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) said that this was the 10th year in a row the Senate Appropriations Committee cleared the amendment to the Military Construction, Veterans Affairs (MilConVA) spending bill. Despite the repeated approval, however, the measure has never been enacted into law.
“Essentially [the amendment] says, in states where cannabis is legal, that veterans can talk to their doctors about its appropriate role in their health care regime,” Merkley said at the markup on Thursday. “To do otherwise is to restrict the free speech of doctors to do best by their patients, which is why this has been approved time and time again.”
The amendment is meant to mirror standalone legislation titled the Veterans Equal Access Act. The text of the proposal adopted by the committee hasn’t been published yet, however, so it remains to be seen whether it is identical to what the House passed as part of its own MilConVA appropriations measure last month.
“Here, on the 10th anniversary of its first introduction, I’d like to see us approve it again to support our veterans,” Merkley said on Thursday. “We were just talking about the stress they they face. Let them, in states where cannabis is legal, have a conversation with their doctor about whether there is a medicinal role that would be important and helpful to them.”
On the House side, Reps. Brian Mast (R-FL) and Dave Joyce (R-OH)—who are both co-chairs of the Congressional Cannabis Caucus—sponsored the adopted companion amendment, which would increase veterans’ access to state medical marijuana programs and eliminate a current VA directive barring the department’s doctors from issuing cannabis recommendations.
Mast in February filed the standalone Veterans Equal Access Act—marking one of the latest attempt to enact the measure that’s enjoyed bipartisan support over recent sessions.
In past years, both the House and Senate have included provisions in their respective MilConVA measures that would permit VA doctors to make the medical cannabis recommendations, but they have never been enacted into law.
Meanwhile, a GOP-controlled House committee on Tuesday approved an amendment attached to a must-pass defense bill that would require a “progress report” on an ongoing psychedelic therapy pilot program for active duty military service members and veterans.
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While Congress has been notably amenable to psychedelics research proposals in recent sessions, the House Rules Committee on Monday separately blocked a bipartisan amendment to a spending bill led by Luttrell that would have given DOD another $10 million to support clinical trials into the therapeutic potential of substances such as ibogaine and psilocybin.
Meanwhile, bipartisan congressional lawmakers recently met with the head of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to discuss pathways to provide access to psychedelic medicine as an alternative treatment option for conditions such as PTSD.
After requesting the meeting with VA Secretary Doug Collins in May, Reps. Lou Correa (D-CA) and Jack Bergman (R-MI)—founding co-chairs of the Congressional Psychedelic Advancing Therapies (PATH) Caucus—said the three had a productive conversations about advancing psychedelics therapy for the veteran community.
Collins has stood out as a VA secretary who’s especially passionate about exploring the potential of substances such as ibogaine and MDMA to provide relief from serious mental health conditions, coordinating with other officials including U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who said recently that his aim is to free up plant-based medicine options within 12 months.
Correa and Bergman separately introduced a bill in April to provide $30 million in funding annually to establish psychedelics-focused “centers for excellence” at VA facilities, where veterans could receive novel treatment involving substances like psilocybin, MDMA and ibogaine.
