A new bill aims to make it easier for veterans to talk to their doctors about medical marijuana.
The Veterans Equal Access Act, introduced Thursday by Reps. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore. and Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., would lift a ban Veterans Affairs doctors face that prevents them from giving opinions or recommendations on medical marijuana to veterans living in states where its use is permitted.
“Post-traumatic stress and traumatic brain injury are just as damaging and harmful as any injuries that are visible from the outside,” Blumenauer said in a statement, according to the Huffington Post. “Sometimes even more so because of the devastating effect they can have on a veteran’s family. 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.”
The bill has 10 bipartisan cosponsors from states that both do and do not have medical marijuana legalized.
“Millions of Americans suffer from PTSD and chronic pain, but our veterans are even more adversely affected by these conditions, and yet we fail to treat them with the same level of respect,” said Mike Liszewski of Americans for Safe Access, a medical marijuana advocacy group. “Veterans must be given the same rights and healthcare options that we give other Americans, especially where medical marijuana is concerned.”
23 states permit the use of medical marijuana; ten of them allow doctors to recommend its use for PTSD-related symptoms.
