Congressmen Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) and Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) have introduced a bill that would allow veterans suffering from PTSD consult with their doctors about medical marijuana treatment.
Currently the Department of Veterans Affairs, in compliance with federal law, does not permit its doctors to recommend or prescribe medical marijuana. Although medical marijuana is now legal in 23 states, the federal government still labels it as a Schedule 1 substance on par with heroin.
The bill would free up doctors to discuss medical marijuana with veterans living in states where there is legal access.
“Our antiquated drug laws must catch up with the real suffering of so many of our veterans,” Rohrabacher said in a statement.
“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. “It’s shameful.”
According to the congressmen’s release, over 20 percent of the 2.8 million American veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan suffer from PTSD and depression.
The congressmen also cited veterans’ troubled relationship with prescribed opiates. “Of the nearly one million veterans who receive opioids to treat painful conditions, more than half continue to consume chronically or beyond 90 days,” they said, while the death rate from opiate overdoses among veterans is almost twice the national rate.
And as PTSD rates remain high, the suicide rate among veterans is equally alarming—a veteran commits suicide every 65 minutes.
Veterans for Medical Cannabis Access has gathered studies that suggest marijuana could provide safe and effective relief for those struggling from PTSD. They have expressed frustration at the FDA’s reluctance to take studies further, despite allowing studies on other more controversial drugs like MDMA.
But in a surprising move, earlier this year HHS approved a study of marijuana treatment for PTSD.
Rohrabacher—once a senior speechwriter in the Reagan administration—and Blumenauer are working in a bipartisan coalition to reform marijuana laws. They are pushing back against marijuana’s classification as a Schedule 1 drug, arguing that it’s no more dangerous than tequila, and certainly not more dangerous than meth and cocaine.
