Interest in the benefits of medical marijuana is on the rise, but the military community faces a unique set of complications when it comes to access and usage.
Service members, active duty, Reserve or National Guard, are strictly prohibited from the use of marijuana, as military personnel are governed at a federal level. While marijuana is now legal in over 30 states, it remains a federally controlled substance.
Service member spouses are designated civilians, so in the states where marijuana is legal, spouses are free to abide by the law in the state in which they reside; however, there are some caveats.
Military installations and housing are federal property, so the use of marijuana, even when transported in a vehicle, is against the law. Additionally, smoking too close to a service member can produce a contact high, which is also illegal, and any amount of marijuana on a drug test could be career altering. While no longer serving on active duty, veterans looking for restorative value in cannabis face roadblocks, too.
Advocates say, for suffering military veterans, medical marijuana provides a safe and effective treatment for a variety of ailments, both mental and physical. Max Simon, CEO and founder of Green Flower Media, works to educate others on how federal cannabis policies are impacting our veterans. Green Flower Media is the world’s largest cannabis education platform
“We have an obligation to regulate it and make it as safe as possible. We also have an obligation to make sure our veterans are getting the best health care in the world. We have a long road ahead of us until medicinal cannabis is fully researched and legal, but we can take a few steps now to start figuring that out.”
Rep. Seth Moulton of Massachusetts
“(Cannabis) prohibition forces suffering veterans to either go without medicine, take pharmaceutical medicine that is much more harmful than cannabis, or self-medicate with other much more harmful substances such as alcohol, which is legal to consume despite being roughly 114 times more harmful than cannabis,” said Simon, referencing a study conducted by Scientific Reports and published by The Washington Post. “Cannabis is medicine and can help treat a number of conditions that many veterans suffer from, including PTSD and chronic pain. Cannabis has also been found to be an ‘exit drug’ that can help people, including military veterans, curb the use of more harmful substances.”
Despite the work of advocates like Simon, federal policies have made it extremely difficult for veterans to access medical cannabis. State representatives from around the country are working on legislation to create access, but the process is slow and change cannot happen without overarching support. Earlier this year, Rep. Seth Moulton of Massachusetts sponsored the Veterans’ Affairs (VA) Survey of Cannabis Use Act, which requests the VA to align with a federally funded research and development center to conduct surveys to measure cannabis use by veterans. He also sponsored H.R. 2677 that would require the VA to provide training in the use of medical cannabis for all VA primary care providers.
“We have an obligation to regulate it and make it as safe as possible,” said Moulton in a press release about the package of bills of which he is a sponsor. “We also have an obligation to make sure our veterans are getting the best health care in the world. We have a long road ahead of us until medicinal cannabis is fully researched and legal, but we can take a few steps now to start figuring that out.”
Rep. Lou Correa of California sponsored the VA Medicinal Cannabis Research Act, directing the VA to carry out a clinical trial on the effects of cannabis on chronic pain and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in veterans, and Rep. Earl Blumenauer of Oregon sponsored the Veterans Equal Access Act, a measure that would allow VA doctors to recommend cannabis to their patients in states where it is legal without fear of prosecution.
On July 11, 2019, the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee (HVAC) met for a closed-door roundtable discussion on current legislation relating to medical mairjuana for veterans. Following the meeting, HVAC Chairman Mark Takano released an official statement which said, in part: “Cannabis must be objectively researched. Period. That’s why we came together today with experts, researchers, and veterans to discuss the best bipartisan path forward for VA sponsored medicinal cannabis research.
I want to make sure any research legislation this Committee votes on is not written to achieve one outcome or used to ‘fast-track’ treatments for veterans. Medicinal cannabis may have the potential to manage chronic pain better than opioids and treat PTSD, and clinicians need to understand the efficacy of this drug and any negative side effects. In those states that allow medicinal cannabis, VA doctors should be able to provide recommendations to veterans for medicinal cannabis programs.”
Even with legislative proposals on the table, VA officials have repeatedly told lawmakers that as long as marijuana is illegal on a federal level, the VA will not promote use.
“(The House Veterans Affairs Committee) can make strong proposals for us to move forward with recommendations of filling out forms and such but, in the end, we need to go back to the (Drug Enforcement Agency) and (Justice Department) for their opinion,” said Larry Mole, chief consultant for population health at the VA.
In a statement regarding Rep. Correra’s bill that would determine effective benefits of cannabis, Dr. Keita Franklin, the VA’s former national director of suicide prevention, expressed it would breach standard practice in medical research. “Typically, a smaller early phase trial would advance our knowledge and the benefits and risks regarding cannabis before moving to the expansive approach described in this legislation,” she said. “Any trial involving human subjects must include an evaluation on the risks and the safety, and include the smallest number of participants to avoid putting the subjects at increased risk unnecessarily.
For these reasons, we don’t support this legislation.” In the eyes of medicinal cannabis advocates, though, elected officials and antiquated policies are failing our veteran population. “The federal government is not simply failing to update its harmful cannabis laws as they relate to military veterans, it’s directly opposing sensible reform measures that would help military veterans and that needs to stop,” said Simon. “Military veterans should be able to access medical cannabis if their doctor feels that it would help, and VA physicians should be able to issue medical cannabis recommendations when they determine that it is warranted.
Cannabis is safer and less addictive than most pharmaceutical drugs and veterans should be able to make the safer choice. Veterans should absolutely not lose any of their benefits for making that choice.” To date, 33 states have legalized the medicinal use of marijuana, but cannabis is still classified as a Schedule I controlled substance, similar to substances like heroin and meth, with no federally accepted medical use