The U.S. House of Representatives is set to consider amendments to a spending bill this week that would authorize U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) doctors to issue medical marijuana recommendations to military veterans and support psychedelics research and access.
The House Rules Committee on Monday made the cannabis and psychedelics amendments in order for floor consideration for possible attachment to the Military Construction, Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies (MilConVA) appropriations legislation.
One of the proposals from Reps. Brian Mast (R-FL) and Dave Joyce (R-OH)—who are both co-chairs of the Congressional Cannabis Caucus—would increase veterans’ access to state medical marijuana programs and eliminate a current VA directive barring the department’s doctors from issuing cannabis recommendations.
Here’s the text of the amendment:
“None of the funds appropriated or otherwise made available to the Department of Veterans Affairs in this Act may be used to enforce Veterans Health Directive 1315 as it relates to—
(1) the policy stating that ‘VHA providers are prohibited from completing forms or registering Veterans for participation in a State-approved marijuana program’;
(2) the directive for the ‘Deputy Under Secretary for Health for Operations and Management’ to ensure that ‘medical facility Directors are aware that it is VHA policy for providers to assess Veteran use of marijuana but providers are prohibited from recommending, making referrals to or completing paperwork for Veteran participation in State marijuana programs’; and
(3) the directive for the ‘VA Medical Facility Director’ to ensure that ‘VA facility staff are aware of the following’ ‘[t]he prohibition recommending, making referrals to or completing forms and registering Veterans for participation in State-approved marijuana programs’.”
“I’m not a doctor. I wouldn’t presume to tell people when they should consider cannabis for medical purposes,” Mast said before the Rules Committee on Monday, recounting the long road to recovery from his own war wounds that he suffered in Afghanistan.
“I woke up in a hospital called Walter Reed one day, and I can tell you that when I woke up in that hospital—missing two legs and a finger—I woke up on a laundry list of narcotics and medications, things I had never been on in my life,” he said, adding that he went through a “gamut” of withdrawal symptoms from the opioids he was given.
“The point of this is to say there are alternatives out there,” he said. “I wouldn’t say when those alternatives are appropriate, but I know that it is appropriate if somebody is getting all of their medical health from the Department of Veterans Affairs, that they be able to have that discussion about what they may be considering for their health with that person that is providing their health care.”
“If they can’t trust that they can have at least that discussion with that person providing their health care, then the VA is failing them, because one way or another, they’re going to look into a path that they’re considering. It would be much better if they look into that path under the directive of their doctor. And so that’s what my amendment is about…just making sure that those doctors have the ability to not be prohibited from speaking to those veterans about something that they may be otherwise considering through legal programs in their state.”
The provision is based on a standalone bill, the Veterans Equal Access Act, which Mast refiled in February. That marked one of the latest attempt to enact the measure that’s enjoyed bipartisan support over recent sessions but has yet to become law. It’s advanced several times in committee and on the floor but has yet to be enacted into law.
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.
Another MilConVA provision being considered along with the House bill this year, from Reps. Lou Correa (D-CA) and Jack Bergman (R-MI), would encourage VA to support research into the benefits of psychedelics in treating medical conditions commonly affecting military veterans.
Here’s the summary of the amendment:
“Increases and decreases funding for the Medical and Prosthetic Research account at the Department of Veterans Affairs to direct the Department to evaluate and make recommendations on changes that would need to be made to its existing healthcare infrastructure to integrate approved psychedelic therapies into veterans’ care options for conditions such as PTSD and substance use disorders. This would include the need for supporting the development and dissemination of training and supervision programs for providers and pilot programs to inform clinical implementation of these therapies.”
“We lose up to 20 veterans a day to suicide. One is too many. Our nation’s veterans continue to suffer tragic rates of suicide and opioid overdose deaths after they return home,” Correa said in a press release. “While the VA has finally begun to study the impact of breakthrough therapies like psychedelics on veterans’ invisible wounds, the time is now to begin preparing for how these therapies will one-day be distributed to ensure the health and safety of our nation’s most valiant warriors.”
“It’s my hope that my colleagues—Democrat and Republican alike—will join us in getting this amendment signed into law and kickstart our work to get our veterans the care they deserve,” he said.
Bergman, who along with Correa is a co-chair of the Psychedelics Advancing Therapies (PATH) Caucus, added that “after serving our country with honor, many of our warriors return home only to face a different kind of battle.”
“I’ve spent years advocating for solutions to meet Veterans where they actually are, including exploring innovative therapies that show promise for treating the invisible wounds of war,” he said. “We owe it to our Veterans to create more options for help and less hoops to jump through – they shouldn’t come home to a new fight.”
The House on Tuesday approved the rule under which the spending legislation will be considered, but did not begin taking up amendments, which is expected later this week.
There were notably fewer cannabis-related amendments filed for the MilConVA bill this year compared to past sessions, though the Rules Committee has previously rejected several of those other Democratic-led reforms such as blocking cannabis testing for federal job applicants in states that have enacted legalization.
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Meanwhile, on Monday, the House Appropriations Committee approved a separate spending bill containing provisions that hemp stakeholders say would devastate the industry, prohibiting most consumable cannabinoid products that were federally legalized during the first Trump administration.
Also, earlier this month, Congress passed a bill that is primarily focused on permanently banning analogues of fentanyl, though it also contains provisions that one GOP lawmaker said would remove barriers to conducting research into the risks and benefits of marijuana and other Schedule I drugs.
Congressional Committee Approves Federal Hemp THC Ban That Stakeholders Say Would Decimate Industry
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