Military veterans have fought to protect our freedoms, while not being able to share in all of them. Veterans who depend on the VA haven’t been allowed to ask their physicians about medical marijuana to help treat them for injuries suffered during their active duty such as PTSD, traumatic brain injury, chronic pain, phantom limb syndrome, and depression.

The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) Directive 2011-004, which has been in place since 2011, has prohibited VA physicians speaking about medical marijuana with their patients. But this treatment is about to change: the U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations recently voted to approve the Veterans Equal Access Amendment (VEAA) 2011-004 that “forbids the VA from using any funds to punish physicians who write recommendations or discuss benefits of medical marijuana therapy with their patients. If approved, it will have to be renewed again next year.”

For vets who have not been able to find relief for their injuries from pharmaceuticals, medical marijuana may be the best option. Until now military veterans in states where marijuana is now legal were forbidden from simply asking about it as an alternate therapy while the citizens they were fighting for were able to freely receive recommendations.

 

(Visited 8 times, 1 visits today)