The Senate Appropriations Committee has passed a spending measure with an amendment that would allow physicians in the Department of Veterans Affairs to talk about and recommend medical cannabis to patients in states where the drug is legal. This committee approved the marijuana amendment introduced by Senator Jeff Merkley in a voice vote last week.
The bill itself provides funding for Military Construction, Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies for the coming fiscal year.
During discussions, Merkley stated to the panel that the only healthcare system in the United States where a physician couldn’t discuss medical cannabis with patients in legal states was the veterans’ system. Merkley noted that veterans were being discriminated against, which was unacceptable.
The Senate Appropriations Committee passed a similar marijuana and veterans’ amendment in the previous sessions since 2015.
Merkley also explained that the committee had approved this amendment every year for the last 10 years because it wanted veterans to have access to the entire range of medical advice that every other person in America already has.
In the House, the chamber passed a similar bipartisan amendment to its version of this measure, which would allow VA physicians to give medical cannabis recommendations to veterans. The bill would arrive at the same policy outcome as a standalone measure that was reintroduced in the House by Representatives Earl Blumenauer and Brian Mast, cochairs of the Congressional Cannabis Caucus.
The measure in question, the Veterans’ Equal Access Act, has been tabled a number of times in the last couple of years with bipartisan support. While it was approved by the committee and floor a couple of times, it has never been enacted.
In 2023, the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee passed another measure directing Veterans’ Affairs to conduct research into the therapeutic potential of cannabis for military veterans with specific conditions. The bill was sponsored by the chairman of the committee, Senator Jon Tester, alongside Senator Dan Sullivan.
Despite this being the first time a standalone marijuana bill has ever advanced through a panel in the Senate, GOP legislators in the Senate impeded a motion to move the bill to the floor. Bipartisan Senate and House legislators have also filed other measures to legalize medical marijuana for military veterans.
This latest resolution would temporarily permit veterans to legally use and possess cannabis under federal law, as recommended by physicians in accordance with state law. Doctors with the VA would also be permitted for the first time to give such recommendations.
If this legislation makes it all the way to the president’s desk and is signed, the market for medical marijuana within the veteran community could trigger an effect that boosts even ancillary business such as Innovative Industrial Properties Inc. (NYSE: IIPR) as demand for marijuana and the related infrastructure increases.
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