Advocates for military veterans are putting pressure on Congress to free up access to marijuana and psychedelics as alternative treatment options, emphasizing the limitations of conventional medicines for addressing serious mental health conditions.<\/p>\n
At a joint hearing of the House and Senate Veterans\u2019 Affairs Committees on Tuesday, two veterans service organizations (VSOs) submitted testimony voicing support for expanded access to the plant-based medicines.<\/p>\n
Allison Jaslow, CEO of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), told members of the committees that, amid the opioid overdose crisis, \u201cmany of us are eager to have alternatives to prescription drugs when treating our wartime wounds.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis includes greater access to cannabis treatments,\u201d she said. \u201cCurrently, however, veterans who live in states where cannabis has been legalized completely are unable to even be prescribed cannabis for medicinal purposes by their doctor\u201d at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).<\/p>\n
Jaslow said IAVA is \u201clooking forward\u201d to the reintroduction of a bipartisan bill\u2014the Marijuana Safe Harbor Act<\/a>\u2014that would temporarily allow veterans to legally possess and use cannabis under federal law, as recommended by doctors in accordance with state law. VA physicians would also be allowed for the first time to issue such recommendations.<\/p>\n Aside from that legislation, there have been veterans-focused cannabis measures already filed in the 119th Congress. That includes a bill sponsored by Rep. Brian Mast (R-FL), co-chair of the Congressional Cannabis Caucus, whose Veterans Equal Access Act would similarly allow VA doctors to recommend medical marijuana<\/a> to their patients in states where it\u2019s legal.<\/p>\n IAVA further advised the committees that it\u2019s been advocating for the completion of a federal marijuana rescheduling process that was initiated under the Biden administration. It\u2019s a \u201ccall we hope members in this body can also support,\u201d Jaslow said.<\/p>\n \u201cIAVA members strongly support access to alternative therapies such as cannabis and while we understand that the administrative scheduling process involves several steps, the sooner the DEA moves forward with a reclassification of cannabis, the sooner it could potentially be integrated into the VHA\u2014our nation\u2019s largest healthcare system,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Representatives of both IAVA and Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States (VFW) also pushed<\/a> for psychedelics research and access for veterans in their written testimony for the hearing<\/a>.<\/p>\n Jaslow noted that while \u201cmost psychedelics are also not approved for use in mental health treatments\u201d at this point, VA recently \u201cdecided to fund studies on the use of psychedelics in treating mental health conditions.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cThis came after years of a growing number of veterans hearing stories from fellow vets about the game-changing effects of this breakthrough mental health therapy,\u201d she said. \u201cMany veterans are so bought in on psychedelic treatments that they\u2019ve left the country at their own expense to get this care.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhether it\u2019s cannabis or psychedelics, the data makes clear that our generation of veterans is ready to try more alternative therapies to treat everything from chronic pain to PTSD,\u201d she added. \u201cWe just need our elected leaders to help make it possible.\u201d<\/p>\n Mitch Fuller, chairman of VFW\u2019s national legislative committee, told the joint panel in response to a question about alternative therapies from Rep. Chris Pappas (D-NH) that his organization is \u201cadvocating for more access to other alternative modalities so we can address mental unique mental and physical health challenges.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThese include psychedelics such as MDMA, psilocybin, ibogaine, ketamine infusion and cannabis\u2014which includes medical marijuana and hemp-derived consumables which were made legal by the 2018 federal Farm Bill,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe asked the VA to give veterans every option in the toolbox. Move beyond merely studying the effectiveness of these tools, and if they work\u2014and we\u2019re confident that they do\u2014start executing the implementation of these options,\u201d Fuller said. \u201cThe pharmaceutical cocktail as the loan default option causes harm for many of us in this room and those that are watching. This must end. Our lives are at stake.\u201d<\/p>\n VFW\u2019s commander-in-chief, Alfred Lipphardt also shared his organization\u2019s perspective on drug policy reform in written testimony, pointing out that some veterans \u201care choosing alternative approaches to treatment for PTSD,\u201d including marijuana, ketamine, LSD and MDMA.<\/p>\n \u201cThe VFW believes that if there are additional treatments that can effectively treat PTSD, then VA should receive funding to research those treatments and, if found beneficial, we would urge the rescheduling of those substances to help treat mental health issues and hopefully lower suicide rates,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Other VSOs also addressed marijuana and psychedelics policy with the bicameral committees<\/a> at previous hearings last month, urging lawmakers to continue to explore the alternative therapeutic options and expedite access if they\u2019re proven to be efficacious.<\/p>\n Federal Ban On Interstate Marijuana Commerce Helps The Illicit Market While Hurting Legal Businesses, California Report Finds<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n Image element courtesy of Kristie Gianopulos<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n The post Veterans Groups Push For Marijuana And Psychedelics Reform At Joint Congressional Hearing<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Advocates for military veterans are putting pressure on Congress to free up access to marijuana and psychedelics as alternative treatment options, emphasizing the limitations of conventional medicines for addressing serious mental health conditions. At a joint hearing of the House and Senate Veterans\u2019 Affairs Committees on Tuesday, two veterans serviceContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,81,126],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80462"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/458"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80462"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80462\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80463,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80462\/revisions\/80463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
\n
\nRead More: Veterans Groups Push For Marijuana And Psychedelics Reform At Joint Congressional Hearing<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"