VA Policy Does Disservice to Veterans Who Need Medical Marijuana
A story out of New Mexico yesterday sheds light on the dilemma facing many veterans who could benefit from medical marijuana and rely solely on the Department of Veterans Affairs for their health care.
Taking guidance from the DEA, the VA does not allow its doctors to recommend medical marijuana. Those who do will face civil and criminal penalties, in addition to the loss of their license. (Veterans can still try to obtain a recommendation from an outside physician.)
This policy is unchanged in states where medical marijuana is legal, such as New Mexico, where the most common affliction of those enrolled in the state’s medical marijuana program is post-traumatic stress disorder—something experienced by one in five returning veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a 2008 study.
As readers of this blog are well aware, there’s been a great deal of research and patient testimony showing medical marijuana to be effective at relieving the effects of PTSD.
But rather than help veterans access such safe and effective treatment, the VA’s current policy, according to one veteran, has forced many sufferers of PTSD to rely on more addictive prescription drugs, or self-medication with alcohol and other dangerous substances.
Is this really how we want to treat the veterans of our armed services?
Tagged with: DEA and New Mexico and PTSD and VA and veterans and Veterans Affairs by the author
47 comments
Quote: “Is this really how we want to treat the veterans of our armed services?”
I think it’s not the question how U (we) want to treat the veterans. It’s a questions how we want to treat every human person with health (psychology and/or physiology) problems, and, sooner or later, will be a questions of how we will be treated.
Further it’s a question for society and nature.
“Is this really how we want to treat the veterans of our armed services?”
NO!
That is how VA can get their medicine cheaper by allowing the pharmaceutical monopoly to continue. The goal of pharmaceutical companies is to make money and they don’t care if the medicine is no good, and law suits doesn’t hurt them at, they make the c0sumer pay for it and quickly come up with a different medicine. If their medicine kills so what?!
Pharmaceutical companies is the ultimate evil, and they have more power over people than god. That is no exaggeration!
Say it loud American politicians don’t care about their veterans!
Man, I going to have to pop another xanax hearing that news…id would have liked to see them try and mess with my gramps and take his license away…lol he would have whoop em’ good. What Punks!
R.I.P.
Earl E. Kersten-War Vet that had PTSD, believed all the old reefer madness BS, and eventually drank himself to death. miss you papaw!
This is very unfortunate, some of my VA doctors appear to be very supportive of medical marijuana, and are not allowed to participate.
Many veteran’s like myself see vast improvements when using medical marijuana. You would think the government would like you to get better so they are not obligated to compensate you as much. I know I see about 80% improvement when I follow a strict medicinal regiment. Subtract that from the current 100% disability I receive compensation for, you’d think this wouldn’t even be an issue.
There must be, as some of you mentioned earlier, perhaps a relation to pharmaceutical use already implemented. I know I tried for years to have them take medications off my list of current meds multiple times for multiple different drugs. They never did, I guess somewhere someone was getting paid whether I filled the prescription or not.
It’s appalling that anyone would try to interfere in the doctor-patient relationship over something as benign as marijuana. Marijuana arrests, prosecution, prison, and forced “treatment” costs the U.S. taxpayers billions of dollars every year, billions that are therefore NOT available for schools, health care, repairing our roads and bridges, and a hundred other vitally important social needs. Surely no one believes that imprisoning Americans for using a plant is a better use of our limited resources than educating our children, maintaining our infrastructure, and keeping our families safe from foreign terrorists?
Let’s put the drug dealing criminals out of business and free up our tax dollars to meet America’s real needs. Let’s tax and regulate marijuana, and let’s let ordinary Americans grow a little marijuana in their own back yards.
The mantra from the right is”if you don’t support the war/s then you don’t support the troops. If you don’t support the troops then you must hate them. Why do you hate the troops?”
I guess it must be okay now to ignore their suffering. After all, they’re not REALLY troops anymore,are they? Theyre just a bunch of irrational maladjusted vets.
I, for one think it’s high(pun intended) time we let the good doctors over at the DEA do their job and stop criticizing every time they imprison or kill someone.
And for everybody who doesn’t see the irony…FLAME ON. lol
Seems the sooner the Vets die, kill themselves etc. the more the Fed. gov. likes and prefers it.
Congress doesn’t seem to care about the people who served this country.
@DB, I’m sorry I just had to throw this in there. Congress doesnt seem to care about anybody but the congress. We are all expendable, we are nothing but a tax paying social security number in a computer.
When was the last time our voices were heard and this government actually did what people had asked for?
I wonder how the current recruits and the ones who are already serving in Iraq and Afganistan feel about this. If 1 of 5 troops suffers from PTSD then we’re going to have close to 100,000 patients in the next few years. Are they all going to be denied the right to use best medicine available?
Free The Weed. Free The People.
Free The Weed. Free The People.
You out there RastaMoses? Your link got deleted that you shared with me, remember? It’s o.k., I ordered, have the website saved and the product in hand.
Thank you RastaMoses ……… .
Paranoid MPP?
rushing_water is the name that should have appeared on the post above, not sure how that happened.
Thank you RastaMoses …
Lea,,, maybe they made their point too well. What would full-time workers at MPP be doing if drugs were legalized? Maybe no relation at all, just wondering.
We have got to get ourselves more organized. We have got to do is protest it. Or if that doesn’t work which I know it won’t. We should do something about this. Maybe California one day will have independance from the Tyronic Federal Government. If that doesn’t work I would convince you all to be a part of my Militia freeing California from the Tyronic Federal Government. The only reason why I am so Militious because I, myself almost got killed by Police Brutality. How do you guys like the song that is called “Fuck Da Police by Bone Thugs ‘n’ Harmony.” Also I had to get my medicine illegaly before I grew up to 18. Anyways, as soon as turned 18 I went to a clinic and got my papers. The Cops doesn’t have to do anything by the bo0k. Instead they abuse their power and shoot down anyone they see that, doesn’t look out for The Peoples interest and seek their own how they think a government should be runned and that is a load of BS! They are looking out for themselves and they never help out the individual. Really Land of the Free, how can you defend that when we are not trully free to do what we want when Medicinal Marijuana whenever we want. Fucking Revolution dammit!
All Politicians are hypocrites and I would seriously look for a way to afford a gun. We have got to get the word out their to form My Militia for Medicinal Marijuana Socialist Patients. Anyways, I looked at a police officer wrong and they decided. “Hey let’s kill a Medicinal Marijuana Patient.”Anyways all three of them jumped me and they also had my face put to the ground suffocating me. I begged for mercy. Noone helped me out at all, until My loving parents Institutionalized.
JUst tell me, what is the best thing I could do to alleviate Medicinal Marijuana Patient users from the Tyranny from our own government. That is sad, Politicians are fucking nuts. They are Coocoo for Cocoa Puffs. We have got to push the Marijuana Policy Project further and more swift and quick. Because it is really not helping anybody at all.
Marijuana actually demotivates me from doing any type of crime. But when I run out because our “Medicine” is so expensive and that is the only way I get My criminal career back on track because I am not using Medicinal Marijuana to actually demotivate me. No you police would love to have more crime. Because hey, more crime The more we (The Police) get to beat people and throw them in Jail. They have a major disturbing Fetish over this. We don’t need authority, we’ll manage on our own please.
“Rebel Music to get you ready for the revolution” Bob Marley. God bless Bob Marly. You know he got shot in the chest 50 times by the DEA. We have got to find another way of words to describe what DEA stans for! Please give me some ideals please. It would look good for a protest by renaming DEA to D dick E for Enima and A is assholes Dick forEnima in the Ass. I hope the DEA finds me at a dispensary that they raid. I hope and wouldn’t mind if the DEA raided a place I would demand them to murder me and I would find a way to record this all and show upon others that what the DEA are doing is totally unrightousness. Plese believe me. They are unrightousness and I am very rightous and I love god and he loves me back.
How do I make the DEA afraid of me?
I think Nathan needs a big warm bowl of Kush and a long nap.
Nathan First would like to say you talk alot lol and you have alot of disturbing messages. First you have so much problem with our elected officals yet if you had your way you would change the constitution to add an amendment to protect marijuana patients? Aparently you might be a good elected offical cause they too would love to change the Constitution . Then you talk so much about guns and being a Mardar? It blows my mind how people with come on a forum and type out things that are so crazy. If I wrote what you did wow talk about paranoia over the cops busting my door down.
Oh, too compicated to think.
Nathan,,, I’m sure you would find yourself to be a martyr, and maybe more people, but the government would only use the incident to further oppress people and will convince the majority you were the one at fault. Using violent force would only be playing into their hands.
It’s like a bully who wants you to fight back. Even if you train yourself to ensure your victory, it is better to get back in the manner that will hurt the person or entity the most, not play into exactly what it wants. If putting up arms against them were the best route, trust me I’d be there, but I think they would just take advantage of that, and I will not help them oppress more.
Just look at how war is used for profit, many of the corporations that profit from helping wars spread across the world would only benefit further from the government needing to fight its own people. I do not wish to help them as well.
Here’s a thought, self-medicate and come up with ingenious inventions like Nikoli Tesla did with his ideas of free energy. Of all the things that DON’T scare huge corporations, like Chase Morgan whom Tesla researched for, guaranteed people like Tesla in general did. Think about what the guy who perfects nanotechnology and makes gold out of nothing. Sure the Federal Reserve might recover and just more re-enforce their whole idea of monetary representation, but it’ll keep them on their toes.
Military brainwashing is very tough to overcome.
I have a cousin with whom I have shared a few bowls with. He joined the marines and went to Iraq. 2 tours. He is now a raging alcoholic with PTSD. Why? Because he is afraid of being drug tested.
Brainwashing. America. They go hand in hand.
Just like Mark, (26) My neighbor across the street has PTSD and is being treated for it. They gave him all these prescription drugs. He chooses to smoke pot but can’t because of drug testing. Now he is a alcholic and prescription drug abuser. He has told me so many times, if only I could smoke pot, I wouldn”t need any of this crap the government has got me on. Freedom of choice? I don’t think so!
This is a little off topic but I cant resist to comment on Mark’s last comments.
Military does some serious brainwashing. Boot camp is pretty much designed to break down the person mentally so that drill sergeants can put any kind of crap in recruits heads that the government see fit.
I’ve literally lost a couple of friends to the military. They came back different people, angry, scared and distant. Needless to say they also became huge prohibitionists even though before service they had no problem with marijuana.
Just my 2 cents.
Free The Weed. Free The People.
The DEA are fasacist gestapo bastards! Freedom & liberty are just dreams. As long as these tyrants are able to run their modern day concentration camps our humanity will be at stake.
Help me Wamba!
If the VA prescribes pain meds to you, they test for “street drugs”.
If you test positive for them, they can stop your pain meds.
Yes, they test for marijuana.
The VA is now an adjunct of the DEA.
Semper Fi
There is no freedom of choice. The gov would rather we die from their drugs than loose a single penny from drug profits. This is just the same as playing russian roulet only instead of bullets, we get pills. I have kept this to myself for29 years now but i was given a discharge for ” other than honerable ” for my cannabis use. I would have liked to finish my enlistment but nobody could, or ever will tell me what I can or cannot do on my time. Last I saw, we are supposed to be a free country. All I see is the gov dictating and Obama as the head dictator. FREE THE WEED and FREE THE PEOPLE. Over grow big bro. Hit the voting booths. Do whatever you want, just don’t tell me what to do. America is going to have cannabis some day and I cannot wait. I have been waiting 34 years and I am so tired of waiting, but like every one else, I will wait some more.
Oh, and by the way, I went to captains mast 7 times for cannabis. Spent three days on bread and water in the brig and still, I would not conform. And I still have not conformed, and never will.
As a permanently disabled vet for over 40 years it is my opinion that the only major difference between the VA and your local corner drug pushers is the VA drug pushers wear lab coats.
Ok, in all fairness, not all the VA doctors are bad. As an epileptic I have had neurologists admit in private conversations they know MMJ is a better, safer alternative to seizure control than what “Big Pharma” has to offer, but as VA doctors they’re not allowed to even mention it. I hear a lot of stuff about how they test you for illegal drugs etc., and that may be the case, but if they do they know I consume cannabis and I have never been threatened with the termination of medical care.
BOTTOM LINE:
Could the VA use some major improvement and should they recognize MMJ? No Doubt!!!
Are they as bad as some people make them out to be? I don’t think so. If they were, I’d already be dead.
i am a vet , i use mm for pain and a brain condition ,the va will not give me pain medication after surgeries on my neck and back because i test positive for pot …so i have to stop useing weed for over a month till i can test clean and stay clean before they will give me anything for pain so i have to suffer for months in pain with unbelieveable headaches cause my crainial pressure gets to high ..
and before they found out i used mmj , they were trying to push morphin on me all ready perscribed me 120 lortab 10′s a month and several other drugs .i never used the stuff i just used mmj and still do works better than the pills and brain surgery .. so the VA CAN KISS MY FOOT.. i like my liver and plan to keep it .. so VA plan on paying my check for a long time your not going to kill me off with your pills …
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Our government does this all the time with Marijuana. I am a conservative and have always grown up with the notion that Marijuana is evil. I have been suffering chronic pain for ten years and I also have Restless legs syndrome. I started using Marijuana one year ago through advice and I have stopped using at least ten pills per day from muscle relaxants to Mirapex for R LS. I have lost 30 lbs and stopped taking my Cholesterol medications also. I have had lots of positive effects and no bad side effects. This herb could pay for alot of our healthcare. People suffering from PTSD could benefit. THC is no found to stop the rapid growth in Cancer. I believe it helps in weight loss, Building materials could be made stronger and lighter. Materials could be made with this herb. Prescription drug sales would go down by the use of Medical Marijuana that is something the government is trying to save. Our government is hurting us and they realize it by keeping Marijuana illegal.
Anyone who talks about overthrowing the government or DEA will cause us sick people to lose all rights with Medical Marijuana. Don’t you understand the harder you fight back with your minds you will move forward but as soon as you use violence then your no better than the people who showed up at the G8 and look how they are viewed. They look like crazy anarchist and I dont want to have anything to do with that type of crowd. Please study Medical Marijuana to present the benefits. Do not use violence because it will portray Marijuana as a violent drug. I suspect the people calling for a Militia are young kids who does not have to use this very natural medication for pain and suffering.
If all you anarchist want to fight someone over Marijuana use get ready to fight the big cigarette companies when they try to swoop in and make money off Medical Marijuana. Try to fight people who want to make a dollar off commercial sales not the government because you will hurt our chances of ever getting it legal.
i have ptsd from war and marijuana works
[...] out there. The need, too, is overwhelming: According to 2008 figures, some 20% of soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan suffer the disorder, yet less than 10% of veterans with PTSD ever receive [...]
for all veterans who have to submit a tort form and then are screwed by regonial council and general council in washington dc and are told you have to complain to the secetary of veterans affairs but thier phone number does not work I found one that does it is for case managment for the secetary of vets affairs and is a contact to complain this is the number 202-530-9340 there is a trick to calling this number they will let it ring pick it up and hang up you have to redail asap it took me 5 times and they finally picked it up.
They not only discriminate against cannabis they also have
not included
Marinol in their formulary.
It has taken me three years of trying every other drug they have to
Get them to allow my neurologist to prescribe marinol to me.
It works barely but the alternatives that they have are death traps.
[...] out there. The need, too, is overwhelming: According to 2008 figures, some 20% of soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan suffer the disorder, yet less than 10% of veterans with PTSD ever receive [...]
[...] out there. The need, too, is overwhelming: According to 2008 figures, some 20% of soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan suffer the disorder, yet less than 10% of veterans with PTSD ever receive [...]
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