A supermajority of veterans and members of their families support amending federal law so that V.A. doctors may issue medical cannabis authorizations, according to survey data compiled by researchers at Ohio State University.
Investigators surveyed the attitudes of 315 active and veteran military personnel and 426 military family members.
Seventy-nine percent of veteran respondents and 92 percent of their family members said, “Veterans Administration doctors should be legally allowed to recommend marijuana to veterans if the doctor believes the patient could benefit from [it.]”
Under federal law, V.A. doctors may not recommend medical cannabis to their patients, even if they reside in a state where medical cannabis is legal. Provisions repealing this ban are pending in a military spending package currently being negotiated by Congress.
Approximately one in ten veterans report consuming cannabis and nearly half say that they do so for therapeutic purposes.
A summary of the survey data is available from Social Science Research Network. Additional information is available from the NORML Fact Sheet, ‘Marijuana and Veterans issues.’