Pubdate: Sun, 22 May 2016
Source: San Diego Union Tribune (CA)
Copyright: 2016 Associated Press
Contact:  http://www.utsandiego.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/386
Note: Seldom prints LTEs from outside it's circulation area.
Author: Dan Elliott, Associated Press.

CONGRESS WARMING TO MARIJUANA FOR VETS

DENVER - Congress is showing an increased willingness to let VA 
doctors talk to veterans about medical marijuana in states where it's 
legal, although final approval is far from certain.

The House approved a measure last week that would let Veterans 
Affairs Department doctors help their patients sign up for state 
medical marijuana programs, something the VA now prohibits.

"I'm certainly open to it," Rep. Mike Coffman, a Republican and 
former Marine from pot-friendly Colorado, said Friday.

A Senate committee approved a similar measure last month but the full 
Senate hasn't voted.

Medical marijuana is now legal in 23 states and the District of 
Columbia, but pot remains illegal under federal law. Arguments for 
medical marijuana are getting a warmer reception from lawmakers amid 
nationwide concerns about overuse and abuse of prescription 
painkillers and psychotropic drugs.

Coffman, chairman of a House Veterans Affairs subcommittee on 
oversight and investigations, said he wasn't enthusiastic when his 
state first approved medical marijuana. But if the drug helps 
veterans deal with post-traumatic stress, it could reduce the use of 
stronger prescription drugs and save taxpayers money, he said.

The measures in Congress wouldn't permit the VA to provide patients 
with marijuana, Coffman said. It would only free doctors to talk 
about it with their patients.

Rep. Earl Blumenaur, D-Ore., who sponsored the House measure, said 
medical marijuana could be safer and more effective than other drugs 
for veterans suffering from chronic pain or the stress disorder.

Providing access to pot as an alternative "is critical at a time when 
our veterans are dying with a suicide rate 50 percent higher than 
civilians and opiate overdoses at nearly double the national 
average," Blumenaur said in a written statement.

Research on whether marijuana helps with PTSD has been contradictory 
and limited, and the VA has warned that increasing numbers of 
veterans who suffer from it have become dependent on pot.

The VA didn't immediately respond Friday to a request for comment on 
the proposals in Congress.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom