The Democratic Senate is seeking to pass several marijuana reform amendments through the defense bill, which must be passed this week. One of these amendments would legalize medical marijuana for veterans.
The National Defense Authorization Act will include the cannabis measures as well as a separate GOP amendment which would increase enforcement of fentanyl while removing the barriers to research on Schedule I drugs.
The Senate, which is under GOP control, has been trying to make other small changes to its bill.
One of the new Amendments, led Sen. Brian Schatz, (D-HI), allows veterans to use medicinal cannabis in states and territory where it is legal. This mirrors a separate bill that the Senator introduced back in April.
The law would also protect doctors who fill out and discuss paperwork to recommend medical cannabis for veterans. It would also require that the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs support clinical trials to investigate the therapeutic effects of marijuana in treating conditions like pain and post-traumatic disorder (PTSD), which commonly affect veterans.
The findings section of the proposed states that “Marijuana, and its compounds, show promise in pain management and the treatment of a wide range of diseases and disorders including post-traumatic disorder.” In States where medical marijuana is legal, it may be a safer alternative to opioids for treating veterans.
The Amendment has been co-sponsored by Sens. Cory Booker, Ron Wyden, John Fetterman, Alex Padilla, Mark Kelly (D-AZ), Tim Kaine and Peter Welch are co-sponsoring the amendment. Schatz, along with other legislators in the past, have tried to add the veterans cannabis language into earlier versions of NDAA. However they have never been able to get a vote.
Wyden is sponsoring a new measure which would allow prior marijuana use to be “relevant, but not determinative” in determining whether an individual can access classified information, or hold a sensitive job.
The discretionary policy would be less wide-reaching than a related amendment , which Rep. Robert Garcia(D-CA) attempted to attach to House version of NDAA. This would have prevented denial of security clearances to federal jobs based on previous cannabis use.
A Senate Amendment that is being considered this week adds the language of the Intelligence Authorization Act, as well as a section that prohibits the denial to release classified information to an intelligence agency such as the CIA based on the employee’s admission that they used marijuana before applying for security clearance.
Wyden and amended the bill to include the cannabis provisions.
Bill Cassidy, R-LA, also filed an Amendment to NDAA, incorporating language from the Halt All Lethal Trafficking of Fentanyl Act (HALT), whose House version passed through the entire chamber by May.
The proposal’s main goal is to criminalize fentanyl analogs at the federal level. Drug policy reformers have criticised this as a punitive, backwards response to the crisis of overdoses. It also includes provisions that streamline research on Schedule I drugs such as marijuana and psychedelics.
Currently, it’s unclear whether Senate Democrats and Republicans can reach an agreement to include any of these amendments in the bill. Or if the GOP controlled House will be willing if they were ultimately added on the Senate side.
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The House Rules Committee voted last week to reject more than a dozen amendments to the NDAA that would have reformed drug policy.
The measures addressed issues such as eliminating cannabis drug tests for those who want to join the military, protecting federal employees from losing their security clearances due to marijuana use, allowing Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), doctors to issue medical cannabis recommendation, allowing servicemembers the ability to use CBD and other hemp-derived product, and researching the therapeutic potential of some psychedelics.
The House Armed Services Committee had previously added two measures to the base text for the NDAA that dealt with marijuana and psychedelics.
The psychedelics bill from Rep. Morgan Luttrell, R-TX, is part of a advancing bill. It would require the Defense Secretary to conduct a clinical trial on the therapeutic benefits psychedelics can provide for active duty military personnel with PTSD or traumatic brain injuries.
The clinical studies must involve psilocybin or MDMA. Ibogaine, DMT, and ibogaine would also be acceptable. Within one year after the legislation was passed, the secretary would have to submit a report with the results of the trials. Several of the revisions to the NDAA rejected by the Rules Committee attempted to amend this language.
Rep. Dan Crenshaw, (R-TX), is sponsoring a similar standalone bill . He said last week he wanted to amend Luttrell’s amendment. Staff at the House Armed Services Committee had removed language without authorization from his measure that provided funding for research. They also changed the requirement to clinical studies instead of clinical trials. The panel did not follow suit and the psychedelics bill became more hollow.
Crenshaw, along with Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez(D-NY) & Lou Correa(D-CA) , touted the psychedelics measure at a Thursday press briefing.
A cannabis amendment, which was attached to the bill by Rep. Nancy Mace(R-SC), calls for the Defense Department medical cannabis pilot program. This would evaluate the health effects of marijuana use among veterans and servicemen who are VA recipients. The VA participant must have been diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety or depression, or prescribed pain medication to be eligible for this program.
Separately the Senate Appropriations Committee released a recent report for a budget bill which calls on VA for medical marijuana access to veterans and explores the therapeutic potential of psychoedelics.
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Photo by Mike Latimer.
The article Senators seek to legalize medical marijuana for veterans and enact other cannabis reforms through Defense Bill first appeared on Marijuana Moment.
