By Nick Etten, MinnPost Community Voices
As a former Navy SEAL officer turned veterans advocate, I hope our lawmakers will be inspired by their time spent on Memorial Day in somber remembrance of the fallen to redouble their support of the returned.
America’s veterans are in crisis. On average, 22 veterans commit suicide every day. Veterans suffer chronic severe pain at rates disproportionately higher than their civilian counterparts (roughly 40 percent higher, according to the National Institutes of Health), helping explain why the opioid crisis has hit veterans at a rate two times the national average. According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), upwards of 20 percent of the 2.7 million Iraq and Afghanistan veterans will experience post-traumatic stress or depression.
While VA physicians are quick to prescribe powerful drug cocktails (opiates and benzodiazepines) in response to these and other service-related conditions, the federal government continues to deny veterans legal access to a demonstrably safer alternative treatment option: medical cannabis.
Veterans stuck in a Catch-22
Even in states where medical and adult cannabis use are legal, veterans are stuck in a Catch-22. The VA is a federal health care system that does not recognize state cannabis laws, leaving veterans unable to pursue or openly discuss this treatment option with their VA primary care providers, placing them at risk of losing hard-earned benefits because of the Schedule I classification of cannabis under the federal Controlled Substances Act.In Washington, D.C., political posturing still prevails, despite a growing body of scientific evidence and countless firsthand patient accounts of the life-saving potential cannabis offers. Never mind that medical cannabis is now legal in 30 states, or that its medicinal value is recognized by health experts such as the American College of Physicians, the American Public Health Association, and the American Nurses Association as a safer alternative to many legal treatments.
Some key members of Congress, including Republican Rep. Erik Paulsen of Minnesota’s 3rd Congressional District, can’t stop perpetuating debunked “Reefer Madness” propaganda, delaying federal action and denying veterans legal access to medical cannabis. Do they think their position represents the views of their constituents? I can’t imagine they do. more