V.A. Easing Rules for Users of Medical Marijuana

[vta]

Thousands of our Veterans, defenders of our Country, have suffered because of the Federal Government's unmoral, unscientific and unjust classification of Cannabis. They have been denied and cut off from their medication because of their use. Not only will this directive help the millions of vets that use Cannabis but it also shows that even the government themselves can't stop it's medical use. Many of us view this as the Government's own first step towards rescheduling.

medical Denver -- The Department of Veterans Affairs will formally allow patients treated at its hospitals and clinics to use medical marijuana in states where it is legal, a policy clarification that veterans have sought for several years.

A department directive, expected to take effect next week, resolves the conflict in veterans facilities between federal law, which outlaws marijuana, and the 14 states that allow medicinal use of the drug, effectively deferring to the states.

The policy will not permit department doctors to prescribe marijuana. But it will address the concern of many patients who use it that they could lose access to their prescription pain medication if caught.

Such fear has led many patients to distrust their doctors, veterans say. With doctors and patients pressing the veterans department for formal guidance, agency officials began drafting a policy last fall.

“When states start legalizing marijuana we are put in a bit of a unique position because as a federal agency, we are beholden to federal law,” said Dr. Robert Jesse, the principal deputy under secretary for health in the Veterans Department.

At the same time, Dr. Jesse said, “We didn’t want patients who were legally using marijuana to be administratively denied access to pain management programs.”

The new policy applies only to veterans using medical marijuana in states where it is legal. Doctors may still modify a veteran’s treatment plan if the veteran is using marijuana, or decide not to prescribe pain medicine altogether if there is a risk of a drug interaction. But that decision will be made on a case-by-case basis, not as blanket policy, Dr. Jesse said.

Though veterans of the Vietnam War were the first group to use marijuana widely for medical purposes, the population of veterans using it now spans generations, said Michael Krawitz, executive director of Veterans for Medical Marijuana Access, which worked with the Veterans Department on formulating a policy.

Veterans, some of whom have been at the forefront of the medical marijuana movement, praised the new policy. They say cannabis helps sooth physical and psychological pain and can alleviate the side effects of some treatments.

“By creating a directive on medical marijuana, the V.A. ensures that throughout its vast hospital network, it will be well understood that legal medical marijuana use will not be the basis for the denial of services,” Mr. Krawitz said.

Many clinicians already prescribe pain medication to veterans who use medical marijuana for pain management, as there was no rule explicitly prohibiting them from doing so, despite the federal marijuana laws.

Advocates of medical marijuana use say that in the past, the patchwork of veterans hospitals and clinics around the country were sometimes unclear how to deal with veterans who needed pain medications and were legally using medical marijuana. The department’s emphasis on keeping patients off illegal drugs and from abusing their medication “gave many practitioners the feeling that they are supposed to police marijuana out of the system,” Mr. Krawitz said.

“Many medical marijuana using veterans have just abandoned the V.A. hospital system completely for this reason,” he said, “and others that stay in the system feel that they are not able to trust that their doctor will be working in their best interests.”

In rare cases, veterans have been told that they need to stop using marijuana, even if it is legal, or risk losing their prescription medicine.

David Fox, 58, an Army veteran from Pompey’s Pillar, Mont., uses medical marijuana legally to help quiet the pain he experiences from neuropathy, a nerve disorder. But he said he was told this year by the medical staff at a veterans clinic in Billings that if he did not stop using marijuana, he would no longer get the pain medication he was also prescribed.

A letter written to Mr. Fox in April from Robin Korogi, the director of the veterans health care system in Montana, explained that the department did not want to prescribe pain medicine in combination with marijuana because there was no evidence that marijuana worked for noncancer patients and because the combination was unsafe.

“In those states where medical marijuana is legal, the patient will need to make a choice as to which medication they choose to use for their chronic pain,” Ms. Korogi wrote. “However, it is not medically appropriate to expect that a V.A. physician will prescribe narcotics while the patient is taking marijuana.”

Mr. Fox was shocked by the decision, he said.

“I felt literally abandoned,” he said. “I still needed my pain meds. I thought they were supposed to treat you. It was devastating for me.”

Mr. Fox, who said that at one point he was weaning himself off his pain medication for fear of running out, has held one-man protests in front of the clinic, carrying signs that read “Abandoned by V.A., Refused Treatment.”

Veterans officials would not comment on specific cases, citing medical privacy laws.

This month, Dr. Robert A. Petzel, the under secretary for health for the veterans department, sent a letter to Mr. Krawitz laying out the new policy. Now, Dr. Petzel wrote, if a veteran obtains and uses medical marijuana in accordance with state law, he should not be precluded from receiving opioids for pain management at a veterans facility.

Dr. Petzel also said that pain management agreements between clinicians and patients, which are used as guidelines for courses of treatment, “should draw a clear distinction between the use of illegal drugs, and legal medical marijuana.”

Dr. Jesse, the veterans department official, said that formalizing rules on medical marijuana would eliminate any future confusion and keep patients from being squeezed between state and federal law.

Steve Fox, director of government relations for the Marijuana Policy Project, which favors the legal regulation of the drug, called the decision historic. “We now have a branch of the federal government accepting marijuana as a legal medicine,” he said.

But Mr. Fox said he wished the policy had been extended to veterans who lived in states where medical marijuana was not legal.

Mr. Fox said it was critical that the veterans department make clear its guidelines on medical marijuana to patients and medical staff members, something officials said they planned on doing in coming weeks.

James Dao contributed reporting from New York.

Source: New York Times (NY)
Author: Dan Frosch

 

[SKUNK420]

Good deal. This has me asking a new question especially with this AZ immigration law and the Fed lawsuit :ie Fed law vs. State law.If the Fed is going to select not to enforce Fed law on marijuana at the V.A. hospitals & patients as long as the patient is following state law. How does this affect non-V.A. patients who use marijuana when they have a encounter with a ferderal agents of the DEA? Willthe DEA select to enforce Fed law on no V.A. patients more easily then V.A. patients? The Fed arguement of s not having 50 state different immigration laws is hypocritical being that there are 14 different mmj laws that go against the Fed law ( argue about it in another thread,I'm just bring up the basic question).

Hopefully the MMJ defense lawyers will be able to figure out how to use this to defend non-V.A. patients from harrassment and/or arrest from the DEA.

 

[CANNATOPIA]

Great News!

 

[rubbanutz420]

Great News!

YES IT IS!! Its atleast a step in the right direction....Ill take anything at this point in VA...

Man, I'd give anything for the laws in VA to change.....Decriminalize!

 

[kweb1989]

great stuff

 

[vta]

Only a week and this already has a positive effect! I tell ya...this is a biggie


FOLLOW VA LEAD ON MEDICAL MARIJUANA

The just-announced decision by the Department of Veterans Affairs to permit patients treated at its medical facilities to use medical marijuana will surely raise hopes of Massachusetts advocates for a shift in state policy.

The VA approval will be inapplicable in any state where medical marijuana use is not yet legal. Fourteen states are covered. Massachusetts has decriminalized possession of one ounce or less of pot, but medical use of the substance remains illegal.

House bill 2160 begs for action. It would make a narrow exception to state law to allow seriously ill patients to use medical marijuana with their doctors' OK. The public health department would issue special ID cards; a patient or caregiver with an ID card and no more than 4 ounces and 12 plants would not be subject to arrest, as long as he or she is in compliance with the law. The ID cards could be revoked for any violation. There's room for compromise on the amounts allowed, but compassion for people whose symptoms could be alleviated by marijuana dictates that the bill be passed in form.

Last week's shift in VA policy results from a long campaign by veterans and is fresh evidence of how the political winds have been shifting on marijuana. Still, Massachusetts lags behind - inexplicably, where relief from pain and chemotherapy side-effects is concerned.

The dormant legislation here is based closely on Rhode Island's medical marijuana law, which legislators voted to make permanent in 2007 by more than 4 to 1. Last year, R.I. lawmakers voted to provide for non-profit compassion centers that can dispense medical marijuana to registered patients.

The Massachusetts Patient Advocacy Alliance is pushing for bill 2160. The public is in favor. Last September, Suffolk University released results of a poll showing that 81 percent of Massachusetts residents support allowing "seriously ill patients to use, grow, and purchase marijuana for medical purposes if they have the approval of their physicians." It found strong support in every demographic, according to the MPAA, including 86 percent of senior citizens and 70 percent of Republicans. Mirroring local support are results of an ABC News/Washington Post nationwide poll released in January, showing that 81 percent support access. "By creating a directive on medical marijuana," Michael Krawitz, executive director of Veterans for Medical Marijuana Access, told the New York Times, "the V.A. ensures that throughout its vast hospital network, it will be well understood that legal medical marijuana use will not be the basis for the denial of services."

Massachusetts should weigh this new directive in re-assessing bill 2160. It contains restrictions, including prohibitions on public use of marijuana and driving under the influence. Employers would not be required to allow patients to be impaired at work or possess marijuana at a workplace.

Without the bill's passage, we will continue to relegate some sufferers to breaking the law in search of relief.

URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v10/n613/a04.html
Source: Sun Chronicle (Attleboro, MA)

 

[GanjaAL]

This is the hope of full legalization!

 

[pearlemae]

At war and at peace, us vets lead the way again. You have know idea how cool this is.

 

[kannubis]

Too bad they didn't look at it that way while we were out playing to become vets. Thats 3 months pay I would have got to spend, and 4.5 months more freedom I would have enjoyed.