Rescheduling “might affect a VA provider’s ability to refer VA patients to State medical cannabis treatment programs,” one document obtained through FOIA says.
By Doc Laing, Veterans Action Council
The Trump administration’s move to federally reschedule medical cannabis could meaningfully increase military veterans’ ability to legally access it with the aid of U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) doctors, newly obtained documents via the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) show—even if reclassification won’t change everything about how veterans who use cannabis receive care through VA providers.
In response to a FOIA request filed by the Veterans Action Council (VAC), VA released more than 1,500 pages of internal records that offer a rare view into how VA’s Veterans Health Administration (VHA) has been implementing the department’s current cannabis policy, known as VHA Directive 1315, across its national system—as well as what might and might not change as rescheduling unfolds.
This article is the first in a multi-part series focusing on what is working and what isn’t inside VA. While there has been a deliberate effort to ensure clinicians and veterans understand and follow the department’s cannabis policy as it stands today, officials have also dropped the ball in many ways.
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