“Veterans should never have to choose between being truthful with their healthcare providers and worrying that a routine checkbox could quietly become a barrier to care.”
By Mary Lynn Mathre, Veterans Action Council
The Veterans Action Council (VAC) has obtained thousands of pages of internal Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) records through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) as part of an ongoing series, revealing how VA develops cannabis policy and trains its clinicians—but a question has remained: Is VA actually following its own policies?
Sometimes the most important evidence doesn’t come from another FOIA request; it comes directly from veterans.
Two Veterans attending separate VAC meetings, treated at different VA facilities in states with medical cannabis programs, independently shared similar experiences. In both cases, a routine dental intake form asking about cannabis use appeared to contribute to medical documentation that later influenced healthcare decisions outside the dental clinic.
Based on VAC’s collective experience, this appears to be a new development. Cannabis-related pain contracts were common more than a decade ago, and veterans successfully pushed back. Now, similar cannabis-related restrictions appear to be emerging in VA dental care.
That raises a troubling question: Can a simple checkbox quietly shape a
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