The Senate has approved a bill that includes an provision to allow doctors at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to issue medical marijuana recommendations to veterans living in legal states—setting the stage for conference with the House, which has separately advanced similar language in its own version of the appropriations legislation.
Senators approved the Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies (MilConVA) measure with the cannabis amendment from Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) as part of a “minibus” package of three spending bills on Wednesday. The vote was 82-15.
This comes about three months after the House passed its MilConVA bill with an amendment sponsored by Rep. Brian Mast (R-FL) and other members of the Congressional Cannabis Caucus that would also give VA doctors the ability to recommend medical cannabis to veterans.
But the exact language of the proposals are slightly different, meaning the issue will need to be reconciled in a bicameral conference committee or otherwise negotiated by House and Senate leaders as part of a final bill to be sent to the president before potentially being enacted into law. A similar situation played out in 2016, with both chambers including differing versions of the VA marijuana amendment
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