Military Construction and Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2017

Floor Speech

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Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself 3 minutes.

Mr. Chairman, one of the great concerns we have is how the 2 million young Americans who were sent to Iraq and Afghanistan reintegrate back into society. Many of them return with wounds visible and invisible. We find that more than 20 percent of those 2.8 million American veterans suffer from PTSD and depression. A recent survey revealed that suicide rates among veterans are roughly 50 percent higher than among civilians. Another study found that the death rate for opioid overdoses among VA patients is nearly double the national average.

What I hear from veterans that I talk to is that an overwhelming number of them say that medical marijuana has helped them deal with PTSD, pain, and other conditions, particularly as an alternative to opioids, and I would argue that it is essential that veterans be allowed access to this as a treatment if it is legal in their State.

Twenty-four States, the District of Columbia, and Guam have passed laws that provide for legal access to medical marijuana at the recommendation of a physician to treat such conditions, ranging from seizures to glaucoma, anxiety, chronic pain, traumatic brain injury, and the symptoms associated with chemotherapy. Fourteen of these States specifically allow physicians to recommend medical marijuana for the symptoms of post-traumatic stress, PTSD.

As a result of these medical marijuana laws, more than 2 million patients across the country, including many of our veterans, now use medical marijuana. Unfortunately, the Department of Veterans Affairs specifically prohibits its medical providers from completing forms brought by their patients seeking recommendations regarding a veteran's participation in a State medical marijuana program. What this means is that those patients who want to pursue medical marijuana have to go ahead and hire a physician out of their own pocket, not dealing with the medical professional of their choice, the medical professional, their VA doctor, who knows them the best. I think that is unfortunate.

I think it is the right thing to do for our veterans, to be able to treat them equitably, to enable them to have access to the doctor who knows them the best, giving them better treatment, and saving them money. I would respectfully request that we approve this amendment to eliminate this unjustified prohibition.

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Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Chairman, I am prepared to close. I am going to close when you have exhausted your speakers.

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Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Chairman, there is nobody who I have more respect for than my friend, the chairman of the subcommittee. But I take modest exception.

This amendment does not dictate treatment options. It is not interfering, it is not superimposing anybody's judgment about the merits of marijuana. It simply enables VA doctors and patients to interact with State legal marijuana systems--systems that this Congress has repeatedly supported through amendment votes, just like everybody else.

We should not be limiting the treatment options available to our veterans. I fail to understand what the basis is to force veterans in the State of Pennsylvania who feel that they need to avail themselves of medical marijuana, like any other citizen in Pennsylvania or in Oregon has a right to do, but force them to not use the doctor that knows them best; instead, go to somebody else, hire them out of their own pocket, and be engaging with somebody who doesn't know their full range of activity.

This doesn't engage the Veterans Administration. There is no marijuana on premises. It simply allows the doctor to be able to deal with the veteran, as a patient, to be able to counsel and potentially prescribe them, like any other person in any other State where it is legal.

Bear in mind that these people are suffering from PTSD, chronic pain, depression, conditions that medical marijuana is legally entitled to treat and which veterans, who I have met with literally from coast-to- coast, say has transformed their lives.

What we are doing now, they are dying at a higher rate than the average member of the population. Their suicide rate is high. Their opioid addiction rate is almost twice as high as the average citizen. I think that is unconscionable. We should have this amendment to try and help address it.

Mr. Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.

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Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Chairman, I demand a recorded vote.

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