Military Construction and Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2016

Floor Speech

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Mr. FARR. I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Mr. Chairman, I hope that you heard the amendment because it said nothing about the doctor's ability to issue a prescription for use of medical marijuana. This simply lifts a gag order.

Now, these doctors have taken an oath of office to do no harm. Their ability is to talk to patients. They can tell patients that there is medical marijuana available. They can also tell patients that you shouldn't try it, you shouldn't use it.

What you want is just an honest dialogue. You want to give doctors their professional capability to have a discussion with the veteran. That is all this bill does.

Our veterans are living in a civilian community. In 33 States, this is legal. When they walk in with admitted problems and they want medical attention, the doctor cannot have a thorough discussion with them.

That is all this amendment adds. It says, Let's let these doctors be like the civilian doctors in the same offices in the same States, only maybe those civilian doctors can issue prescriptions where the veteran doctor can't.

Because of the reasons that the chairman talked about of how this drug is listed, this is very limiting, so let's lift the gag order. We owe it to our veterans to give them complete information when they ask for it, even if it means discussing medical marijuana.

I ask for an ``aye'' vote.

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