Language that would have allowed Veterans Administration doctors to recommend medical marijuana to patients has been stripped from a spending bill.
The Huffington Post reports the Veterans Equal Access Amendment, authored by Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Oregon, Sen. Steve Daines, R-Montana, and Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Oregon, made it through both houses of Congress earlier in the year, included as part of a spending package funding the Veterans Affairs department. It would have allowed veterans in states where medical marijuana is legal to seek it as a treatment through the VA system.
However, in June it was stripped out by the conference committee, and the amendment’s authors and other supporters pushed to have it added back in. That never happened, and last week the Veterans Affairs package passed — without the medical marijuana provision — as part of the continuing resolution to keep the government funded.
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