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IPFS News Link • Veterans and Veterans Affairs

Largest veterans group urges Trump, VA to allow medical marijuana

• http://blog.sfgate.com, By Oscar Pascual

The American Legion, which represents 2.3 million members, voted on Thursday in favor of urging the Trump administration and the Department of Veterans Affairs to allow patients to discuss medical marijuana and receive recommendations from VA doctors, reports Vice News.

U.S. veterans tend to suffer from numerous medical conditions that could possibly be relieved through using marijuana, including post-traumatic stress, chronic pain, and opioid addiction.

VA doctors are currently not permitted to discuss marijuana as a treatment for their patients, although reversing the decision would not mark a change to any federal law.

"We are all about going after any evidence-based therapy that makes the lives of our veterans better," Joe Plenzler, the American Legion's director of media relations, told Vice. "There's pretty significant evidence that it works better than placebo in several diseases."

The American Legion has built a short history of advocating for medical marijuana legalization, which includes pressuring Congress last year to federally legalize pot, followed by a letter sent to Donald Trump in May asking him to "clear the way for clinical research in the cutting-edge areas of cannabinoid receptor research."


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