Veterans Say They Have Had To Choose Between Painkillers Or Marijuana

USA Today (5/26, Lee) reported that “veterans who tell the VA about participating in a state marijuana program say they have been forced to choose between their prescription narcotic painkillers…or marijuana, said Michael Krawitz, president of Veterans for Medical Marijuana Access.”

Even though physicians at the VA “cannot recommend marijuana as medicine to their patients, the VA does not explicitly ban patients from participating in state marijuana programs.” However, VA policy does allow patients to “have their treatments ‘modified.’”

For its part, the American Medical Association “is calling on more controlled studies of marijuana.” But, “for Dr. Jeff Goldsmith, incoming president of the American Society of Addiction Medicine, marijuana is not a medicine because it has not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration and therefore has not met the standards of other approved drugs.”

Related Links:

— “Veterans face ultimatum: Pills or pot,” Jolie Lee, USA Today, May 23, 2014.

Posted in In The News.