Veterans Access & Research

According to a survey conducted by the American Legion, 22% of U.S. military veterans report using medical cannabis to treat Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and other conditions stemming from their service. It’s shameful that our federal laws continue to criminalize our nation’s heroes for simply trying to find relief when a growing body of evidence shows that cannabis is a safe and effective treatment for PTSD symptoms and many other conditions.

NCIA strongly supports bipartisan congressional efforts to expand access to veterans’ access to medical cannabis by allowing it to be prescribed by Veterans Administration physicians.

For decades, federal law has prevented U.S. researchers from studying the medical efficacy of cannabis while peer-reviewed studies conducted in other countries continued to show that cannabis has tremendous medical benefits and relatively little risks or side-effects, as compared to other legal drugs. Fortunately the FDA finally approved a clinical trial for cannabis as a treatment for PTSD in May 2018 but Congress needs to take action to further expand medical cannabis research. NCIA continues to lobby on many cannabis research bills that have been introduced, including the bipartisan Medical Cannabis Research Act of 2018 (H.R.5634) and the Marijuana Effective Drug Studies (MEDS) Act of 2018 (H.R. 4825).