United States war veterans gain access to medicinal marijuana

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August 10, 2010

The US Veterans Affairs Department is quietly embracing old soldiers who use marijuana for pain and infirmity. Under a new directive, health care provided to veterans by the federal government will no longer be at risk if they use medicinal marijuana in states where it is legal.

Medicinal marijuana falls into an odd limbo in the US, forbidden coast to coast under federal statute, yet sanctioned by 14 states and counting.

To deal with this contradiction, President Barack Obama's administration has effectively shelved the federal law, only prosecuting cases that run afoul of state laws. Now with the Veterans Affairs directive, Washington has essentially agreed to turn a blind eye to medicinal marijuana use by patients under the department's own care.

“He took the heat off this issue,” Michael Krawitz, executive director of Veterans for Medical Marijuana Access, says of the president. “It’s got to be uncomfortable at the bureaucratic level to make a statement like this. But this is something that needed to be done.”


read: http://www.cmaj.ca/earlyreleases/10aug10_united-states-war-veterans-gain-access-to-medicinal-marijuana.dtl