{"id":6909,"date":"2018-07-25T01:30:06","date_gmt":"2018-07-25T05:30:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lcpllutzlivetotell.org\/?p=6909"},"modified":"2019-08-08T12:34:23","modified_gmt":"2019-08-08T16:34:23","slug":"v-a-shuns-medical-marijuana-leaving-vets-to-improvise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lutzlivetotell.org\/?p=6909","title":{"rendered":"V.A. Shuns Medical Marijuana, Leaving Vets to Improvise"},"content":{"rendered":"

V.A. Shuns Medical Marijuana, Leaving Vets to Improvise<\/span><\/h3>\n
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Veterans gathered earlier this month outside the old veterans\u2019 hall in Santa Cruz, Calif. A local nonprofit group distributes medical marijuana to veterans who cannot get it through the V.A. health system.<\/span>Credit <\/span>Jim Wilson\/The New York Times<\/span><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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By\u00a0Dave Philipps<\/span><\/a>

SANTA CRUZ, Calif. \u2014 Some of the local growers along the coast here see it as an act of medical compassion: Donating part of their crop of high-potency medical marijuana to ailing veterans, who line up by the dozens each month in the echoing auditorium of the city\u2019s old veterans\u2019 hall to get a ticket they can exchange for a free bag.<\/p>\n

One Vietnam veteran in the line said he was using marijuana-infused oil to treat pancreatic cancer. Another said that smoking cannabis eased the pain from a recent hip replacement better than prescription pills did. Several said that a few puffs temper the anxiety and nightmares of post-traumatic stress disorder.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never touched the stuff in Vietnam,\u201d said William Horne, 76, a retired firefighter. \u201cIt was only a few years ago I realized how useful it could be.\u201d<\/p>\n

The monthly giveaway bags often contain marijuana lotions, pills, candies and hemp oils, as well as potent strains of smokable flower with names like Combat Cookies and Kosher Kush. But the veterans do not get any medical guidance on which product might help with which ailment, how much to use, or how marijuana might interact with other medications.<\/p>\n

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Ordinarily, their first stop for advice like that would be the Department of Veterans Affairs health system, with its thousands of doctors and hundreds of hospitals and clinics across the country dedicated to caring for veterans.<\/p>\n

But the department has largely said no to medical marijuana, citing federal law. It won\u2019t recommend cannabis products for patients, and for the most part it has declined even to study their potential benefits. That puts the department out of step with most of the country, where at least 30 states now have laws that allow the use of medical marijuana in some form.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n