The Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act, championed by Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has been put forward to make marijuana legal at the federal level. This will include direction for the Department of Veterans Affairs.
The bill takes aim at numerous this to include tracing of products, decriminalization measures including past convictions, and more. In the previous page of this write-up, an overview was given of several areas. Sections of the bill discussed pertained to societal impacts of cannabis legalization, biomedical research on cannabis, public health surveillance and data collection, awards to prevent underage cannabis use, and national media campaigns on cannabis use. This article page will continue that review.
Learn how to become a medical cannabis patient in Texas
A Trans-NIH Cannabis Consortium is to be formed, along with a cannabis research interagency advisory committee. The goal of the consortium is the coordinate cannabis research across NIH so that it can establish cannabis research priorities; identify gaps and opportunities for research collaborations involving multiple national research entities; and identify opportunities to develop the next generation of cannabis researchers.
The committee will form under HHS for purposes of coordinating federal research activities relating to cannabis. As well, it will coordinate aspects of all Federal programs and activities relating to cannabis research, in order to ensure:
- the adequacy and technical soundness of such programs and activities,
- to minimize barriers to such programs and activities,
- to provide for the full communication and exchange of information necessary to maintain adequate coordination of such programs and activities
Department of Veterans Affairs clinical trials on the effects of cannabis on certain health outcomes of veterans with chronic pain and PTSD
The bill outlines that the Secretary of Veterans Affairs shall carry out a series of clinical trials on the effects of medical-grade cannabis on the health outcomes of covered veterans diagnosed with chronic pain and covered veterans diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. The clinical trials required for chronic pain research will include coverage on the effects of cannabis on:
- osteopathic pain (including pain intensity and pain-related outcomes)
- the reduction or increase in opioid use or dosage
- the reduction or increase in benzodiazepine use or dosage
- the reduction or increase in alcohol use
- inflammation
- sleep quality
- agitation
- quality of life
Then with respect to covered veterans diagnosed with PTSD, an evaluation of the effects of the use of cannabis on the symptoms of PTSD will look for the following:
- the reduction or increase in benzodiazepine use or dosage
- the reduction or increase in alcohol use
- mood;
- anxiety;
- social functioning
- agitation
- suicidal ideation
- sleep quality, including frequency of nightmares and night terrors
Read more about TCUP (Texas Compassionate Use Program)
The VA then can optionally do the same research for medical cannabis on the following issues:
- pulmonary function;
- cardiovascular events;
- head, neck, and oral cancer;
- testicular cancer;
- ovarian cancer;
- transitional cell cancer;
- intestinal inflammation;
- motor vehicle accidents;
- mania;
- psychosis;
- cognitive effects;
- cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome;
- neuropathy;
- spasticity;
- substance use disorder; or mental health disorder.
The study will require the Secretary of VA to try various forms to include raw plant materials and extracts. Of these various forms that are required, there will be no fewer than seven unique plant strains with THC to CBD ratios in each of the following levels:
- Less than 1:5.
- Between 1:2 and 1:5.
- Approximately 1:2.
- Approximately 1:1.
- Approximately 2:1.
- Between 2:1 and 5:1.
- More than 5:1.
There are limitations as to which veterans will be able to particpate in these research trials. It is explicitly stated that the following will be excluded from participating in the trails:
- have existing substance use disorder or are at high-risk for developing substance use disorder
- have contraindications to medicinal cannabis, which may include:
- veterans with acute psychosis or at risk of psychosis
- veterans for whom cannabis is contra indicated based on current medications taken prescribed and nonprescribed;
- veterans with severe cardiovascular, immunological, liver, or kidney disease
- veterans who are pregnant or breastfeeding
Read more about Delta-8 in Texas
This list may pose an issue with the veterans with PTSD seeking to be part of the trial. A conflated symptom and co-morbidity of PTSD is psychosis. Psychosis is generically referred to being delusions or hallucinations. In PTSD, the psychotic symptoms may be more pervasive or frequent than psychotic-like symptoms that occur during dissociative episodes or flashbacks.
Knowing the amount of stories in the past decade coming out of the VA of misdiagnosis’s, means there may be people that don’t have both, but are diagnosed as both. This means they’ll likely be denied a seat in the trial, when they should be part of the study on whether or not it affects the psychotic-like symptoms of flashbacks or dissociative episodes.
Learn how to become a medical cannabis patient in Texas
Timeline and benefits of participating veterans
Not later than 180 days after the date of the enactment of this bill, the Secretary shall develop a plan to implement this section and submit such plan to the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs of the Senate and the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs of the House of Representatives.
The eligibility or entitlement of a covered veteran to any other benefit under the laws administered by the Secretary or any other provision of law shall not be affected by the participation of the covered veteran in a clinical trial under the scope of this bill.
Then obviously with the plant being descheduled and the current rules on cannabis regarding the VA, veterans are not to be denied benefits based on their consumption of cannabis.
Within 180 days after passing the bill, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs will be required to update all applicable regulations, guidance, memoranda, and policies of the Department of Veterans Affairs. This will be done to authorize physicians and other health care providers employed by the VA to provide recommendations and opinions to veterans regarding the participation of such veterans in cannabis programs.
What matters though is that the programs are authorized under State or Federal law. The policy will allow these physicians and other health care providers employed by the VA to complete forms reflecting such recommendations and opinions.
Read more about Delta-8 in Texas
Other veterans caveats
A Veteran Business Outreach Center may not decline to provide services to an otherwise eligible small business concern under this section solely because the concern is a cannabis related legitimate business or cannabis-related service provider.
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