[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 11]
[House]
[Pages 15855-15856]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




               LEGALIZING MEDICAL MARIJUANA FOR VETERANS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Oregon (Mr. Blumenauer) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Speaker, the front page of last Sunday's 
Washington Post had a poignant story about Army veteran Amy Rising, who 
uses medical marijuana to help her deal with her posttraumatic stress 
disorder. Now, we weren't told exactly where she lives, just that 
medical marijuana is legal where she uses it, so she could be in any 
one of 23 States and the District of Columbia.
  Fifty-seven percent of Floridians voted to legalize medical marijuana 
earlier this month, more votes for medical marijuana in Florida than 
any statewide politician on the ballot. This is part of a growing trend 
across the country.
  But Amy's predicament is that the Federal Government does not allow 
physicians in the Department of Veterans Affairs to be able to help 
their patients with medical marijuana, whether it is right for them; 
instead, people are forced away from their primary care physician and 
the veterans' benefits that they have earned.
  Why do they have to seek out someone else who doesn't know them as 
well, doesn't have the same relationship, and then bear that extra 
cost? This actually should be a terrible embarrassment.
  I had a proposal during the appropriations deliberations that would 
have clarified this policy, which actually isn't based on any law or 
regulation. It is simply what is termed ``guidance.'' My proposal would 
have enabled doctors to be able to work with their patients in the VA.
  Now, I am not suggesting by any stretch of the imagination the nature 
of those conversations and what the conclusion should be. Some 
physicians are strongly supportive of medical marijuana. Others have 
reservations. Others simply don't know. But it is outrageous that the 
people who know our veterans best are forbidden to work with them on 
this therapy.
  I will be introducing legislation that would put in law what we had 
for that budget amendment. This is one of several things that I hope 
this Congress does something about before we adjourn.
  While we are at it, shouldn't we want to stop the lunacy of making 
marijuana an all-cash business by denying them bank accounts? What 
about giving people tax justice by repealing an outmoded and unfair 
provision known as 280E, so that it will allow perfectly legal 
businesses, hundreds of them across the country, to deduct their 
legitimate business expenses? Otherwise, these hundreds of small legal 
businesses will continue to pay punitively high tax rates.
  Now, the Obama administration is slowly lurching in the right 
direction. The President famously said that he had bigger fish to fry 
than trying to prevent Washington and Colorado from implementing what 
their voters have approved. Just this last week, we had more approvals 
from the State of Alaska, the District of Columbia, and in my home 
State of Oregon. Marijuana got more votes in Oregon than anybody on the 
Oregon ballot.
  While States are still influencing the reform, we need to bring 
Federal policies out of the Dark Ages. We need to be able to harness 
the therapeutic power of marijuana. We shouldn't force, for example, 
families to have to move to another State to be able to get relief for 
their children who suffer from torturous, violent epileptic seizures, 
simply because they live in a nonmedical marijuana State when medical 
marijuana has proven to be one of the few areas of relief for these 
children.
  While the States are moving in this direction, the public is moving 
in this direction, it is not too late for Congress to move with these 
small steps that will make a difference.
  We should start with our veterans, to give them access to their 
doctors, to understand what this tool is, to see if it can provide 
relief for them as it has done for hundreds of thousands of other 
people, especially veterans with chronic pain and PTSD.
  Make no mistake, this is not a Republican issue or a Democratic 
issue; it is a veterans' issue. It is allowing the public to be able to 
take advantage of the proven therapeutic value, as over a million 
Americans are able to do today.
  It is past time the Federal Government makes its policies consistent 
in the States in which our veterans reside. Give them this right, allow 
them

[[Page 15856]]

access to the therapy, give them access to their own doctors.
  Here is an opportunity for Congress to catch up with the voters, to 
catch up with the developments in therapy, catch up with veterans' 
advocates, and do something far less risky and more beneficial than 
what is too often inflicted upon them.
  States have been showing leadership on marijuana reform and hemp 
legislation. Now is the chance for Congress to make progress, 
especially for our veterans.

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