Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2027

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. MAST. Mr. Chair, I rise in support of my amendment, which is pretty simple. It prohibits funds from being used to enforce veterans health directive 1315.

Why is that? Why would we want to prohibit funds from doing this?

Just to make this clear, it doesn't change Federal law. It doesn't require the VA to prescribe any cannabis treatment or any other treatment like that. It simply says that the Department of Veterans Affairs should not prohibit doctors from discussing or helping veterans navigate legal State-approved cannabis programs if that is something that the veteran is considering.

Now, whether anybody likes it or not, whether they smoke it, they roll it, they chew it, or they sniff it, whatever, anything they do with cannabis or don't do with cannabis, these are programs that exist in a lot of States.

If former members of the military have doctors that they are seeing inside of the Department of Veterans Affairs, and if there is a treatment option that they want to be considered for, they want to know if it is right for them, if it is not right for them, if it doesn't fit in good with other prescriptions that they have, you name it, Mr. Chair, if they want to discuss it, then they have to be able to discuss it with their doctor. The most important person for them to discuss it with is their doctor.

If they are getting their primary care from the VA and they can't have that discussion, then that is a problem. Whether the doctor says it is good or bad, that is up to the doctor to decide, but they have to be able to have that conversation.

I tell people often that I was injured in Afghanistan. I lost two legs and a finger there. When I woke up in the hospital, I woke up on antidepressants, antiinflammatories, heavy sleep sedatives, a host of narcotic pain killers from a Dilaudid drip, to oral morphines, to epidurals, you name it, Mr. Chair, and I weaned myself off of those things very quickly.

That is not the case for all of my brothers and sisters. A lot of these narcotics that people are on and get placed on, especially after injuries, are serious and very difficult to get off of and leave long- term, lasting effects on them.

There has to be an ability, again, for people inside the system to have that conversation with their doctor about whether that is right, that path of what I woke up on, having really no say-so about it, or something else is right for them, because they read something about it, saw something about it, heard something from one of their friends, you name it, Mr. Chair, they have to have that conversation with their doctor.

Again, I encourage support for amendment No. 23, prohibit funds from being used to enforce veterans health directive 1315 so that why?

So that veterans can speak to their doctor about whether cannabis is or is not a good medical treatment program for them. Just let them have the option to talk.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. MAST. Mr. Chair, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Ohio.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. MAST. Mr. Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source