Active duty military personnel, veterans and their family members support allowing U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) doctors to recommend medical marijuana and psychedelics to patients if they believe it would provide a benefit, according to results of a survey from Ohio State University (OSU).
Researchers polled service members, veterans, their family members and non-military respondents over a few weeks in late August and early September, the report says. All told, 1,168 individuals participated, including 315 active and veteran military members, 426 members of military families and 427 non-military individuals. The goal was to assess the differing likelihoods across the categories of respondents to support various statements about medical marijuana and psychedelics as available treatment options.
“Given the prevalence of health issues within the veteran community and the need for a wide range of treatment options, some researchers have started to explore whether and how veteran populations should have access to alternative treatment options such as marijuana and psychedelics,” authors wrote in the preprint paper, which was published this month by OSU law school’s Drug Enforcement and Policy Center and has not been peer-reviewed. “Studies of veteran views on these issues, however, have not closely explored how veteran perspectives on certain drug issues compare directly to those in their immediate and broader community.”
The survey participants, drawn from the volunteer American Population Panel, were asked whether they agreed or disagreed with four statements about marijuana and psychedelics:
- Marijuana/psychedelics can be an effective treatment for various medical conditions.
- A doctor should be legally allowed to recommend marijuana/psychedelics if the doctor believes the patient could benefit from medical marijuana/psychedelics, even without FDA approval.
- A doctor should be legally allowed to recommend marijuana/psychedelics, but only after it has received an approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
- Because of the unique hardships and health conditions experienced by veterans, U.S. Veterans Administration doctors should be legally allowed to recommend marijuana/psychedelics to veterans if the doctor believes the patient could benefit from marijuana/psychedelics.
Strong majorities of all three surveyed groups agreed the substances can be effective treatments, with even more sizable proportions saying that Veterans Administration (VA) doctors should be able to legally recommend the substances to patients if they believe they would provide some benefit.
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