Lawmakers will try to revive a veterans marijuana research bill that failed a Senate vote this week, but the chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee is pessimistic negotiations will succeed.
Senators had also been expected to use the marijuana bill as a vehicle to pass several other veterans-related measures on issues ranging from the VA caregiver program to homeownership for Native American veterans, but committee Chairman Jon Tester, D-Mont., told Military.com on Thursday that “they may all be dead” now.
“At this moment in time, there is not a specific path forward,” Tester said. “I just don't like it when the Senate votes against their veterans. That's what happened yesterday. Forty-one of them did.”
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The bill would require the Department of Veterans Affairs to conduct a “large scale” observational study of veterans who use marijuana and have chronic pain or PTSD to see how the drug affects their health, including whether those veterans reduce their use of opiates or alcohol.
After the observational study, the VA would have to report back to Congress on the results and whether it believes it can conduct a clinical trial. If the department proceeded with a clinical trial, the research would look at how different forms and strengths of the drug affect symptoms of chronic pain and PTSD.
“If we've got veterans out…
