| Sean Worsley, 35, is a disabled Iraq War veteran and Purple Heart recipient. He served his country by disabling roadside bombs more than 7,000 miles away from home.
The Arizona native returned from the Middle East with post-traumatic stress disorder and a traumatic brain injury. He has seizures, suffers from chronic back and shoulder pain, and he battles nightmares and sleep disorders, according to AL.com. The Veterans Health Administration ruled Worsley to be “totally and permanently” disabled due solely to his service-connected injuries.
To help mitigate the symptoms of his physical and mental ailments, Worsley turned to the therapeutic effects of medical cannabis. Nearly one in every four veterans report consuming cannabis to alleviate a medical or physical condition, according to a 2017 American Legion poll. That’s roughly double the rate of the 12% of U.S. adults who regularly smoke cannabis, according to a recent Gallup Poll.
While Worsley, a Black man, legally obtained his medical cannabis card in Arizona, he was stopped in 2016 while driving through Gordo, Ala., just outside Tuscaloosa. He and his wife were passing through on a trip to visit family in North Carolina. Worsley was handcuffed on felony charges for possessing cannabis deemed “other than personal use” by the arresting officer. He was sentenced to five years in prison. He served 10 months before he was granted parole.
While Worsley’s story is just one example involving veterans and cannabis, it’s difficult to deny the connection.Many veterans suffering from PTSD and chronic pain have told the American Legion that they have achieved improved health care outcomes by foregoing VA-prescribed opioids in favor of medical cannabis.
Lawmakers and those who help shape public policy are taking notice. “Veterans prefer cannabis to opioids to treat their invisible wounds they bring back from the battlefield,” U.S. Rep. Lou Correa, D-Calif., said while discussing the SAFE Banking Act Tuesday night on the House floor.
That reform legislation, which aims to provide safe harbor to depository institutions servicing state-legal cannabis businesses, was attached as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which the House passed Thursday night in a 316-113 vote.
In a letter to congressional leaders maintaining that NDAA is an appropriate vehicle for SAFE Banking provisions, advocacy group NORML wrote, “Veterans are increasingly participating in this growing legal industry, and they deserve to be able to do so with the same financial relationships afforded to every other aspect of the American economy.”
Veteran participation has become evident in Illinois, where a lawsuit is currently challenging whether businesses that are veteran owned should get a leg up to win cannabis dispensary licenses. Among 185 retail licenses recently awarded in the state, 75 were reserved for applicants with perfect scores, but those applicants could only receive perfect scores if they were majority owned by a military veteran.
While veterans represent roughly 6% of Illinois’ adult population, they took control of 40.5% of the 185 new licenses. Irina Dashevsky, a partner in the cannabis law practice group at Greenspoon Marder, said, “And the question is why—why such a windfall for veterans?”
In April, U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, along with Congressional Cannabis Caucus co-chairs Reps. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., and Dave Joyce, R-Ohio, reintroduced the Veterans Medical Marijuana Safe Harbor Act, bipartisan legislation to expand and facilitate medical cannabis access to military veterans suffering from chronic pain, PTSD and other serious medical conditions. Currently, VA doctors cannot recommend veteran patients in their health care system for medical cannabis cards.
And legislation introduced in July that aims to legalize adult-use cannabis in Ohio has a provision to reserve up to $20 million of annual tax revenue during the first two years of implementation for research on treating veterans and preventing veteran suicide.
Veterans and cannabis clearly have a connection.
Should veterans be afforded access to medical cannabis without fear of jeopardizing their careers, freedoms or VA benefits? Absolutely they should.
Do they deserve certain windfalls, to the exclusion of other prospective business owners, from lawmakers and policymakers who continue to shape the industry? I’m not quite sure.
But what I do know is that those who put life and limb on the line for their country certainly deserve to have their interests considered.
-Tony Lange, Associate Editor | 