House approves use of marijuana for some veterans

WASHINGTON — The U.S. House voted to allow Department of Veterans Affairs doctors to recommend medical marijuana to their patients in states where it’s legal, marking the strongest sign yet that attitudes in Congress toward the drug are shifting along with public sentiment.

The House took several other emotional votes Thursday, including approving an amendment that would ban the display of the Confederate battle flag in veterans’ cemeteries and, in a particularly raucous moment, narrowly defeating another that aimed to protect lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people from discrimination in federal contracting.

On the medical marijuana amendment, the 233-189 vote Thursday to bar an Obama administration gag order on VA doctors is a reversal from a year ago, when a similar proposal by Earl Blumenauer, an Oregon Democrat, was narrowly defeated on a 210-213 vote.

Senate appropriators this year included a similar provision in their version of an annual spending bill governing veterans health programs, which is under debate on the Senate floor.

Currently, veterans have to hire an outside physician at their own expense to get such treatment, an “unjustified” hurdle affecting some veterans struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and chronic pain and who might benefit, Blumenauer said.

“We should not be limiting the treatment options available to our veterans,” said Blumenauer, whose home state is among 24, along with the District of Columbia, that have laws legalizing medical marijuana.