And that’s just the beginning, as figures from Veterans Affairs Canada reveal the government is on track to spend nearly $200 million this year as more and more ex-servicemen ask the government to pay for their cannabis. While experts and advocates are uncertain about the reasons for the increase, they agree on the need for more information about the real benefits and potential harms of medical marijuana for veterans — and the taxpayers who pay for it. “We desperately need better evidence to understand whether these policies and whether current use is likely to do more good or do more harm,” said Jason Busse, associate director of the Michael G. DeGroote Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research at McMaster University. “We don’t know right now.” Veterans Affairs began reimbursing a small number of ex-servicemen for their medical cannabis in 2008, so approvals were granted on an extremely limited basis and with the approval of a medical specialist. The move followed a series of court decisions more than 20 years ago that allowed for the first time a legal exemption for the consumption of medical marijuana from criminal prosecution. Then in 2014, Health Canada relaxed its rules on who could authorize the use of medical marijuana in Canadians and for what conditions and circumstances. The new rules placed no limit on the amount of pot that could be approved or the cost. Veterans Affairs at the time reimbursed 112 former members for their pot, at a cost of $409,000. By the following year, that number had grown to more than 600, at a total cost of more than $1.7 million — with no end in sight. Figures given by the department to Veterans Affairs Minister Laurence Macaulay in June for questions in the House of Commons show the government reimbursed more than 18,000 ex-servicemen for $153 million in medical marijuana claims in 2021-22. “For fiscal year 2022-23, program expenditures are projected at $195.2 million,” the memo adds. Rising claims and costs have continued despite the Liberal government’s decision in 2016 to limit claims to three grams a day at $8.50 a gram, with a surcharge of up to 10 grams a day with medical permission. Those limits led to an outpouring of anger from veterans and advocates who said the limits would negatively affect them, although the memo to MacAulay said one in five veterans was getting more than three grams a day. By comparison, Health Canada says the number of Canadians across the country registered to use medical marijuana, which is typically paid for by insurance companies, fell to 257,000 in December 2021 from 345,000 in October 2018. Officials with the BC-based Veterans Transition Network, which provides support and peer counseling programs for former members of the Armed Forces, have seen first-hand the explosive growth in veterans’ use of medical marijuana in recent years. “Seeing these numbers of growth every year, in my opinion, matches what we’ve seen in terms of how common it has become in the landscape of veteran care,” said executive director Oliver Thorne. The director of the network’s national clinic, Dr. Paul Whitehead, estimated that about half of the veterans participating in the organization’s programs now use some type of cannabis product for medical purposes, although the exact type, frequency and dosage vary widely. Experts cited a number of possible reasons for the increase, including the COVID-19 pandemic, greater awareness, less stigma surrounding cannabis use and the emergence of a multimillion-dollar industry around veterans’ medical pot. Some veterans and advocates have argued that the rise of medical cannabis has helped reduce the use of opioids and other drugs. Although he could not say whether this was true, Whitehead reported a decrease in alcohol use among his agency’s clients. But he and others also pointed to the many questions that remain about whether medical marijuana actually helps veterans — and if so, how and why. “We feel confident that there is absolutely some benefit because veterans tell us that, and they tell us that often,” Thorne said. “But we don’t know how. And I think that’s what we really need to know: how does it work? Why does it work?” Busse tried to answer some of these questions at McMaster. What he has found so far is a dearth of real data on the effects of medical marijuana, with what is available showing little to no effect on most people with chronic pain or sleep problems. Even those studies that have been conducted have been extremely limited, Busse added, with little information about the impact on those with PTSD or even the long-term effects of cannabis use. The lack of concrete information comes despite the fact that the federal government has repeatedly promised over the years to fund research into the matter. Busse blamed Health Canada regulations and red tape for preventing large-scale clinical studies. “We just (this week) finally got approval to run our first trial, despite having received funding for it two years ago,” he said. “And I know that many companies have simply abandoned clinical trials in Canada.” Veterans Affairs will not speak publicly about any expected changes to reimbursement rules, but officials told MacAulay in June that as it is “an evolving area of treatment, Veterans Affairs Canada regularly reviews the latest available evidence and adjusts our policy as necessary.” . While Thorne and Whitehead have heard veterans testify to the benefits of medical marijuana, and the Veterans Transition Network does not support restricting access, there are concerns that some former service members will use the drug to avoid their psychological trauma rather than to face. “We’d like to see spending numbers increase every year for consulting programs, whether it’s ours or any other,” Thorne said. “We’d like to see that similar kind of uptake.” This report by The Canadian Press was first published on August 7, 2022.
