A poll conducted by the American Legion, a U.S. veteran’s organization, found that 92 percent of veteran households support research into medical cannabis therapies for mental and physical conditions. Moreover, another 83 percent of the 1,300 respondents supported federal legalization of medical cannabis, and 82 percent wanted medical cannabis as a legal treatment option.
According to the survey results, 60 percent of respondents did not live in a state with a medical cannabis program, and just 22 percent indicated they were currently using medical cannabis to treat a medical condition.
Support for medical cannabis research was consistent regardless of the respondent’s age, political affiliation, gender or geography, including 79 percent of those over 60-years-old.
According to the American Legion, the results reinforce the group’s resolution in support of medical cannabis research and access more than a year ago.
“The American Legion urge the Drug Enforcement Agency to license privately-funded medical marijuana production operations in the United States to enable safe and efficient cannabis drug development research,” the resolution states. “The American Legion urges Congress to amend legislation to remove Marijuana from schedule I and reclassify it in a category that, at a minimum, will recognize cannabis as a drug with potential medical value.”
The organization is also urging the Veteran’s Administration to allow its physicians to talk to their veteran patients about medical cannabis.