Veterans will now receive a maximum of 3 grams instead of 10 grams of medical cannabis, as the federal government cuts down on the amount of the substance that it provides each day.
This announcement was made on Tuesday by Kent Hehr, the Veterans Affairs Minister. In recent years, the number of veterans seeking to cure their ailments using medical marijuana has increased and hence resulting in ballooning costs.
Veterans Affairs had issued licenses in only 5 “forward sortation” areas in 2008 during the early stages when the government began catering for the cost of cannabis used for medical purposes.
Forward sortation areas with marijuana consumers had increased to 50 in the next 4 years. In 2015, it was 565.
The veterans’ marijuana prescriptions increased from less than a hundred patients that cost $254,000 in 2012, to more than 1,700 veterans for 2015 who cost $20-million. This means that the government’s reimbursements for veterans have shot up drastically.
The medical cannabis program for this year is projected to come with a price tag of $25 million.