The CBD Ban Tucked Into the CR
There’s a special kind of irony that only Washington (or Austin) can create: loudly proclaiming support for veterans with one hand while quietly slipping a harmful policy into a must-pass bill with the other. This week’s addition of a CBD ban into the Continuing Resolution isn’t just a policy misstep—it’s a masterclass in legislative whiplash.
For years, veterans, their families, and the adult American population have been told that policymakers are committed to “ending the opioid epidemic.” We’ve sat through hearings, read the press releases, and watched leaders pledge to expand safer, evidence-based options for pain and mental health. And yet here we are—removing one of the safest, lowest-risk tools in the veterans’ health toolbox: low-dose CBD.
Let’s be clear: CBD isn’t fringe. It isn’t dangerous. And it isn’t the enemy.
For many veterans, CBD has been a stabilizing force—helping manage chronic pain, improving sleep, reducing anxiety, and offering relief without the addictive potential of opioids. It’s been a quiet but powerful option at a time when too many are fighting on two fronts: physical injuries and the invisible wounds of war.
Pulling that option now doesn’t just defy logic. It defies the lived reality of the people this policy affects most.
A Solution That Actually Works—So Naturally, They Took It Away
The opioid crisis didn’t appear out of thin air. It grew from decades of overprescribing, limited pain-management alternatives, and a system that treated veterans like test subjects instead of patients. CBD—especially low-dose, over-the-counter CBD—has offered something rare in the veterans’ healthcare landscape: relief that doesn’t come with a side of addiction, organ damage, or a pharmaceutical warning label that reads like a crime scene report.
So why remove it?
Your guess is as good as mine. But history tells us this much: when lawmakers don’t understand something, they often ban it instead of studying it. And when it comes to veterans’ health, the cost of political ignorance gets paid by real people in real pain.
And I’ll say this plainly: I personally support legalize and regulate.
Regulation doesn’t scare me—lack of access does. We regulate medications, alcohol, and even energy drinks. Pretending CBD needs prohibition instead of responsible oversight is lazy policymaking dressed up as public safety.
The Unspoken Message: “We Trust You to Fight Wars, Not Manage Your Own Health”
The real sting isn’t just the policy—it’s the statement behind it.
Veterans are trusted with weapons, classified missions, and responsibilities that most civilians couldn’t shoulder for a day. But apparently they can’t be trusted with a non-psychoactive plant extract with a better safety profile than Tylenol.
This decision communicates a familiar message:
“We support you—in theory. Just not in practice, and definitely not when it requires nuance.”
Evidence-Based Policy Shouldn’t Be Optional
The frustration throughout the veteran community isn’t about politics. It’s about patterns.
When Congress wants to score points, veterans become a backdrop. When Congress wants to quietly pass something unpopular, veterans become an afterthought. But veterans’ healthcare isn’t a prop or a footnote. Decisions about their treatment options should be rooted in data, not fearmongering.
If lawmakers are truly committed to combating the opioid epidemic, then restricting safer alternatives is not just ineffective—it’s irresponsible.
Veterans Deserve Better Than Performative Support
Supporting veterans shouldn’t stop at parades, hashtags, and soundbites. It should include:
Expanding, not restricting, non-addictive pain-management options
Listening to the lived experience of the veteran community
Keeping bureaucratic overreach out of personal medical decisions
Crafting legislation based on science, not stigma (or opposition-funded research: looking at you, big Pharma)
Regulating responsibly, not banning reflexively
Real support looks like access, education, and choice—not prohibition disguised as protection.
The Bottom Line
You cannot claim to support veterans while simultaneously removing a tool that helps them stay alive, stay stable, and stay off opioids. CBD isn’t the problem. Ignorance-based policymaking is.
Veterans (and the rest of the adult American population) deserve choices. They deserve autonomy. And they deserve leaders who understand that real support means giving them access to every safe, effective tool available—not legislating those tools out of existence in the fine print of a Continuing Resolution.
Until that happens, those of us in the advocacy arena will keep saying it plainly:
If you want to support veterans, prove it. Their lives depend on more than slogans.
