Veterans targeted by medicinal cannabis businesses on social media spruiking free products and subscriptions.
In short:
Veterans are being targeted by social media ads offering access to “free” medicinal cannabis, funded by the Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA).
VeteranCann supplied medicinal cannabis to a man with a record of cannabis addiction, who ended up in “borderline psychosis” and kept sending it even after he told them he was addicted.
Another patient was bombarded with texts to book an appointment, as the DVA confirms it funded $35.99 million of medicinal cannabis in 2023/2024.
The Report
At 4:16am a Brisbane navy veteran is desperately messaging the company which prescribes and sends him medicinal cannabis.
“I am addicted to THC and I shouldn’t be using it. I feel like I am having a mental health crisis and breakdown,” he pleads, hoping to put an end to the shipments.
It had been a swift downward spiral for 35-year-old Bill*, after he was targeted with a Facebook advertisement by the company VeteranCann.
The ads offered free access to “natural therapies” and claimed it was “backed by the Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA)”.
Despite his history of cannabis addiction being well-documented with the DVA, Bill was sent more than $1,700 worth of medicinal cannabis in less than a month after just one call with a VeteranCann doctor.
The 14 bottles — six containing the psychoactive ingredient tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) — were paid for by the DVA.
“That was when I thought, ‘wow, these guys … might be a bit dodgy here. I can’t believe they’re sending me it so quickly’,” he said.
Struggling with his mental health, chronic pain and life with a newborn baby, some days Bill would drink entire bottles of the oil — bottles which should have lasted almost a month.
Within weeks he was in a “borderline drug-induced psychosis”, had taken sick leave from work and told his wife, who was caring for their baby, he felt like a “zombie”.
Despite informing VeteranCann he was addicted, he received another two shipments of the drugs.
“What is wrong with this system? Why should addictive medication be sent three times to a drug-addicted veteran?” he said.
Veterans big business for medicinal cannabis telehealth companies
Veterans represent a lucrative market for medicinal cannabis companies.
The DVA fully funds medicinal cannabis for veterans with specific conditions when other treatments have failed, and where there is evidence of a clinical benefit.
In the 2023-2024 financial year, it spent $35.99 million to fund medicinal cannabis for 8,455 veterans.
A DVA spokesperson confirmed 6 per cent of applications to fund medicinal cannabis products for veterans were rejected.
The ABC has spoken to veterans accusing major industry players of exploitative behaviour, including questionable marketing tactics, late night texts, offers of “free” medicinal cannabis, and ads targeting them through veteran support groups.
Army veteran Sandra* started the process to access medicinal cannabis for chronic pain through VeteranCann this year.
She said she had a 20-minute consultation with a nurse before being prescribed cannabis oil containing THC by a doctor she never spoke to.
The Royal Australian College of Psychiatrists warns products which contain high potency THC — the ingredient which gives users a “high” — should be avoided due to the risk of psychosis and weak evidence of efficacy in most conditions.
The DVA requires a written application from a veteran’s specialist before approving funding for higher doses of THC, or for multiple cannabis products.
VeteranCann invites veterans to use its “in-house advocate program” to get chronic pain or injury officially accepted by the DVA, as well as access to “partnered pain specialists” to unlock fully-funded treatment — including higher dose THC.
Sandra’s regular GP, Dr Kerry Summerscales, is a veteran herself.
She specialises in treating other veterans, and was shocked to see some of the high strength products her patients had been prescribed by online telehealth companies.
“I was really quite horrified on a few levels,” Dr Summerscales said.
“It’s like going straight in. ‘Oh yeah, here’s your fentanyl patch. Oh yeah, we won’t bother trying the Panadol first’.”
VeteranCann booked appointments for both Bill and Sandra with a “pain specialist” doctor, to help get DVA funding for higher doses of THC.
When Sandra didn’t follow up, she started receiving texts from a man called Geoff from VeteranCann offering to help gain free access to medicinal cannabis including “oil, flower and gummy bears”.
“The texts were a bit weird, because they just kept coming,” Sandra, who also lives with PTSD and ADHD, said.
Dr Summerscales said she was stunned when she saw the messages.
“I saw it as downright badgering, especially when you look at the times, at 9 o’clock at night there were texts,” she said.
Eventually Sandra replied to Geoff, noting VeteranCann hadn’t consulted with her GP.
Geoff responded, “normally VeteranCann doctors don’t liaise with GPs”, before texting again to offer a follow-up call.
“Therein lies the issue,” Dr Summerscales said.
“(Veterans) do have chronic pain and some of them do have mental health issues and they are vulnerable in that way.
“If you’re not treating the patient holistically and you’re just prescribing the one medication in a five-minute consult, that’s not medicine. And that is what needs to be clamped down on.”
In a statement, VeteranCann told the ABC Geoff was a “trained and experienced veteran advocate” paid for “onboarding veterans”, but apologised for the messages which it said “should not have been sent”.
Geoff’s number was also featured in online veteran support groups, advertising VeteranCann including several run by registered charity Young Veterans
Read more including this
VeteranCann consultant terminated after misogynistic posts
VeteranCann is owned by Dispensed, a telehealth company under fire after patients with a history of psychosis were prescribed medicinal cannabis by the company. One was hospitalised and the other took his own life.
Press Release: Health Canada releases new data on cannabis use in Canada – “18% of people who had used cannabis in the past 12 months reported driving after cannabis use, a significant decline from 27% in 2018.”
The 2024 Canadian Cannabis Survey provides important insights into Canadians’ knowledge, attitudes and behaviours on cannabis use
December 6, 2024 | Ottawa, Ontario | Health Canada
An important part of the Government of Canada’s public health approach to legalizing and strictly regulating cannabis is ongoing and comprehensive surveillance, data collection and evidence gathering. The results from the annual Canadian Cannabis Survey provide a snapshot of public health and public safety data on cannabis in Canada.
Today, Health Canda published the 2024 Canadian Cannabis Survey (CCS) results. The data was collected from April 4th to July 2nd, 2024.
Since 2017, Health Canada has conducted the annual Canadian Cannabis Survey to better understand attitudes and knowledge regarding cannabis, as well as patterns of cannabis use in Canada. Through the information gathered, Health Canada can better understand where support is needed the most and develop program initiatives that will help educate and raise awareness around the use of cannabis.
Findings from the 2024 survey include:
The proportion of people in Canada who report smoking cannabis continues to decline. That said, smoking remains the most common method of consuming cannabis (69%), followed by eating (57%) and vaporizing with a vape pen or e-cigarette (37%).
The number of respondents who reported getting cannabis from a legal source in 2024 was 72% – an increase from 37% in 2019 to 72% in 2024, with legal storefronts being the most common source since 2019. A smaller proportion reported accessing cannabis through illegal sources (3%) compared to 2019 (16%).
18% of people who had used cannabis in the past 12 months reported driving after cannabis use, a significant decline from 27% in 2018.
There was no change in rates of cannabis use among youth (age 16-19) over the past year. Past 12-month cannabis use among youth aged 16-19 was 41%, similar to several previous years (44%, 44%, and 43% in 2019, 2020 and 2023 respectively).
Overall, the proportion of respondents who said they used cannabis and reported daily, or almost daily use has been stable since 2018 (approx. 25%), including among youth (approx. 20%).
The percentage of people in Canada who said they use cannabis who are ‘at high risk’ of developing problems from cannabis use has remained stable since 2018 (approx. 3%).
Health Canada has made significant investments to educate youth and young adults about the health risks of cannabis, as they are at an increased risk of experiencing adverse effects from cannabis use since the brain continues to develop up until around the age of 25. These efforts include the Spring 2022 Reduce your risk: Choose legal cannabis public education campaign, the Prevention of Accidental Paediatric Cannabis Poisonings among Children campaign in Spring 2023, and the Pursue Your Passion: A Teen Cannabis Education Program, which was re-launched in March 2023 as a virtual program to educate youth and young adults about the health effects of cannabis. The department has also produced public education material that emphasizes the importance of storing cannabis securely away from children and pets.
Republican House and Senate leadership “openly and solely blocked” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (D-NY) attempt to include bipartisan marijuana banking legislation in a government funding bill, a Senate source familiar with the negotiations tells Marijuana Moment.
As bicameral lawmakers have worked to put together a continuing resolution to keep the government funded, Schumer repeatedly urged colleagues across the aisle to incorporate the Secure and Fair Enforcement Regulation (SAFER) Banking Act, to no avail. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) killed that prospective deal, the source said.
“Schumer pushed for SAFER Banking at the negotiation table in the CR multiple times. This week, both Speaker Johnson and Leader McConnell strongly rejected it,” they said. “For years some Republicans have done a dance telling marijuana businesses that they supported SAFER, while Republican leadership has openly and solely blocked it at every turn.”
The Parliamentary Front of Medicinal Cannabis and Industrial Hemp held the last meeting of 2024 in the Plenary Dom Pedro I, in the Legislative Assembly of Sao Paulo (Alesp). On the occasion, the eight winning projects of the 2nd edict of parliamentary amendments, defined by the Deliberative Council of the Front, were announced.
Sechat
State deputies Caio France and Eduardo Suplicy, coordinator and deputy coordinator of the Front, allocated R$ 1 million from the 2025 budget of individual tax amendments to finance the initiatives. Each parliamentarian contributed R$ 500 thousand, encouraging projects covering medical cannabis and industrial hemp.
Projects selected by universities and third sector entities
Of the more than 30 projects enrolled, half were submitted by public universities, such as Unicamp, Unesp and Unifesp, while the rest came from third sector organizations, city halls and state institutions. The requested values varied between R$ 50 thousand and R$ 500 thousand, with proposals covering production of informative materials, clinical studies, congresses and development of technologies related to medical cannabis.
Among the themes of the projects, we highlight studies on chronic pain, online training courses, evaluations of cannabis use in people with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), and the creation of digital platforms with data on therapeutic responses.
Legislative advances and national impact
Deputy Caio France celebrated the advances made in 2024, such as the inclusion of cannabis in the Brazilian Pharmacopoeia and the decision of the Superior Court of Justice (STJ) allowing the cultivation of hemp for medicinal, pharmaceutical and industrial purposes. “State law 17,618/23 was instrumental in driving these changes. The discussions held at the meetings of the Parliamentary Front served as a guide in the selection of projects,” highlighted France.
How to follow up on the ad
The audience will be broadcast live on the Alesp Network channel on YouTube, and the results will be available on the official website of the Parliamentary Front (www.fpcannabis.co.uk).