By The Canadian Press

Ottawa places three-gram limit on amount of medical pot it covers for veterans

Nov 22, 2016 | 9:51 AM

VANCOUVER — The federal government is limiting the amount of medical cannabis that veterans will be reimbursed for to three grams a day.

Veterans Affairs Minister Kent Hehr says the cost of reimbursing veterans has increased with many using up to 10 grams a day.

The new limit announced today at a military and veterans health research forum in Vancouver is for dried cannabis or the equivalent of oil.

Hehr says Veterans Affairs and the Canadian Armed Forces are also launching a study on the medical effects of cannabis, adding that scientific research is inconclusive.

Hehr says the number of veterans who were being reimbursed for medical cannabis rose to more than 3,000 in eight years and he was surprised the former Conservative government began paying for it with no policy in place.

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He says three grams a day is the upper limit of use in guidelines from the college of physicians.

“The safety and well-being of our veterans was the fundamental consideration in the development of this reimbursement policy,” he said.