For many veterans, the battle doesn’t end when missions end. It shifts from deployment to the maze of a healthcare system that doesn’t recognize the same medicines their states do. Most of the United States now have a regulated cannabis market, with licensed dispensaries selling tested products. Veterans access that market under a unique handicap: their healthcare runs through the VA, a federal institution that cannot prescribe or reimburse cannabis as long as it remains a Schedule I substance. The result is that veterans pay entirely out of pocket: state registration fees, evaluations, renewals and product costs — none of it covered by federal insurance or VA benefits.

More From Rolling Stone