Two Democratic lawmakers on Wednesday introduced a bill to allow doctors at the Department of Veterans Affairs to prescribe medical marijuana.

The legislation, from Sen. Brian Schatz Brian Emanuel SchatzCDC causes new storm by pulling coronavirus guidance Overnight Health Care: CDC pulls revised guidance on coronavirus | Government watchdog finds supply shortages are harming US response | As virus pummels US, Europe sees its own spike Video of Lindsey Graham arguing against nominating a Supreme Court justice in an election year goes viral MORE (D-Hawaii) and Rep. Barbara Lee Barbara Jean LeeOvernight Defense: Pentagon redirects pandemic funding to defense contractors | US planning for full Afghanistan withdrawal by May | Anti-Trump GOP group puts ads in military papers Democrats call for investigation into Pentagon redirecting COVID-19 funds Steph, Ayesha Curry to be recognized by the Congressional Hunger Center MORE (D-Calif.), would only apply to the 33 states that already allow medical marijuana, but would lift the federal ban in those states for the VA.

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“In 33 states, doctors and their patients have the option to use medical marijuana to manage pain—unless those doctors work for the VA and their patients are veterans,” Schatz said in a statement.

“This bill gives VA doctors in these states the option to prescribe medical marijuana to veterans, and it also promises to shed light on how medical marijuana can help with the nation’s opioid epidemic,” he added.

The bill would also direct the VA to study how medical marijuana could be used to treat chronic pain, with the hope that prescribing marijuana for pain could cut down on the need to prescribe opioids, which are at the center of an epidemic of abuse. Illinois, for example, has a pilot program to let people prescribed opioids try medical marijuana instead.

“The current federal prohibitions on cannabis are unnecessary, harmful, and counterproductive,” Lee said. “The federal government should never stand between our veterans and their medicine.”