Federal health officials issued a warning Thursday over the risks posed by using marijuana during adolescence and pregnancy as states pass laws making it increasingly available.
Jerome Adams, the U.S. surgeon general, released an advisory voicing concerns of children and expectant mothers using marijuana, citing its effect on developing brains.
“Recent increases in access to marijuana and in its potency, along with misperceptions of safety of marijuana endanger our most precious resource, our nation’s youth,” the surgeon general said.
“No amount of marijuana use during pregnancy or adolescence is safe,” he said at a press conference.
The advisory is the first from a U.S. surgeon general to specifically address marijuana in more than 30 years, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar told reporters. The last was issued by C. Everett Coop in 1982, he said.
“We don’t know everything we might want to know about this drug, but we do know a number of things,” Mr. Azar said at the press conference. “It is a dangerous drug; for many it can be addictive; and it’s especially dangerous for adolescents and pregnant women because of what we know about how it affects the developing brain.”
“We need to be clear: Some state’s laws on marijuana may have changed, but the science has not and federal law has not,” Mr. Azar said.
Marijuana is federally prohibited on account of being classified as a Schedule 1 narcotic under the U.S. Controlled Substances Act - a label reserved for drugs with no medical value and prone to abuse, placing pot in the same category as heroin and ecstasy.
Thirty-three states and counting have legalized the medicinal use of marijuana, however, including 10 with laws currently in place permitting recreational, non-medical use among adults.
In addition to becoming increasingly accessible, marijuana and marijuana products sold in state-legal dispensaries can contain several times the amount of THC, the plant’s main psychoactive compound, compared to what was grown and smoked decades earlier, warned the health officials.
“The risks of physical dependence, addiction and other negative consequences increase with exposure to high concentrations of THC and the younger the age of initiation,” the surgeon general’s advisory states. “Higher doses of THC are more likely to produce anxiety, agitation, paranoia and psychosis.”
Marijuana is currently the third-most commonly used illicit substance among adolescents and the most popular among pregnant woman, the surgeon general said.
“Despite the serious risks associated with marijuana, trends indicate that pregnant women and young people are growing more likely to use the drug and less likely to recognize risks,” Mr. Azar added. “This is unacceptable, and the Trump administration will do everything in its power to turn these trends around.”
Smart Approaches to Marijuana, a prohibitionist group opposed to legalization, said the surgeon general’s advisory marks the “most significant event on marijuana policy” to take place during President Trump’s administration.
Most Americans support ending federal marijuana prohibition, according to recent polling, with the results of a nationwide survey conducted by Marist Poll last month suggesting that 63% of adults in the U.S. believe legalization is a “good idea.”
Mr. Trump, on his part, previously said that he supports letting states decide whether or not to legalize marijuana in the face of federal prohibition.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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