OPINION:
Last week, Congress voted to decriminalize marijuana at the federal level, following similar decisions by voters in four states on Election Day. Calls to “follow the science” with respect to COVID-19 have not been heeded in the case of marijuana.
Writing in The New York Times, Jane Brody raises the alarm about marijuana’s harmful effects on the heart. Noting the disturbing trend in heart attacks among young users, Dr. Muthiah Vaduganathan of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston observes that “smoking marijuana carries many of the same cardiovascular health hazards as smoking tobacco.” He speculates that declines in life expectancy may be at least partially attributable to rising marijuana use.
He is not the only researcher who is worried. A four-decade cohort study from Sweden suggests long-term marijuana use increases the risk of lung cancer twofold. Although not all studies have found an association, the rise in cannabis exposure constitutes a massive public health trial. An experimental therapeutic with a similarly concerning signal would require further scrutiny before approval.
An analysis in BMJ Public Health tied higher use to marijuana liberalization. An evaluation of Colorado’s legalization of marijuana observed increases in motor vehicle accidents and alcohol abuse. Although the debate surrounding marijuana use and road injuries is ongoing and not all studies concur, it is hard to imagine another biological agent being greenlighted by the FDA in the modern era with so little scientific debate.
Investigators writing in the Journal of Psychopharmacology observe that the science “lag[s] behind rapid changes in state laws, societal views, and medical practice.” Neuroscientists describe brains of marijuana users that are just simply smaller than those of non-users. “Follow the science” has become “let the science follow.”
Historically, the chief concern regarding marijuana was the impact on the developing adolescent brain, which possesses receptors for cannabis-like molecules. It’s not surprising then that prenatal cannabis exposure predicts psychotic episodes in human offspring. European researchers found a strong association between cannabis use and a first episode of psychosis across six countries. They project that if high-potency cannabis compounds were restricted, nearly one of every eight of these life-threatening incidents could be prevented.
The dismissal of the notion that marijuana is a “gateway” drug is common in elite circles. Yet, a longitudinal study of adolescent marijuana users found that persistent consumption was associated with alcohol and tobacco abuse more than a decade later. Tobacco and alcohol are the first and third most common preventable causes of death in the United States. The authors suggest “avoiding regular marijuana use, especially chronic use in young adulthood.”
Marijuana liberalization, driven primarily by the left, has entered the mainstream encumbered by a fundamental irony. In the 20th century, liberalism was responsible for an impressive array of public health efforts that improved the lives of tens of millions of people, such as improved air and water quality.
Measured by the pure number of years of life saved, tobacco control is probably the crowning achievement of modern political liberalism. The positive public health benefits of the campaign against Big Tobacco are obvious. From 1965 to 2018, the percentage of American adults reporting cigarette use fell from 42.6% to 13.7%. Youth saw a similar decline. According to the CDC, new lung cancers declined 21% from 1999 to 2017.
Over the same period, deaths from emphysema also fell. A 2013 article in the New England Journal of Medicine demonstrated that older smokers had three times the risk of death than non-smokers. Because of efforts led primarily by liberals, there are simply far fewer smokers in America. The authors discovered that “[s]moking cessation at any age dramatically reduced death rates.”
By leading the charge for marijuana legalization, the culmination of 1960s countercultural attitudes toward both drug use and the establishment, liberalism risks subverting one of its own greatest achievements. It is working at cross purposes: an expansion of individual freedom to engage in a risky behavior which a growing body of evidence suggests is harmful, on the one hand, versus a passionate desire to improve public health, on the other.
How much sense does it make to agitate for improved air quality when so many young people, with liberal permission — if not encouragement — pump toxic pollutants directly into their lungs? One harmful habit, tobacco, is being replaced with another, threatening to undo decades of reform. Following the legalization of pot, it is hard to see the left leading the crusade against it anytime soon.
Throughout the coronavirus pandemic, liberals have argued that public health must take precedence over other considerations, including the economy and education. What are the overwhelming benefits of pot that we should risk a decline in life expectancy and a further deterioration in America’s mental health?
And what will future generations, including tomorrow’s liberals, think of this grand and malign experiment on the hearts, lungs and brains of America’s (and the world’s) young? It probably won’t matter. They will be too busy fighting Big Mary Jane.
• Jon Fielder, MD, is chief executive of African Mission Healthcare (AMH), which he co-founded with investor, entrepreneur and philanthropist, Mark Gerson, to champion the work of mission hospitals across Africa. Dr. Fielder has served as a medical missionary to Africa for almost 20 years.
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