WASHINGTON, D.C.–Indiana’s legislature and governor have balked at legalizing marijuana for medical use over the past few years. A surgeon general’s advisory issued Thursday, may provide the state’s lawmaking body with backup. The advisory says pregnant women and adolescents should not use pot, and that it could be addictive for some people.

The advisory came from Surgeon General Jerome Adams, former Indiana state health commissioner. He stood with former Eli Lilly executive and Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, to make the announcement in Washington, D.C.

“No amount of marijuana use during pregnancy or adolescence is safe,” said Azar, noting that Pres. Trump donated one quarter of his salary, or $100,000, to fund a digital campaign by the surgeon general’s office, to warn pregnant women and teenagers about marijuana use.

Both Azar and Adams believe that marijuana is at least somewhat addictive, which advocates have downplayed.

“We’ve seen an increase in emergency department visits for psychosis, overdose and accidental ingestions. And, nearly one in five people who begin marijuana use during adolescence, become addicted,” said Adams. He said the potency of pot has increased at least three times since the 1908s, when the last surgeon general’s advisory on marijuana was issued by C. Everett Koop.

The more THC, the higher the risk for harm, said Adams, who said he has visited many of the 33 states that have legalized weed for at least one purpose.

“Over and over again I hear a great and rising concern about the rapid normalization of marijuana use and the impact that a false perception of its safety is having on our young people and on pregnant women,” he said.

Adams said marijuana is the third most used illicit substance by adolescents, and the number one illegal drug used by pregnant women.

“Some states’ laws on marijuana may have changed. But, the science has not and federal law has not,” noted Azar. Some of the groups and lawmakers who have pushed for the legalization of marijuana in Indiana were counting on federal laws changing, or some guidance from the federal government that marijuana is now believed to be less dangerous.

Thursday’s advisory, though it does not have force of law, was just the opposite of that.

 

Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash