Politics
Federal Agency Gives Anti-Marijuana Group A Platform To Make Claims About Legalization’s Impact That Aren’t Supported By Data
A federal health agency on Monday hosted a leading marijuana prohibitionist group for an event focused on cannabis use trends and youth prevention, giving the organization a prominent platform for a discussion that largely promoted an anti-reform agenda.
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration (SAMHSA) invited Kevin Sabet, president of Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM), to speak at a webinar on cannabis-related emergency incidents, the “potential negative impacts of state legalization” and methods of deterring youth usage.
The conversation skewed heavily toward the prohibition side of the cannabis reform debate, with Rear Admiral Christopher Jones, the director of SAMHSA’s Center for Substance Abuse Prevention, opening by overviewing data on “an upward trajectory of marijuana use” and its potential harms.
“What we hope to do today is sort of unpack some of the data that are underneath these trends,” he said. “But certainly the recent uptick is concerning as we look at past-month marijuana use.”
While Jones acknowledged that youth cannabis usage in recent years as more states have legalized cannabis have been “a little bit flatter” compared to rising use rates for adults, there was no discussion about how that might be related to the enactment of regulated markets for adults, which require IDs to ensure that underage people are not accessing the products. A question about the issue submitted by Marijuana Moment during the event was not addressed.
Sabet, for his part, accused pro-legalization advocates and industry stakeholders of selectively promoting data around youth consumption trends to demonstrate that legalization is not associated with an increase among that cohort.
“What you will find the industry often do is cherry pick some of those studies and find one or two states in the timeframe that suits them to show that there was a decrease—you know, remarkably worse there—or there was no increase, they often say, because it’s even hard for them to say there’s a decrease,” Sabet said. “That’s almost impossible. But they can finagle the numbers to say that there was no increase.”
SAMHSA’s just this summer put out data showing that youth cannabis consumption has remained stable amid the state legalization movement.
The agency also held a webinar in July in which a Johns Hopkins University researcher acknowledged that while self-reported cannabis consumption by adults has risen as more states have legalized, use by youth has generally remained flat or fallen.
A report from the advocacy group Marijuana Policy Project (MPP), for example, found that youth marijuana use declined in 19 out of 21 states that legalized adult-use marijuana—with teen cannabis consumption down an average of 35 percent in the earliest states to legalize. The report cited data from a series of national and state-level youth surveys, including the annual Monitoring the Future (MTF) Survey, which is supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA).
But Sabet held firm on his position that the industry is promoting a false narrative around the issue.
“We have a playbook for this misinformation and it’s called Big Tobacco. We had misinformation from the tobacco industry for decades, and unfortunately, we’ve seen this with the prescription drug pharmaceutical industry,” Sabet said. “We see this with the alcohol industry, of course—but we of course see this with any other for profit industry that says that. And now we see this with the cannabis industry. So that’s why we shouldn’t be very we shouldn’t be shocked.”
Only SAMHSA and SAM’s representatives presented to the audience, which was comprised of dozens of medical health professionals and students across the country. SAMHSA itself spoke glowingly of SAM’s work in its promotion of the webinar, saying it would give the audience an opportunity to learn about its “ongoing activities and initiatives to address the harmful effects of cannabis use.”
At one point at the event, SAMHSA’s Jones shared a slide about “deaths involving cannabis,” with a chart that suggested marijuana associated with more than 45 deaths per 100,000 people as of 2023. The presenters didn’t say cannabis was the sole cause of death, but the discussion about marijuana-related mortality was consistent with the anti-cannabis tone of the webinar.
Sabet also contested the argument that legalization at the state level can mitigate the illicit market, claiming that illegal sales have not been “greatly diminished” after states enacted the reform.
That isn’t the consensus perspective, however. Last year, for example, a United Nations (UN) report on worldwide drug trends acknowledged that marijuana legalization in the U.S. and Canada likely helped to shrink the size of illicit markets, while at the same time driving significant drops in the number of people arrested for cannabis offenses.
And when states with legalization on the books allow localities to opt out of having licensed cannabis businesses, studies in states like California have shown those ongoing prohibitions help sustain illicit markets.
“We’ve actually seen that it’s intertwined with the legal market. So there isn’t this separation of, ‘Well, there’s the legal guys and the illegal guys.’ We’re seeing a lot of blending,” Sabet said. “We’re seeing that transnational criminal organizations know how to diversify. We’re seeing the foreign governments, including the Chinese government, knowingly get involved in marijuana production.”
“That is, you know, extremely, extremely concerning,” he said.
“So, you know, one thing I will say is, I think the tide really is turning. We’re seeing the United States, in some ways, reject legalization more than they have in the past,” he said, referring to the recent defeat of several state ballot measures.
The conversation took place amid heightened expectations about an imminent decision on a marijuana rescheduling proposal that President Donald Trump said last month would come soon. SAM is staunchly opposed to that modest reform, which would not federally legalize cannabis.
—
Marijuana Moment is tracking hundreds of cannabis, psychedelics and drug policy bills in state legislatures and Congress this year. Patreon supporters pledging at least $25/month get access to our interactive maps, charts and hearing calendar so they don’t miss any developments.
Learn more about our marijuana bill tracker and become a supporter on Patreon to get access.
—
Meanwhile, Trump recently signed an executive order that’s received pushback from the drug policy reform community over directives targeting target harm reduction efforts and, specifically, safe consumption programs.
Among the order’s directives is that the secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) must “ensure that discretionary grants issued by SAMHSA for substance use disorder prevention, treatment, and recovery fund evidence-based programs and do not fund programs that fail to achieve adequate outcomes, including so-called ‘harm reduction’ or ‘safe consumption’ efforts that only facilitate illegal drug use and its attendant harm.”
SAM, for its part, recently organized a letter with nine GOP congressional lawmakers, calling on the U.S. attorney general to reject what they called a “corrupt and flawed” marijuana rescheduling proposal.
The anti-cannabis group also led a letter last month with a coalition of prohibitionist, law enforcement and religious groups, imploring Trump to oppose the cannabis rescheduling proposal and leave the drug in Schedule I.
Photo courtesy of Chris Wallis // Side Pocket Images.
