FDA Head Says Marijuana Has ‘Benefit In Medical Conditions,’

The head of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) says that while the
Trump administration is taking the potential harms of marijuana use among
youth “very seriously,” it’s also important to preserve access to cannabis
for medical purposes—and that’s part of the thinking behind the push to
federally reschedule it.

In an interview on Fox Business on Wednesday, FDA Commissioner Marty Makary
was asked about a recent New York Times editorial published that called for
safeguards around marijuana, citing contested data on the relationship
between cannabis use and health issues such as psychosis.

“First of all, we’ve seen a dramatic increase in teens vaping with THC…in
the four years prior to us coming into office. So we’re taking this very
seriously, and we’re trying to understand this field of science with better
research,” he said. “The marijuana today is not the marijuana of hippies.
It’s 10 to 20 times stronger, and new research is showing that its effect
on the developing adolescent mind is different than in an adult.”

“It can result in psychosis diagnoses later in life. So we are taking this
very seriously, and it is a controlled substance in the Trump
administration, and so that’s the state of affairs,” Makary said, adding
that there are other “side effects” associated with marijuana such as
cannabis hyperemesis syndrome.

“I think if you simply talk about the dangers of marijuana in kids in terms
of risk, remember, risk appeals to many kids, so we have to talk about what
it does to their ability to compete in a track-and-field match, and what it
does to their day-to-day sort of vitality,” the FDA commissioner said. “It
creates fatigue, and it creates problems with learning and judgment, so we
have to talk about that.”

While the interview made rounds on social media, drawing criticism from
industry stakeholders, there was less focus on other comments Makary made
concerning the Trump administration’s efforts to ensure that patients are
able to access marijuana for medical uses.

“We are also in the Trump administration very serious about making sure
that the medicinal purposes—that is, the indications where people find
benefit in medical conditions, for example, with chronic terminal cancer—is
advanced,” he said. “And so we’ve taken action to change the scheduling
from Schedule I to Schedule III” under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA).

President Donald Trump issued an executive order in December order Attorney
General Pam Bondi to expeditiously complete the rescheduling process, which
was initiated under the Biden administration, but there haven’t been any
recent updates on the Justice Department’s progress in seeing through that
directive.

Meanwhile, last month, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) said the
cannabis rescheduling appeal process “remains pending” despite Trump’s
executive order.

A recent Congressional Research Service (CRS) report discussed how DOJ
could, in theory, reject the president’s directive or delay the process by
restarting the scientific review into marijuana.

Bondi separately missed a congressionally mandated deadline last month to
issue guidelines for easing barriers to research on Schedule I substances
such as marijuana and psychedelics.

Last year, the FDA commissioner said exploring the therapeutic potential of
psychedelics such as psilocybin and ibogaine is a “top priority” for the
Trump administration, especially when it comes to helping military veterans
grapple with trauma from being sent to fight “unnecessary wars.”

Meanwhile, asked about the widespread availability of intoxicating
cannabinoid products, such as delta-8 THC, Makary warned last year that the
use of cannabinoids can lead to cardiac problems and psychosis.

The post FDA Head Says Marijuana Has ‘Benefit In Medical Conditions,’ But
Trump Administration Also Concerned About ‘Side Effects’ appeared first on Marijuana
Moment.