Trump Administration To Issue Warnings About Marijuana’s Impact On Youth Under Plan Led By RFK Jr.

The Trump administration has announced a “Make Our Children Healthy Again”
initiative that will involve having the U.S. surgeon general launch an
educational campaign on the impact of marijuana on youth health.

On Tuesday, the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Commission unveiled the
plan, which would be coordinated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services (HHS) under Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. It involves more than
120 initiatives on a wide range of health-related concerns.

Part of the MAHA Commission’s plan calls on U.S. Surgeon General Denise
Hinton to “launch an education and awareness initiative on the impact of
alcohol, controlled substances, vaping, and THC on children’s health.”

Under the plan, the Food and Drug Administration and Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) will also be tasked with increasing
“enforcement on illegal vaping products, as well as “awareness through a
shared public campaign that the Administration will not allow unapproved
vaping products targeting children to continue flooding our country.”

Additionally, after moving to schedule the synthetic kratom alkaloid 7-OH,
FDA will now be taking steps to “educate the public regarding the dangers”
of that and other synthetic opioid products. The report notes that 7-OH is
“distinct from natural kratom.”

“To turn the tide and better protect our children, the United States must
act decisively,” a White House webpage about the effort says. “During this
administration, we will begin reversing the childhood chronic disease
crisis by confronting its root causes—not just its symptoms. This means
pursuing truth, embracing science, and enacting pro-growth policies and
innovations to restore children’s health.”

Details of the plan were previously leaked to The New York Times.

“This strategy represents the most sweeping reform agenda in modern
history—realigning our food and health systems, driving education, and
unleashing science to protect America’s children and families,” Kennedy said
of the overall initiative. “We are ending the corporate capture of public
health, restoring transparency, and putting gold-standard science—not
special interests—at the center of every decision.”

Jay Bhattacharya, director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), said
the “MAHA Report provides a blueprint for the entire government to focus on
solving the chronic disease crisis facing American children.”

“We must make America healthy again so our children live longer and
healthier lives than we will,” he said.

This comes as the administration and Congress are looking at other key
cannabis proposals, including the Biden administration-initiated plan to
move marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances
Act (CSA).

That process has been stalled for months, but the president said late last
month that a decision would be made within weeks. Key influencers in the
MAGA world have expressed mixed opinions about the reform, which would not
legalize cannabis but would let state-licensed marijuana businesses take
federal tax deductions and help address current research barriers for the
Schedule I substance.

For his part, Kennedy—who serves as chairman of the Make America Healthy
Again Commission under the president’s executive order—was vocal about his
support for marijuana legalization when he was running for president as a
Democratic and then an independent, as well as during his time on the Trump
transition team. But he’s been more muted on the issue since being
confirmed.

During an interview in February, however, he said: “I hear stories all the
time of the impacts of marijuana on people—and the really catastrophic
impacts on them.”

*Photo courtesy of Mike Latimer.*

The post Trump Administration To Issue Warnings About Marijuana’s Impact On
Youth Under Plan Led By RFK Jr. appeared first on Marijuana Moment.