Tying marijuana to opioid crisis is false information

So much for hoping that the federal government will abandon its failed and outdated marijuana policies anytime soon. If anything, it seems like the Trump administration is getting ready to retrench.

Recently White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer seemed to tie marijuana use to the country’s opioid crisis, in comments promising “greater enforcement” of federal laws against marijuana.

The fact is that correlations like the one drawn by Spicer are incorrect and irresponsible. The scientific debate over marijuana’s risks and its status as a so-called “gateway drug” is largely settled.

Those like Spicer and Michele Leonhart, the former Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration, who continue to peddle antiquated and discredited theories about marijuana are actually doing harm by obscuring the real issues behind the addiction crisis.

The real gateways to addiction are poverty, mental health issues, trauma, and America’s penchant for criminalizing and stigmatizing drug users through popular misconceptions and the country’s ill-conceived (and failed) “War on Drugs.”

That doesn’t mean marijuana is harmless. And there is particular concern surrounding how its use affects the brains of adolescents. Then again, no one that we know of is proposing to allow schoolchildren recreational access to this drug. And a growing body of evidence — starting with Colorado in 2010 — is suggesting that medical legalization of marijuana could actually lower rates of adolescent use.

Spicer did acknowledge a difference between the administration’s views of medical marijuana and recreational use. But promising a crackdown on either is misguided and counterproductive.

The federal government’s mission should be helping states to address the crises of opioid addiction and overdoses that have been sweeping this country for years. Sadly, there’s almost no evidence showing recreational marijuana use could drive up opioid abuse. A 2016 review that collected more than a decade’s worth of academic studies on the drug found no — zero — credible reports tying marijuana to a person’s first time using opioids. In fact, a 2014 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that states with medical marijuana laws had significantly lower opioid overdose mortality rates.

Communities in Pennsylvania, which are struggling with this crisis, should welcome the responsible legalization of marijuana for specific medical uses. That’s what state lawmakers delivered in 2016, when they voted to legalize the non-smoking medical use of marijuana for 20 conditions.

If the federal government won’t actively aid states’ efforts to improve patients’ access to treatments which can improve their quality of life, they can at least stop selling half-baked theories about the cause of one of the worst public health crises this country has ever faced.