Sean Spicer correlated marijuana use to opioid addiction. Medical research is not on his side
The epidemic of opioid addiction in the United States has been well documented. A staggering 33,000 people died in 2015 from overdosing on prescription painkillers, heroin or similar drugs, on par with the number killed by firearms and in car accidents.
The epidemic is growing, but its general causes are not in dispute. Nearly all research on the issue shows that excessive and improper prescriptions are whats causing more people to become addicted.
During a press conference, Spicer said that he expects states to face greater enforcement of federal laws against marijuana under the Trump administration, even in places where it has been decriminalized, as The Washington Post reported. As a rationale, he cited the rise in illicit drug use.
When you see something like the opioid addiction crisis blossoming in so many states around this country, Spicer said, the last thing we should be doing is encouraging people theres a federal law that we need to abide by when it comes to recreational marijuana and other drugs of that nature.
It was an extraordinary statement for two reasons. First, marijuana has nowhere near the same addictive or potentially lethal properties that opioids do. Second, Spicer seemed to imply that recreational marijuana use could lead people to try more dangerous drugs a controversial claim commonly called the gateway drug theory.
Spicers remarks drew rebukes from a chorus of outraged marijuana advocates. The press secretary contradicted known science and medical research by tacitly pinning the blame for the countrys heroin problem on marijuana, the pro-pot magazine High Times wrote. The National Cannabis Industry Association had a similar take. Science has discredited the idea that marijuana serves as any kind of gateway drug, executive director Aaron Smith said, and the addiction and death rates associated with opioids simply do not occur in any way with cannabis.
Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson on Thursday vowed to push back on the administrations possible crackdown in his state, which was among the first to legalize recreational marijuana. In a letter to the Department of Justice earlier this month, he argued that efforts to combat the opioid epidemic will not be helped by a renewed law enforcement focus on marijuana.
To the extent that DOJ chooses to reallocate anti-drug resources, he said, we encourage it to work even more closely with the states to combat the opioid scourge.
Little evidence exists linking marijuana use to the opioid crisis. Indeed, a growing body of research suggests that decriminalized marijuana is associated with lower rates of opioid abuse and fewer opioid-related fatalities.
A recent study from Columbia Universitys Mailman School of Public Health involving data from 18 states found that those with medical marijuana laws experienced a reduction in opioid involvement in fatal car accidents, as The Post reported. Researchers said the conclusion was straightforward: In states with medical marijuana laws, fewer individuals are using opioids.
A more exhaustive study published in the prestigious JAMA Internal Medicine in 2014 found that annual overdose rates were nearly 25 percent lower in states with medical cannabis laws than those without them. The analysis of more than a decade of cause of death data showed that such laws were associated with a lower rate of overdose mortality that generally strengthened over time, the study found.
Some advocates have even gone so far as to propose using medical marijuana to ...
