Trump’s Choice For Surgeon General Voiced Support For Medical Marijuana, But Also Linked Cannabis Use To Heart Problems

President-elect Donald Trump has announced his intent to nominate physician and Fox News correspondent Janette Nesheiwat to become the next U.S. surgeon general. And as far as marijuana policy is concerned, she’s said that she’s “all for” the use of medical cannabis for certain conditions.

While Nesheiwat’s stance on broader reform is unclear, her social media posts and media appearances signal that she’s at least supportive of allowing access to medical marijuana for patients with conditions like seizure disorders or cancer. However, she’s also promoted research linking cannabis smoking to cardiovascular issues.

Citing a study last year, Nesheiwat said “if you use marijuana—whether you smoke marijuana or vape or use edibles—then you have an increased risk by about 25 percent of developing a heart attack, or about 42 percent increased risk of developing a stroke, which can leave you paralyzed or take your life.”

“Why is this? When you inhale marijuana, for example, you are inhaling particulate matter, which is causing inflammation to the blood vessels—inflammation and irritation to blood vessels to your heart, to your brain and to other organs in your body,” she said. “So you might want to think twice before you light up. Make sure you take care of yourself.”

Do you smoke pot? 🪴 New info published by the American Heart Association found that people who smoke marijuana have a higher risk of heart attack & stroke. 800,00O Americans have a heart attack/stroke each year. Knowing this information, will you quit smoking? pic.twitter.com/bFq7eOgVSN

— Dr Janette Nesheiwat (@DoctorJanette) March 1, 2024

In 2019, she also weighed in on a lung injury crisis that stemmed from contaminated vape cartridges containing “both nicotine and THC, the high-inducing chemical in marijuana.”

Happy #LaborDay! You can catch me on @AmericaNewsroom@FoxNews TODAY @ 10:45am EST— I’ll discuss the hundreds of severe lung injuries that have been reported in #teens and young adults from #vaping both #nicotine and #THC, the high-inducing chemical in #marijuana—Tune in! pic.twitter.com/RjheXWMEKJ

— Dr Janette Nesheiwat (@DoctorJanette) September 2, 2019

But in 2018, she expressed support for the use of medical cannabis, at least for select conditions. In response to a social media post calling for marijuana reform, she said “I’m all for medical marijuana. seizures, cancer patients etc.”

I’m all for medical marijuana. seizures, cancer patients etc

— Dr Janette Nesheiwat (@DoctorJanette) May 9, 2018

In 2021, Nesheiwat seemed to criticize the decision to suspend U.S. runner Sha’Carri Richardson from the Olympics over a positive THC test, challenging the idea that marijuana is a performance enhancing drug.

“Marijuana doesn’t makes you run faster. She did not use anabolic steroids. It was pot,” she said. “Let her run.”

Let her run.

— Dr Janette Nesheiwat (@DoctorJanette) July 2, 2021

While the surgeon general doesn’t play an especially direct role in policymaking around drugs, the position has served as a key messaging vehicle for White House health platforms.

Under the Biden administration in 2021, for example, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy weighed in on marijuana decriminalization, saying “I don’t think that there is value to individuals or to society to lock people up for marijuana use. I don’t think that serves anybody well.”

Meanwhile, Jerome Adams, the surgeon general under the first Trump administration, issued an advisory in 2019 that warned about the risks of using marijuana, particularly for pregnant women and adolescents. It also contained misleading statements about the cannabis legalization movement.

So far, the president-elect’s cabinet choices have run the gamut as far as their cannabis positions are concerned.

For example, the next head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) could be a vociferous opponent of marijuana reform if the former GOP Florida congressman that Trump selected for the job, Dave Weldon, is ultimately confirmed.

Trump’s pick to run the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is also a medical marijuana skeptic, promoting claims that cannabis use is linked to cardiovascular issues and mental health problems for youth. He has also suggested that marijuana is a gateway drug.

In contrast, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the president-elect’s choice for secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that oversees FDA, supports ending marijuana prohibition and legalizing certain psychedelics for therapeutic purposes.

Meanwhile, pro-legalization former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) was recently replaced by former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi (R), who opposed medical cannabis legalization in the state, as Trump’s choice to for U.S. attorney general.

A non-governmental advisory body that Trump is putting together will have two familiar names helming the ship: Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy. And while both are proponents of marijuana and psychedelics reform, giving hope to some reformers that the new entity will recommend scaling back the costly war on drugs, Ramaswamy has previously insisted on expanding the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

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Youth Marijuana Use Remains Stable Amid Surge Of State-Level Legalization, Feds Report

Youth marijuana use continues to be stable, even as more states move to legalize the plant, according to the latest edition of an annual survey funded by the federal government.

The Monitoring the Future (MTF) report, released on Tuesday, found that cannabis consumption among adolescents “did not significantly change in any of the three grades for lifetime use, past 12-month use, past 30-day use, and daily use from 2019-2020.” That’s based on self-reports from 8th, 10th and 12th grade students.

What’s more, daily marijuana vaping actually decreased by more than half during that time period for 10th and 12th graders. It’s down to 1.1 percent and 1.5 percent, respectively.

NEWS: Rates of past-year #nicotine and #marijuana vaping among high schoolers remained steady from 2019 to early 2020, although they are still high. See the latest #MonitoringTheFuture survey results on teen drug use:https://t.co/giFEFnZaeB#MTF2020pic.twitter.com/9epVIQbnzu

— nidanews (@NIDAnews) December 15, 2020

For all three grades, lifetime cannabis use, past 30-day consumption and daily use either remained the same or slightly decreased from 2019 to 2020, the survey shows. The only exception is daily use among 12th grade students, which ticked up by half a percentage point.

Perceptions of the harmfulness of marijuana also generally remained stable.

These results run counter to the narrative that prohibitionists have consistently put forward, arguing that the state-level legalization movement will lead to significant increases in youth cannabis use because it would normalize the behavior.

Advocates have countered that establishing regulated marijuana programs would restrict access to underage people, while at the same time mitigating the influence of the illicit markets where policies like ID checks are not required.

The 2018 MTF survey, which is conducted by the University of Michigan and funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, also revealed that fewer adolescents are using marijuana now compared to 2012, when the first states moved to legalize cannabis.

These results are consistent with other federal data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The agency’s biennial Youth Risk Behavior Survey found that marijuana consumption among high school students declined during the peak years of state-legal recreational cannabis legalization.

There was “no change” in the rate of current cannabis use among high school students from 2009-2019, the survey found. When analyzed using a quadratic change model, however, lifetime marijuana consumption decreased during that period.

The prohibitionist argument that cannabis legalization would embolden young people to use cannabis has been repeatedly debunked in research. And the claim becomes all the more shaky each year as more states legalize legislatively or through the ballot.

Colorado and Washington were the first two states to legalize marijuana, in 2012. Since then, additional states have come on board with every election cycle. Most recently, Arizona, Mississippi Montana, New Jersey and South Dakota voters elected to enact the reform via the ballot last month.

Another study released by Colorado officials in August showed that youth cannabis consumption in the state “has not significantly changed since legalization” in 2012, though methods of consumption are diversifying.

An official with the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy’s National Marijuana Initiative went even further in July, admitting that, for reasons that are unclear, youth consumption of cannabis “is going down” in Colorado and other legalized states and that it’s “a good thing” even if “we don’t understand why.”

Past studies looking at teen use rates after legalization have found declines in consumption or a similar lack of evidence indicating there’s been an increase.

Last year, for example, a study took data from Washington State and determined that declining youth marijuana consumption could be explained by replacing the illicit market with regulations or the “loss of novelty appeal among youths.” Another study from last year showed declining youth cannabis consumption in legalized states but didn’t suggest possible explanations.

Federal Marijuana Legalization Is ‘Inevitable,’ Voters In States That Passed Cannabis Measures Say In New Poll

Photo courtesy of Martin Alonso.