Dr. Oz Says Patients Whose Doctors Recommend Marijuana For Pain Should ‘Give It A Try’

Dr. Oz says patients whose doctors recommend medical marijuana for pain should “give it a try,” especially if they’re senior citizens. However, he cautioned against broader cannabis use for recreational purposes.

In a syndicated health advice column that was first published on Wednesday, former TV health personality Mehmet Oz responded to a reader’s question about the pros and cons of smoking marijuana or taking edibles.

Oz and co-author Michael Roizen, a doctor focused on aging, started by making clear that “smoking anything creates damaging inflammation throughout your body.” With respect to research on the two most well-known cannabinoids, CBD and THC, that’s “an evolving field with limited research,” they wrote.

There’s evidence that CBD can curtail seizures, and THC can help alleviate nausea associated with cancer treatment, the doctors said. For pain management, there’s a “mixed bag” of studies on the efficacy of marijuana.

“Our advice: If your physician recommends it to manage pain, especially if you’re 65 and older, give it a try,” Oz and Roizen said.

During his unsuccessful 2022 run for Senate against then-Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman (D), Oz criticized his opponent for supporting marijuana legalization. But previously, in 2020, he called cannabis “one of the most underused tools in America,” saying that the plant is safer than alcohol.

He said at the time he believes that, for seniors in particular, marijuana for pain represents a “safer solution than, for example, narcotics in many cases.”

In his latest column, Oz made various claims about the dangers of recreational marijuana use, saying it “can have lots of negative repercussions and that especially concerns us for young folks, who, now that pot is de-criminalized, may think they need it to get through the day.”

He also peddled a dubious claim that smoking a cannabis joint “produces eight times as much lung- and brain-damaging particulate matter as one manufactured cigarette.” And he said “chronic use of cannabis is linked to respiratory issues and an increased risk for testicular cancer, anxiety and depression.”

“All of this means we need more standardized products and more studies of those products to determine risks and benefits,” Oz and Roizen said.

Again, despite his claims on the campaign trail while running for Senate, and in his latest comments, Oz previously seemed supportive of broader reform, saying in 2020 that we “ought to completely change our policy on marijuana. It absolutely works.”

“Now I’ve seen this helping people with sleep issues, with pain issues for sure, and a lot of people who have serious medical problems getting relief—and here’s the thing, you can’t die from it,” he said. “I’m unaware of any case when anyone has overdosed.”

Oz has also previously asserted that marijuana could represent a tool to combat the opioid epidemic and has made other public comments about the plant’s therapeutic potential.

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