Fox News – The push to legalize recreational marijuana across the U.S. has been linked to a troubling rise in mental health issues, suicides and an increased risk for psychosis, but “money-hungry” cannabis investors are leading the charge to commercialize the drug nationwide, Dr. Kevin Sabet warned Sunday.
Sabet, a former White House drug policy adviser to Presidents Obama, Bush and Clinton, highlighted the unintended consequences of legalizing the substance on “Sunday Night in America,” slamming the “addiction for-profit” pot industry for encouraging widespread drug usage to benefit their bottom line.
“The net result hasn’t been good at all. Marijuana is the most misunderstood drug in our country today, it is so much stronger than it used to be…. this is a totally different drug,” Sabet told Fox News host Trey Gowdy.
“It’s been genetically bred to be much stronger than it ever has been. And It’s been driven by a money-hungry addiction for profit industry that resembles really the worst of tobacco and alcohol. If you think about it, it gets you intoxicated like alcohol and tobacco and then you inhale all these harmful compounds,” he said.
SIX-FOLD INCREASE IN SUICIDE
At least 23 U.S. states have already legalized recreational marijuana for adults with more expected to follow suit in the coming years. Washington and Colorado became the first states to approve legal recreational use in 2012. New York legalized marijuana recreationally in 2021.
“We are seeing a lot of problems,” Sabet, who is the current president and CEO of the nonprofit Smart Approaches to Marijuana, told Gowdy.
“There is a massive increase in mental illness as a result of this increase in marijuana use. We know that today’s marijuana can quintuple your risk of psychosis and schizophrenia which is the worst thing you can imagine. It increases about six times the risk of suicide. We have a suicide epidemic in this country” …
