Medical-marijuana study reveals Big Weed’s big lies

 Marijuana advocate Keith Stroup famously said that medical marijuana was a “red herring” for making the recreational use of the drug legal — and now the data have proven him 100% correct.

A bombshell new review from researchers at top-tier universities, appearing in the Journal of the American Medical Association, concludes that “evidence from randomized clinical trials does not support the use of cannabis or cannabinoids for most conditions for which it is promoted, such as acute pain and insomnia.”

In other words, medical marijuana doesn’t work — right there, in black and white, despite years of promoters and addiction profiteers shouting that it was the next miracle drug.

It won’t cure insomnia or chronic pain or psychological problems.

What does it do?

The authors found that smoking weed every day more than doubles your risk of heart disease and stroke, and that the use of today’s high-potency THC vastly increases the risk of psychosis and anxiety disorders.

They also found that almost 30% of people using medical marijuana met the criteria for cannabis use disorder, better known as addiction.

For perspective, between 3% and 12% of people using opioids medically fall into that category.

While a handful of FDA-approved medicines contain cannabinoids, the raw plant itself is not and can never be medicine.

The products obtained at “medical marijuana” dispensaries are not regulated like pharmaceuticals, and their claims are not backed up by scientific evidence.

There is no standard dosing procedure, no government safety testing, no product verification, and no real physician oversight to verify if the products are helping — or if they are actually doing harm.

And unlike prescription medications, products can vary from batch to batch.

The new study builds on the findings of prior research.

A May 2025 study found that marijuana causes vascular damage, and a March meta-analysis found that marijuana users are 51% more likely than non-users to have had a heart attack.

A recent European study found that the risk of type 2 diabetes was four times higher among marijuana users.   

Yet thanks to a toxic combination of corporate avarice and a steadfast refusal to confront the actual science, some 38 states and the District of Columbia now let doctors make medical-marijuana recommendations.

The state-level data around how these recommendations work should worry anyone concerned about public health.

In Pennsylvania in 2022, 17 doctors — you read that right — issued an astounding 132,000 medical-marijuana certifications, one-third of the state’s total that year.

The results: widespread social normalization of marijuana use, just as Stroup and other advocates intended — and all the social ills that follow.

Remember that marijuana use has deep connections to psychosis, violence and crime.

One 2024 study found a connection between daily cannabis use and higher rates of violence, especially among younger men.

A massive Danish study linked the drug to as many as 30% of schizophrenia cases among young males.

A 2019 study in Colorado found that “density of marijuana outlets in spatially adjacent areas were positively related [to] property crime in spatially adjacent areas over time.” A similar study in California uncovered the same result.

A landmark 2024 study found a strong connection between legalized recreational pot and lasting increases in murder, larceny and other crimes.

It’s slamming New York, too: In a recent report, we found that consumption has increased in the Empire State since legalization, along with emergency-room visits for weed and use by pregnant women — even as the illegal market bloomed, with an estimated 8,000 unlicensed shops statewide.

Over the long term, the more common and normalized weed use gets, the more cities, counties and states will see avoidable tragedies.

Another common claim from advocates: advancing marijuana legalization would help marginalized communities.

But zero people are in federal prison for simple pot possession, and virtually no one is imprisoned at the state level for weed offenses alone.

And data deeply inconvenient to the wider “equity” argument came out this summer from Harvard and Columbia researchers: Poorer, less-white areas are between 2 and 2.5 times as likely to have pot shops.

Marginalized communities suffer the most when weed shops move in.

In short, all the claims behind legal marijuana — medical or recreational — go up in smoke on closer examination.

Big Weed has sold us a bill of goods, and we’ve given ourselves over to a mass mania, disregarding scientific proof.

President Donald Trump is reportedly poised to downgrade marijuana’s federal classification, and in so doing hand a massive boost to the weed industry.

He’s even posted videos on Truth Social extolling the (sketchy) benefits of CBD oil.

But this new study shows America needs to cut off, not foster, corporate marijuana.

For the sake of science, safety and public health, the president should pay heed.

Kevin Sabet is president and CEO of Smart Approaches to Marijuana.

https://nypost.com/2025/12/15/opinion/shocking-medical-marijuana-study-reveals-big-weeds-big-lies/