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Dear friend,

Below is an opinion piece I wrote this week for the Wall Street Journal laying out
how the marijuana industry is to blame for more cases of this debilitating illness
than was initially thought, using recent data from the Centers for Disease Control
(CDC).
As you know, the marijuana industry has been working non-stop to push the fact that
its "regulated" products are not involved in the ongoing marijuana vaping crisis.
But as more data are released, and the picture becomes clearer, it becomes clearer
that our efforts have never been more crucial.
Please share this far and wide to help combat Big Marijuana's spin.
You can view this piece below or read it here [[link removed]].
Please consider chipping in a tax-deductible gift to SAM today [[link removed]]
to help keep us on the front lines in this fight for public health, safety, and
commonsense.
Together, we can help save lives,
Dr. Kevin Sabet,
Founder and President
Smart Approaches to Marijuana
Proponents of the marijuana industry have dismissed the "pot vaping crisis," with
its deaths and lung injuries, as an aberration of the illicit market. Legal pot,
they say, is regulated and thus not to blame for the recent spate of problems.
Victims and families who came forward to warn about purchases made at state-licensed
shops were lambasted by legalization advocates. When the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention advised against using all marijuana vaping products, industry insiders
questioned their motives and called the warnings conspiracy theories.
Now the CDC has data to prove it. According to the agency's newly released report,
state-sanctioned marijuana shops are contributing to the rise in lung illnesses
and deaths at a higher rate than previously believed. Moreover, the growth in contraband
coming from states that have legalized marijuana has made it nearly impossible for
the CDC to keep track of actual data in real time.
The constant stream of promotion from the pot industry continues to drive up the
rate of marijuana use nationwide. According to recent surveys, marijuana use among
young people in legal states has increased 8% in the past year and is 50% higher
than use in nonlegal states. Other research recently published by professors at
New York University and Columbia found addiction among adolescents was 25% higher
in legal states. And marijuana vaping among high-school students has more than doubled
since 2017.
Refuting the marijuana industry's pronouncements over the past year, the CDC report
details a clear causal connection between "legal" marijuana and a continuing public-health
crisis. According to the report, 131 of 809 patients who confirmed to researchers
where they purchased their products admitted to using commercial sources only, which
the CDC defines as "recreational dispensaries, medical dispensaries, or both; vape
or smoke shops; stores; and pop-up shops."
And although the CDC can trace this vaping crisis back to state-sanctioned pot shops
and dispensaries in 131 cases, in reality the number is potentially much higher.
The report states that 627 patients bought tainted vape products only from informal
sources, defined as "friends, family, in-person or online dealers, or other sources."
But how informal are these sources? Despite promises to the contrary by legal-marijuana
advocates, the rise of corporate marijuana at the state level has not ended-or even
significantly shrunk-the illicit market. A thriving underground market has sprung
up across the country at every level of the newly "legal" supply chain. Whether
it's front-of-store "budtenders" or growers with excess product, marijuana is making
its way across state lines, violating the law of the U.S. and many states.
Marijuana advocates have ignored the blurring of the line between licit and illicit
markets, which has had deadly ramifications to public health. What they've spent
the last year decrying as an illicit source-a dealer on the street or purchase
from friends and family-often originates at a marijuana shop that is legal under
the laws of its state.
Activists blame federal law for the vaping crisis, say it's necessary to legalize
marijuana completely, and insist that commercially sold marijuana has caused not
one lung injury. It turns out to have caused at least 131.
Dr. Kevin Sabet is president of Smart Approaches to Marijuana and a former senior
drug policy adviser to the Obama administration.
About SAM:
Smart Approaches to Marijuana [[link removed]]
(SAM) is a nonpartisan, non-profit alliance of physicians, policy makers, prevention
workers, treatment and recovery professionals, scientists, and other concerned citizens
opposed to marijuana legalization who want health and scientific evidence to guide
marijuana policies. SAM has affiliates in more than 30 states.

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