The review doesn\u2019t surprise me. Both\u00a0the scientific\u00a0and\u00a0the anecdotal\u00a0evidence stand clearly against the use of this drug as a mental health treatment.\u00a0Indeed, I believe it\u2019s more likely to do harm than good. As the CEO of a group that advocates for\u00a0science-based drug policy, I spend a huge amount of time working with\u00a0individuals\u00a0and families harmed by marijuana.\u00a0Marijuana is far more dangerous than commonly understood, especially today\u2019s ultra-high-potency products. And\u00a0while\u00a0many advocates of medical marijuana are motivated by\u00a0genuine\u00a0compassion\u00a0for the sick\u00a0(though NORML founder Keith Stroup once called it a \u201cred herring<\/a>\u201d for legalization),\u00a0the increasing normalization of marijuana use over the past three decades has been a public health disaster. \u00a0<\/p>\n The\u00a0new review\u00a0 appears\u00a0in\u00a0the April issue of\u00a0Lancet Psychiatry. It takes in some 45 years of\u00a0randomized controlled trials on\u00a0the efficacy of\u00a0marijuana\u00a0for\u00a0mental health issues like PTSD as well as substance abuse disorders:\u00a0a total\u00a0of\u00a054 trials\u00a0with\u00a0close to 2,500 participants.\u00a0<\/p>\n Its\u00a0central finding? \u201cThere were no significant effects on outcomes associated with anxiety, anorexia nervosa, psychotic disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, and opioid use disorder,\u201d the authors write in the paper. The lead author told the press they \u201cfound no evidence any form of cannabis is effective in treating anxiety, depression or post-traumatic stress disorder, which are three of the leading reasons for which cannabis is prescribed.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t\tTobacco use, binge drinking decrease as Americans consume more marijuana, survey finds<\/a><\/p>\n This should not come as a surprise. Rigorously derived evidence for the medical efficacy of marijuana\u00a0is\u00a0thin and states creating\u00a0medical programs was primarily a political\u00a0move, decided at various ballot boxes. \u00a0<\/p>\n The wider literature\u00a0broadly\u00a0supports\u00a0The\u00a0Lancet\u00a0findings.\u00a0Take two recent publications as a representative\u00a0selection.\u00a0<\/p>\n One is\u00a0a Cochrane review, published in January<\/a>, that examined the literature on THC efficacy in treating chronic pain \u2014 another condition for which medical marijuana is frequently recommended. The review found\u00a0\u201cno clear evidence\u201d for THC\u2019s effect in achieving significant pain relief.\u00a0<\/p>\n The\u00a0second\u00a0is another systematic review<\/a>, which appeared in\u00a0JAMA\u00a0in\u00a0November. Led by researchers at UCLA, UCSF, and NYU, the review concluded, \u201cEvidence 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.\u201d The study\u2019s lead\u00a0author, Michael Hsu, noted in a press release:\u00a0\u201cWhile many people turn to cannabis seeking relief, our review highlights significant gaps between public perception and scientific evidence regarding its effectiveness for most medical conditions.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n And while renewed public attention to these issues is welcome, my work has kept me long\u00a0acquainted\u00a0with the fact that these\u00a0concerns\u00a0are not novel. While there is little to no meaningful evidence for the therapeutic potential of marijuana (outside FDA-approved drugs derived from it, like Marinol and Epidiolex), the evidence for its mental health harms is overwhelming. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n A\u00a0major study in\u00a0JAMA Health Forum<\/a>\u00a0published in February found that past-year cannabis use was associated with a more than double the risk of incident psychotic as well as bipolar disorders, a 34% higher risk of depressive disorder, and a 24% higher risk of anxiety disorders later in life. A\u00a0Canadian study<\/a>,\u00a0also\u00a0from February, found that people with\u00a0cannabis-use disorder (CUD)\u00a0developed schizophrenia\u00a0more than 12 times as\u00a0frequently\u00a0as\u00a0those with no CUD, even as\u00a0overall\u00a0schizophrenia\u00a0rates stayed\u00a0stable over time.\u00a0<\/p>\n A January study from\u00a0Mass General Brigham hospital researchers<\/a>\u00a0found that after commercialization in Massachusetts, rates of\u00a0marijuana\u00a0use and\u00a0marijuana-related disorders disproportionately increased among adolescents\u00a0who\u00a0arrived in the ER with\u00a0a psychiatric emergency.\u00a0In 2023,\u00a0a\u00a0Danish study covering<\/a>\u00a0the health data of almost\u00a07 million\u00a0found\u00a0that\u00a0cannabis use disorder\u00a0was associated with as much as 30% of schizophrenia\u00a0cases\u00a0among young men.\u00a0Another 2023 study, from Columbia University, found\u00a0that teens with non-disordered marijuana use<\/a>\u00a0(i.e.,\u00a0not addicts) had\u00a0approximately\u00a0two\u00a0to\u00a0four\u00a0times greater odds of\u00a0exhibiting\u00a0mental health issues.\u00a0A\u00a02019 study from The Lancet<\/a>\u00a0found an almost fivefold increase in the risk factor for psychotic disorder among daily marijuana users. \u00a0<\/p>\n None of this is should be surprising \u2014 we\u2019ve known about this connection for decades.\u00a0A 1987 study from\u00a0The Lancet<\/a>,\u00a0using Swedish data, found that the relative risk for schizophrenia among high consumers of cannabis (defined as\u00a0use on more than fifty occasions) was sixfold what it was for non-users.\u00a0<\/p>\n \t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t\tMore people with psychosis are using cannabis. Medical professionals are worried<\/a><\/p>\n The story these\u00a0data\u00a0tell \u2014 and have long been telling \u2014 is not that marijuana has\u00a0undiscovered\u00a0potential\u00a0blocked by federal policy.\u00a0On the contrary,\u00a0the best evidence we have suggests marijuana harms more than it helps. \u00a0<\/p>\n I have spent\u00a0years\u00a0following\u00a0the science\u00a0that undercuts\u00a0the effort to make marijuana into something it simply\u00a0isn\u2019t.\u00a0I\u2019ve\u00a0spent years\u00a0trying to mitigate the\u00a0human fallout of that campaign: broken families,\u00a0damaged users,\u00a0increased rates of addiction.\u00a0The\u00a0fact that\u00a0our\u00a0national media\u00a0has become\u00a0increasingly\u00a0focused on this side of the story is heartening.\u00a0Witness The\u00a0New York Times\u2019\u00a0recent and significant revision<\/a> of its\u00a0previous\u00a0position on the risks of legal marijuana, admitting that wide access and strong normalization have\u00a0degraded public\u00a0health. \u00a0<\/p>\n The same states that created medical marijuana programs\u00a0in order to\u00a0help sick people with no other options must start\u00a0following the science here as well. Otherwise, those\u00a0truly suffering \u2014 be it from PTSD, chronic pain, depression, or anything else \u2014 will be chasing a mirage. \u00a0<\/p>\n Kevin A. Sabet is the CEO of Smart Approaches\u00a0to\u00a0Marijuana. He holds a Ph.D. in\u00a0social policy from Oxford\u00a0and is on the adjunct faculty at the Yale School of\u00a0Medicine.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thirty-eight\u00a0states plus the District of Columbia\u00a0allow practitioners to recommend medical marijuana for post-traumatic stress disorder. But what if\u00a0they\u2019re\u00a0all…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":560090,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[19869,97,6149,259,22620],"class_list":{"0":"post-560089","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-advocacy","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-marijuana","11":"tag-mental-health","12":"tag-states"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=560089"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560089\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/560090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=560089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=560089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=560089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-2212725933-768x432.jpg\")
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