WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - The United States Surgeon General has issued an advisory emphasizing the importance of protecting youth and pregnant women in the country from the health risks of marijuana use.
Vice Admiral Jerome M. Adams said they may be using the banned substance not knowing that modern crops pose greater health risks because of their potency.
'Recent increases in access to marijuana and in its potency, along with misperceptions of safety of marijuana endanger our most precious resource, our nation's youth,' Vice Admiral Jerome M. Adams said in his advisory.
In a joint press conference with top health officials of the Trump administration, Adams stressed that modern marijuana is far more stronger than products from 20 years ago, with much higher levels of T.H.C., the high-inducing chemical in it.
T.H.C. poses risks for the developing fetal brain, and it could be passed to infants through breast milk, he warned.
The T.H.C concentration in commonly cultivated marijuana plants has increased three-fold between 1995 and 2014, according to the Department of Health and Human Services data.
The risks of physical dependence, addiction, and other negative consequences increase with exposure to high concentrations of THC7 and the younger the age of initiation.
The Surgeon General said that his office is issuing the advisory to raise awareness of the potential harms to developing brains, posed by the increasing availability of highly potent marijuana in multiple, concentrated forms.
Marijuana, also known as cannabis, is the most commonly used illicit drug in the United States. Its use, sale or possession remains illegal under federal law, while 33 American states have legalized marijuana in some way.
The Surgeon General's warning comes a week after Senator Bernie Sanders called for the legalization of marijuana at the federal level.
The presidential candidate also urged the use of 'therapeutic, not punitive solutions' to address drug addiction and called for change in federal laws to treat addiction as a mental health issue.
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