SEPARATING MARIJUANA FACT FROM FICTION IN NEW YORK--RESPONSE TO THE “ASSESSMENT OF THE POTENTIAL IMPACT OF REGULATED MARIJUANA IN NEW YORK STATE”--AUGUST 2018
Executive Summary
"...Recently, New York State (NYS) released what they claimed to be “an extensive assessment of current research and literature to evaluate the cost-risk benefit of legalizing the recreational adult use of marijuana.”
The overall conclusion of this assessment was that marijuana poses little public health risk and should be considered for legalization. But a closer look finds several flaws in the report that questions its purpose and conclusions.
Unfortunately, it appears that the conclusion of the NYS report was written before the data were analyzed. The legalization of recreational marijuana is presented in the introduction as a fait accompli: “It has become less a question of whether to legalize but how to do so responsibly.” Much of the report discusses how to decrease the dangers of legal recreational marijuana. The best way to lessen the danger is to keep it from being commercialized, normalized, promoted – and legalized.
The report conflates the issues of medical marijuana and commercial sales of recreational marijuana. The potential medical benefits of medical cannabis are already available in New York. Adding indiscriminate recreational use does not increase any health benefit to New Yorkers.
Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM) is advised by a scientific advisory board of researchers from institutions such as Harvard and Johns Hopkins. SAM believes in the need for rational, well-informed public policy – legislation that maximizes public health benefits and minimizes harms.
This state-issued report reads more like a marijuana lobbyist’s manifesto, as we found no credible opposing evidence cited.
Based on our findings, the reference to unlisted “subject-matter experts” that the report apparently relied on, and the fact that state medical groups like the New York Society for Addiction Medicine (NYSAM) were not consulted with, we are formally requesting that the state of New York publicly disclose all sources that were consulted and those that contributed to creation of the document. We believe that National Instutute of Health (NIH) scientists, NYSAM physicians, and other experts should have the chance to review these findings. …"