Marijuana reclassification is no public health victory

PUBLISHED: December 26, 2025 | www.baltimoresun.com

Some time between 62 and 65 A.D., Saint Peter wrote in I Peter: “Be alert and be of sober mind.” Imagine that. An instruction to be vigilant and sober-minded. Roughly 1,960 years later, it sounds anachronistic. Solemn and stern. Oddly out of place. Never, though, has it been more timely to be reminded of the need to be serious and sober.

Consider sinking into a comfortable chair and taking a deep and sustained puff of high-potency marijuana; immediately, seriousness and sobriety are out the window. Not to worry, though. On Dec. 18, 2025, marijuana was destigmatized. The president directed that it be rescheduled from Schedule I on the drug classification scale to Schedule III. Drugs in this class have recognized medical benefits and little risk of psychological or physical addiction.

Cannabis is not legalized for recreational usage, but the stigma associated with it is reduced. Not to mention the huge financial boost reclassification provides to the marijuana industry. While in Schedule I, businesses involved in trafficking marijuana could not deduct ordinary expenses such as rent, salaries and marketing costs. Now this penalty is removed, allowing full deductions. It is estimated that this could boost after-tax profits by 40-to-70% for U.S. operators. The executive order also provides Medicare beneficiaries with $500/year of CBD products at no cost. All of this caused many to celebrate the decreased restrictions and generous Medicare support as welcome though overdue progress. Another Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) victory.

Beware the government bearing gifts. Recent data regarding the hazards of marijuana usage are compelling and entirely understated. This tranche of information comes from recently undertaken medical research and centers on risks to the two central pavilions of our health. The first is the heart. Researchers led by Dr. Ibrahim Kamel presented data at the 2025 Annual Scientific Sessions of the American College of Cardiology, reporting on the risk of acute myocardial infarction or heart attack associated with smoking marijuana. The authors pooled data from a number of prior observational studies and found that marijuana usage was associated with a 50% increased risk of heart attack. Some individual components had even higher risk, particularly young and otherwise healthy adults. In that patient cohort of users under 50 years age of without the traditional risk factors for cardiovascular disease, the heart attack risk was up to sixfold increased.

Dr. Kamel’s work was aligned with other previously reported data. In 2024, Abra Jeffers et. al. published their findings in the Journal of the American Heart Association. They surveyed 430,000 patients’ data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and reported that daily cannabis usage was associated with a 25% higher adjusted odds risk of a heart attack, independent of tobacco usage. Here again, the risk was yet higher among young users, with daily marijuana consumption carrying a 49% higher odds-adjusted risk. How marijuana raises cardiac risk to this extent is not yet clear, but the primary culprit appears to be delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the principal psychoactive compound found in marijuana.

Then there is the brain. Here, both neurocognitive and psychiatric hazards are clearly established. Prenatal cannabis exposure occurs as THC crosses the placenta and interacts with fetal brain development. Meta-analysis from 2024-2025 identified elevated risk of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism spectrum disorder. Persistent adolescent usage has been linked to an average 8-point decline in IQ.

As if we need another reason to further diminish our math and reading skills among American students. Even in adults, long-term heavy cannabis usage is associated with measurably declined IQ, as well as diminished memory and processing speed. Then comes the psychiatric hazard, the potential shattering of our inner lives. Cannabis exposure, particularly during adolescence, is now deeply associated with an increased risk of psychosis. Multiple systematic reviews and longitudinal studies consistently show a dose-dependent association between marijuana and psychotic disorders.

Meta-analyses have identified a 40-to-43% increased odds of psychotic outcomes. Heavy and frequent exposure increased the risk of schizophrenia some fourfold compared with non-users. These risks are particularly encountered in adolescent and young adult users and those with a genetic predisposition to major affective disease. While most users do not experience psychiatric symptoms, the population-attributable fraction of people with schizophrenic disorders attributable to cannabis is between 8% and 14%. A recent Canadian study led by Dr. Daniel T. Myran examined the risk associated with cannabis use disorder requiring hospitalization. Following hospital discharge, they found a nearly three-fold increased risk of all-cause death within five years and an approximately 9.7-to-10-fold increased risk of suicide.

Thought leaders within the medical community have aired a range of responses. Dr. Joseph Maroon, a world-renowned neurosurgeon, previously wrote: “We now face serious physical and long-term mental health issues due to the laissez-faire attitude about young people using marijuana during critical times of brain development.” Likewise, authors writing a psychiatric analysis in the Journal of the American Medical Association wrote that the Department of Health and Human Services “failed to adequately address the adverse effects of cannabis use.” Dr. Bryan Donohue, an expert in the treatment of patients with heart attacks, points to the already established cardiac risk associated with cannabis usage and opposed marijuana’s greater dissemination. Some medical authorities cited greater “physician comfort in recommending medical marijuana.”

At the Dec. 18 White House ceremony, President Donald Trump said that the reclassification “will make it far easier to conduct marijuana-related research.” Yet the research we already have in hand powerfully argues against placing marijuana alongside testosterone and Tylenol with codeine. The scolds at MAHA have trumpeted the dangers of Tylenol and the measles vaccine. The cannabis genie, with all its known and well-established toxicity, they release from the bottle with clapping hands and a singing fete. St. Peter was right.

Armstrong Williams (www.armstrongwilliams.com; @arightside) is a political analyst, syndicated columnist and owner of the broadcasting company, Howard Stirk Holdings. He is also part owner of The Baltimore Sun.

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