#Nancy Pelosi’s ill-advised boost for Big Pot

Enlarge Image

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., claims that weed is “a therapy that has been proven successful.”
AP

When asked recently how a legislative measure allowing the marijuana ­industry access to banking was germane to our nation’s ­response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Nancy Pelosi said that weed is “a therapy that has been proven successful.”

Come again? The House speaker’s claims were dangerous and flat-out incorrect.

As a former Obama administration drug-policy appointee, I was stung by her words. A host of reputable organizations, including the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the American Lung Association, have concluded that marijuana users are among the groups of people more likely to develop a severe case of COVID-19.

Dr. Nora Volkow, director of NIDA, stated in a blog post that “because it attacks the lungs, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 could be an especially serious threat to those who smoke tobacco or marijuana or who vape.”

Early on in the pandemic, viral memes made the rounds claiming that marijuana was a cure for COVID-19. Former NFL player-turned-pot-profiteer Kyle Turley has repeated this claim all over Twitter as he promotes his new line of cannabinoid and pot shop in Las Vegas.

In response, the Food and Drug Administration has been working overtime sending warning letters to Turley and other pot peddlers making false claims about marijuana’s efficacy as a coronavirus cure. A quick glance at the data shows why.

Marijuana smoke is known to damage lungs and has been found to contain many of the same harmful components as tobacco smoke. Evidence also suggests that it leads to the development of chronic bronchitis. Plus, marijuana use can potentially increase the risk of infections such as pneumonia, a common illness found in severe, often-fatal COVID-19 infections.

“OK, just eat edibles,” Big Pot’s cheerleaders retort. Not so fast.

Research has shown that THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, is an immunosuppressant. When it comes to fighting ­viral infections like the novel coronavirus, your immune system creates proteins that work to ­destroy the virus. THC inhibits the body’s ability to create these proteins, rendering it more susceptible to infection. This can ­result in more severe symptoms or a rougher recovery.

Marijuana is associated with a wide array of other harms. Before they encourage pot use and boost the industry that profits from it, lawmakers might consider the ­increased risk of severe mental ­issues such as schizophrenia, psychosis, anxiety, depression and suicidal thoughts. Those 1980s ­anti-drug ads may have been a tad overwrought, but a large and growing body of scientific evidence suggests they weren’t wide of the mark.

Let’s be honest: Pelosi’s weed provision had little to do with Americans’ health — and everything to do with pot shops getting access to the federal financial system. Big Pot has suggested that the lack of banking capabilities makes the industry a “cash-only” operation vulnerable to crime.

Nonsense. In reality, law enforcers have testified that most robberies of marijuana storefronts were aimed at procuring large amounts of the marijuana products for resale on the thriving black markets — not cash stowed away in heavy-duty safes.

Furthermore, undercover video from top pot shops in Denver shows many of these establishments accept card payment through workarounds.

Instead of working to grant the marijuana industry access to the banking system and blindly parroting industry rhetoric that has warranted repeated warnings from the FDA, our leaders on Capitol Hill must focus on mitigating the fallout of this pandemic.

The push for pot normalization is nothing more than an attempt to open up the marijuana industry to major investment firms, hedge funds, pension funds and established corporations, such as Big Tobacco. As former House Speaker and pot champion John Boehner says, such firms are keen to dive “headfirst into cannabis.”

Who would have thought boosting Big Pot would unite Boehner with his Democratic successor, Pelosi? They’re both wrong.

Kevin Sabet is a former three-time White House senior drug-policy adviser, serving the Clinton, Bush and Obama administrations. He serves as president of Smart Approaches to Marijuana.