John Fetterman Had Some Questions For Anti-Cannabis Crusader At Senate Hearing, Here's Why

During Thursday's Senate hearing on the Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act, Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) used his time to ask the CEO of an anti-legalization organization several important questions.

Fetterman pressed anti-cannabis crusader Kevin Sabet of Smart Approaches to Marijuana about data regarding marijuana-related deaths as compared to deaths resulting from alcohol, tobacco, over-the-counter painkillers and opioids. Sabet, whose testimony to other Senators tended to paint a dangerous picture of legal cannabis from death to addiction to dysfunction. 

Fettterman asked Sabet whether Canada had "slid into anarchy" after it legalized cannabis in 2018.

“Do you oppose legal cannabis because of the deaths?" Fetterman asked. "If so, what about the 120,000 annual deaths from alcohol or 400,000 deaths from tobacco? Have there been any deaths from cannabis?”

Sabet, who initially waffled, finally admitted that there have been no known cases of deaths caused by THC overdoses, anywhere. 

Closer Look At Canada: No Anarchy

In that Fetterman brought up Canada as a way of looking at the longer-term effects of legal weed, here is a recent report from Canada itself published in the journal Drug and Alcohol Review and analyzed by NORML.  

Adult-use cannabis legalization in Canada is not associated with any short-term increase in the percentage of people engaging in problematic use or consumption. 

Researchers with the University of Waterloo assessed what they called high-risk cannabis use among respondents aged 16 to 65 in the years immediately prior to and following Canada's legalization.

In the two years following legalization, researchers identified “no evidence of a change in the proportion of those whose cannabis use would be classified as ‘high risk.’”

Researchers concluded: “The risk of problematic cannabis use does not appear to have increased in the two years following cannabis legalization in Canada.”

NORML pointed out that data from the United States has similarly failed to identify any uptick in incidences of problematic cannabis use following state-level legalization, especially among young people. Indeed alcohol and tobacco use has dropped among teens and young adults in weed-legal states.

Separate studies assessing the ‘before’ and ‘after’ effects of Canada’s marijuana legalization law have also failed to identify any increase in incidences of cannabis-induced psychosis, car crashes or other forms of traumatic injuries, or intoxication-related ER visits.

Data also shows that a steadily rising percentage of consumers acknowledge obtaining cannabis from the legal marketplace and that use among young adults (ages 18 to 25) has remained unchanged.

“Canada’s real-world experience with marijuana legalization, much like the experiences in many US states, affirms that these policies can be implemented in a way that provides regulated access for adults while simultaneously limiting youth access, discouraging misuse, and not compromising public safety,” said NORML’s deputy director Paul Armentano.

Photo: John Fetterman Senate page