{"id":86543,"date":"2026-08-05T05:15:49","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T13:15:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2026\/08\/05\/trump-white-house-drug-official-claims-marijuana-is-killing-people-calling-it-the-number-one-drug-of-addiction\/"},"modified":"2026-08-05T19:46:51","modified_gmt":"2026-08-06T03:46:51","slug":"trump-white-house-drug-official-claims-marijuana-is-killing-people-calling-it-the-number-one-drug-of-addiction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2026\/08\/05\/trump-white-house-drug-official-claims-marijuana-is-killing-people-calling-it-the-number-one-drug-of-addiction\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump White House Drug Official Claims Marijuana Is Killing People, Calling It \u2018The Number One Drug Of Addiction\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

An official in the Trump administration\u2019s White House drug office claims that \u201cthe number one drug of addiction is marijuana\u201d\u2014arguing that it is important to \u201cremember the victims of marijuana, the people who\u2019ve died from marijuana harms.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roneet Lev, who serves as the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy\u2019s (ONDCP) chief medical officer, made the comments on the Drug Free America Foundation\u2019s Pathways to Prevention podcast last month.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration drug official said that she surrounds herself with pictures of people who have \u201ctragically died\u201d as a result of drugs, saying she \u201cdoesn\u2019t want them to die in vain\u201d and uses their stories as a way to remind herself of the importance of ONDCP\u2019s work.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt first it was the parents who\u2019ve lost children from the oxycodone and pain medicine epidemic and then fentanyl,\u201d Lev said. \u201cAnd we also remember the victims of marijuana, the people who\u2019ve died from marijuana harms as well\u2014or any drug. It doesn\u2019t matter what drug. These are all potentially preventable deaths.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), however, says that \u201cno deaths from overdose of marijuana have been reported\u201d\u2014though the ONDCP medical official may have been referencing people who died as a result of car accidents involving drivers who were under the influence of cannabis, for example.<\/p>\n

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In the new interview on the prohibitionist organization\u2019s podcast, Lev also said that people who are experiencing addiction should seek treatment \u201cno matter what drugs they\u2019re addicted to.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd the fact is that the number one drug of addiction is marijuana. And for the first time ever in the history of the United States, the rate of substance use disorder is over the amount of alcohol use disorder\u2014because of marijuana,\u201d she said. \u201cSo people are suffering in our country and our strategy acknowledges that and directs efforts toward treatment.\u201d<\/p>\n

A new federal study released last month found that Americans are now more likely to use marijuana nearly every day than they are to drink alcohol<\/a> or smoke cigarettes on a daily basis.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf people have a marijuana use disorder and they have an addiction, they should be able to stop,\u201d Lev said. \u201cAnd we should be even if there\u2019s not a medicine for it. There\u2019s plenty of people who stop smoking cigarettes without a medicine, right? And there are medications for nicotine use disorder, but many people are able to quit and with the guidance. And we want that ability for people who have a marijuana use.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ONDCP official also said the federal government wants people \u201cto make informed decisions and understand the dangers.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFor example, there are hundreds of medications that interact with marijuana,\u201d she said. \u201cSo, if you\u2019re using marijuana and you\u2019re also on a blood pressure medicine or a blood thinner or on psychiatric medications, you should look it up and put we have in our prevention framework we have in there. One of the tips is to use drugs.com and put in \u2018cannabis\u2019 or \u2018marijuana\u2019 or \u2018cannabidiol\u2019 for CBD, and checking that against your medications or grandpa\u2019s medications so you make an informed decision and then you can decide for yourself if you want these and be alerted to the potential side effect.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Lev also noted during the podcast that \u201cpeople are buying marijuana or hemp products or psychedelics or whatever it is that\u2019s in the smoke shop these days.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNone of that has gone through any type of testing and you really don\u2019t know what you\u2019re buying,\u201d she said. \u201cYou can\u2019t count on the labels being correct.\u201d<\/p>\n

Legalization advocates say that the policy change should be accompanied by regulations mandating that products be tested and labeled for ingredients, something that isn\u2019t possible when drugs are illegal and unregulated.<\/p>\n

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What does the 2026 National Drug Control Strategy mean for #prevention<\/a>?<\/p>\n

Dr. Roneet Lev of @ONDCP<\/a> discusses primary prevention, coalition building, faith, recovery, and creating a drug-free America as the social norm.<\/p>\n

Tune in here: https:\/\/t.co\/Z4ZcUzwtdW<\/a>#P2P<\/a> #ONDCP<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/wn8Tjy6YIa<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 DrugFreeAmerica (@DrugFreeAmerica) July 29, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

<\/div>\n

Lev\u2014an emergency medicine and addition physician\u2014previously\u00a0linked marijuana use to suicide, advocated against a Florida legalization measure<\/a> and criticized health agencies\u2019 move to reschedule cannabis.<\/p>\n

She has also said it is an \u201cinsult\u201d to refer to cannabis as \u201cmedical.\u201d<\/p>\n

In one episode of her own High Truths on Drugs and Addiction podcast from June 2024, she dedicated over an hour to a discussion with prohibitionist advocates about the marijuana rescheduling process that was initiated under the Biden administration, making clear she strongly disagrees with the top federal health agency\u2019s recommendation to move cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA).<\/p>\n

She said that people who are accepting the scientific findings that led to the recommendation,\u201dincluding some in the medical community,\u201d are \u201cdrinking that same Kool Aid again\u201d with marijuana as they did with prescription opioids. And she claimed that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) produced a flawed report on cannabis, with mistakes in \u201clike every single sentence.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen it comes to marijuana, the harms are right in front of our eyes\u2014but we ignore the data and follow the industry talking points just like we did in the oxycontin days,\u201d Lev said during the segment, which featured prominent prohibitionists such as Bertha Madras, who also previously served as an ONDCP official.<\/p>\n

The revised review process that HHS relied on to reach its Schedule III determination for marijuana posts a \u201cthreat to the entire way of approving medications and to the medical community at large,\u201d Lev said, adding that her primary contention is the idea that cannabis possesses medical value.<\/p>\n

Cannabis is \u201ca plant with 500 different chemicals\u201460 different cannabinoids\u2014many of which have not been studied, and that includes toxins and carcinogens and other things,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really feel sorry for the public\u2014not just for marijuana\u2014because if you have a 90-page document from the Health and Human Services saying, \u2018this is medicine, this is safe, this is monitored\u2019 and all the things that we see in this document, they\u2019re false to us physicians and scientists who review this material,\u201d Lev said. \u201cNone of the science used the high-potency products. There was no consideration to the severe mental health impacts.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut that\u2019s just for marijuana. What is the public supposed to think when it comes to vaccines or COVID or any other public health,\u201d she said. \u201cI mean, there\u2019s a loss of trust in medicine because of this process for politics and for money.\u201d<\/p>\n

She also cast doubts on the idea that the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) supported HHS\u2019s findings, as was expressed in a letter attached to the federal rescheduling recommendation. Lev said she personally knows people at NIDA, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) who oppose the rescheduling proposal.<\/p>\n

Further, she disputed the claim that moving marijuana to Schedule III would increase research opportunities for the plant and its constituents, saying \u201cthat\u2019s not true.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t have hope that, if this is [rescheduled], it\u2019ll be better regulated, because we could look at all the states now that have quote-unquote medical cannabis, and they\u2019re run by the cannabis industry\u2014not by independent public health people,\u201d Lev claimed. \u201cAnd we know it\u2019s not working, because we see all the pediatric poisoning and emergency department visits and older people who are poisoned, and that those numbers are going exponentially high. And so we\u2019ve seen that failed process.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the public has lost confidence in medicine and public health after COVID and all the vaccines\u2014and with this, we\u2019re going to have laws that further deteriorate public health credibility, and this is an example of that,\u201d she said, adding that it also poses an \u201cinternational threat and weakness of the United States not following international laws.\u201d<\/p>\n

That latter comment referenced potential violations of obligations on drug scheduling under United Nations treaties to which the U.S. is a party that some claim mandate the country keep cannabis in either Schedule I or Schedule II.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe U.S. will be in conflict with international law. That makes things messy,\u201d Lev said earlier in the episode. \u201cWe have the right to withdraw from the international treaty, but then if we don\u2019t want to follow international law, how can we expect China and Mexico to follow the law and stop pushing fentanyl on the United States? If the U.S. withdraws from international drug treaties, how does that affect other international treaties like the ones for, say, nuclear weapons?\u201d<\/p>\n

The Trump administration has since moved forward with implementing cannabis rescheduling.<\/p>\n

Under an order issued by U.S. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche in April,\u00a0marijuana products regulated by a state medical cannabis license immediately moved from Schedule I<\/a>\u00a0of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) to Schedule III, as did any marijuana products that are approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). An administrative\u00a0hearing is considering broader marijuana rescheduling<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On another episode of her podcast that was released in October 2024, Lev took on Amendment 3, a 2024 Florida ballot initiative that sought to legalize adult-use cannabis and that received an endorsement from President Donald Trump while he was campaigning. The measure ultimately failed to meet a steep 60 percent threshold for passage.<\/p>\n

Despite Trump\u2019s public endorsement, Lev said she wondered if the then-candidate \u201creally read the amendment or really understands the impact of it.\u201d And she said she wished she could have \u201ctwo minutes with President Trump, because I feel like I could convince him on that.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the episode, Lev also dismissed the notion that legalization is smart, quipping that the campaign behind the Florida initiative\u2014Smart & Safe Florida\u2014is a misnomer and \u201cit seems like you can\u2019t always go by the names of these organizations.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to learn from history,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd would we want big tobacco to be in charge of the rules and marketing and nicotine potency? Would we want Purdue Pharma to be in charge of opioid overprescribing?\u201d And if not, why are we allowing big marijuana to control the rules and regulations on public health?\u201d<\/p>\n

Separately, during a presentation in Missouri last year, Lev reportedly said that \u201cit\u2019s an insult to our profession\u201d to call marijuana \u201cmedical.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2018, Lev attended an event hosted by prohibitionist group Smart Approaches to Marijuana, tweeting a photo of herself with the group\u2019s president, Kevin Sabet, along with the phrase \u201cMarijuana Death Diaries.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other posts she made from the event said advocates \u201cneed to get message out about marijuana public health crisis\u201d and that \u201cmarijuana victims\u201d speaking there told \u201cheart breaking stories.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2020 she quote-tweeted a post from Sabet about a teen whose parents say he died by suicide after taking up cannabis use, adding, \u201cmarijuana hijacks your brain.\u201d<\/p>\n

On social media, Lev has posted extensively about cannabis laws and science, making repeated suggestions tying marijuana use to mental and physical health conditions such as schizophrenia, suicide risk, lung issues and more.<\/p>\n

The post Trump White House Drug Official Claims Marijuana Is Killing People, Calling It \u2018The Number One Drug Of Addiction\u2019<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n


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\nRead More: Trump White House Drug Official Claims Marijuana Is Killing People, Calling It \u2018The Number One Drug Of Addiction\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An official in the Trump administration\u2019s White House drug office claims that \u201cthe number one drug of addiction is marijuana\u201d\u2014arguing that it is important to \u201cremember the victims of marijuana, the people who\u2019ve died from marijuana harms.\u201d Roneet Lev, who serves as the White House Office of National Drug ControlContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":459,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,81,126],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86543"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/459"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86543"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86543\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86544,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86543\/revisions\/86544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}