This blog is a healthcare blog, not a political commentary. But when political decisions go against science, it’s time to speak out. The Trump Administration is reclassifying marijuana to make it easier to obtain for medical uses, but that’s a mistake.

While marijuana has some legitimate uses for treatment of chronic pain conditions, especially in terminal cancer patients, its harmful effects are significant. The problem is that this reclassification move suggests marijuana is less dangerous when research shows it’s actually more dangerous than we ever knew before.

Andrea Petersen, writing in The Wall Street Journal, gives us an update on the current medical research. Tetrahydrocannabinol or THC is the main psychoactive component of cannabis. She tells us the weed that people smoked in decades past generally had about 3% to 5% THC. Now, many shops sell products that contain as much as 90% THC.

Dr. Jonathan Avery, vice chair for addiction psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medicine, says he’s seeing more people land in the emergency room after accidentally overdosing on high-potency THC products, particularly edibles, where people can underestimate how much they have taken. “You can feel panicky and paranoid. People come in worried that they’re dying,” he said.

The drug is particularly dangerous for teens: Even low-level use is linked to an increased risk of developing psychiatric disorders and doing poorly in school.

With recreational marijuana legal in 24 states and Washington, D.C., driving while high is on the rise, too. In some studies, using cannabis was found to double the risk of crashes.

The cannabis industry is increasingly marketing its products for a range of health issues, including anxiety and depression, pain and sleep problems. Some companies also promote their products for general wellness, akin to a multivitamin. A growing number of people use cannabis every day. Now, more people use cannabis than alcohol daily.

Among people who use marijuana daily, about 20% to 30% will develop cannabis use disorder, Avery said. The disorder is characterized by craving marijuana and being unable to cut down on use. “You need more to get the same effect and you feel off without it,” he said.

While many people use cannabis to cope with anxiety, some scientific studies show that the drug makes anxiety worse. It is associated with increased odds of developing anxiety problems and with more severe symptoms in those with anxiety and mood disorders.

It’s even worse for teenagers who smoke marijuana since their brains are not fully developed. Research has found that adolescent cannabis use increases the risk of developing psychosis, bipolar disorder, depression and anxiety disorders.

Regularly using cannabis during the teen years also is associated with disruption in memory and learning. One study found that frequent cannabis users who started taking it during adolescence lost several IQ points between the ages of 13 and 38. Even infrequent use among teens is associated with poorer academic performance.

The only benefit to reclassification is that researchers will find it easier to conduct studies with marijuana. That seems like a poor excuse for making a dangerous substance more available to the general public. We wouldn’t reclassify heroine just to make it easier to do research, would we?

American pay more for healthcare than other developed countries. That’s not new to me, but the explanation for this does raise some eyebrows.

Andrew Mollica and Anna Wilde Mathews, writing for The Wall Street Journal, gives us a breakdown of the costs for healthcare in comparison to other peer nations. For instance, a total hip replacement in the U.S. is approximately $29,000 while in peer nations it is $10,000. Total knee replacement costs $26,000 compared to $11,000. Robotic prostatectomy is $24,000 versus $11,000, and spinal decompression is $21,000 compared to $7,000. Even having a baby by C-section costs $14,000 versus $4,000. These are just a few examples.

These authors say insuring a family for healthcare costs about $27,000 per year. The main cause: Prices are far higher in the U.S for the same medical products and services, from surgeries to drugs. Here is a breakdown of the reasons healthcare costs more in the U.S.

• Prescription drugs cost a lot more in the U.S.
  • Americans pay three to five times more than other nations
• Big hospitals can charge higher rates because of consolidation
  • Consolidation reduces competition which allows higher prices
• The U.S. spends far more than other countries on administration
  • We spend more on the delivery of care
• Labor costs are higher
  • We pay our healthcare providers more
• American are using more healthcare
  • Utilization is up due to rising age of the population

These are the issues raised by these authors. I have some observations of my own.

• The decline of private practice
  • More and more doctors are being employed by hospitals. That allows hospitals to charge more for the same services that these doctors perform in their offices since the billing goes through the hospital and insurance pays more to hospitals.
• Advances in technology
  • Americans pay more but they also have access to the best medicine in the world. The advances in technology and procedures costs more but the patients benefit from these improvements in treatment.
• The high cost of healthcare insurance
  • Healthcare insurance costs more than it should. You can thank the Affordable Care Act (a badly named legislation) for that. It requires all patients to have coverage of all basic procedures, regardless of need or gender, and therefore artificially raises the costs of insurance. This can be improved through new legislation but Democrats don’t want to admit ObamaCare is a failure.

It is true Americans pay more for healthcare but it doesn’t have to be that way. President Trump has made strides in reducing the cost of prescription drugs and more legislation is needed to bring down the cost of healthcare insurance. We will always pay more if we have access to the best medical practices in the world. We don’t want to go the way of socialized medicine, as some countries have done, just to lower the costs of healthcare.

If you’ve watched any television lately, or if you’re a social media wonk, you probably have seen the variety of health supplement products being advertised. There are supplements for everything that ails you.

Worried about your brain and developing early dementia? There’s a supplement for that. Worried about your liver? (Who worries about their liver?) There’s a supplement to cure that. Want to have better looking skin? There’s a supplement for that. How about slowing down the aging process? (Everybody wants that!) There’s a supplement for that. Worried about your blood pressure? Of course, there’s a supplement for that. In fact, I dare say there’s a supplement that promises to make you feel better, look better, think better, have more energy and strength, and live longer!

I’ve told my wife that if you take every supplement that is advertised on the market, you’ll probably live forever.

Just joking, naturally; but now I believe there are people who believe that! According to a Wall Street Journal article, written by Sara Ashley O’Brien, some people are actually spending $1000 per month on supplements. That’s right, one thousand dollars per month!

Here’s an example of what she means:

Kristin Leite, 38, spends about an hour organizing her “stack” for the week.

“In the morning, I take four powders and about five capsules,” said Leite, an esthetician who lives in Tampa, Fla. She pops around five more in the afternoon, and at night she swallows six or seven capsules. “I’m talking probably like over 20 different supplements throughout the day,” she said, making adjustments based on how she feels.

That’s on top of the injections Leite gives herself regularly: NAD+, which she says makes her feel energized and alleviates her brain fog, and glutathione, which is marketed for antioxidant and immune support. “It’s very painful, and it stings and it’s horrible,” Leite said of the latter. The Food and Drug Administration has warned that both can cause health problems in injectable form.

This girl has a following on Tik Tok of more than 615,000 followers, as well as links to ShopMy and Amazon, where she earns affiliate revenue from sales. So, she has a financial incentive for this foolishness. But she’s not alone.

Over-the-top supplement regimens have become bragging rights for the health-conscious and wellness-obsessed. From beauty lovers to masculinity influencers, everyone is boasting about their “stacks”—the numerous capsules, powders and injections they take regularly in the hopes of achieving a cumulative, self-optimizing effect. They’re spending over $1,000 a month in some cases on products that purport to improve their sleep, mental health, fertility, appearance and longevity, but often aren’t approved for those purposes. Some are making money from their endorsements.

Supplements went from a means of treating diseases caused by nutritional deficiencies in the 1900s to lifestyle products that are now the backbone of a $70 billion industry. Because they do not undergo approval by the FDA, they aren’t reviewed for safety or efficacy before coming to market. Some have lots of scientific research backing their use, while others have very limited support. Manufacturers are prohibited from making claims about treating or preventing disease, but influencers have sold the idea that buying the right products can fend off or cure almost any ailment.

Don’t buy the hype. Despite claims by these sellers that their products are “doctor recommended,” there’s little evidence of that in the commercials. In fact, I have quizzed my doctors on several of these products and all of them tell me there is no clinical evidence to support their claims. There’s an old saying that applies here: “Let the buyer beware.”