Hearing of the Health Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee - Opening Statement of Rep. Greg Gianforte, Hearing on Marijuana Use and Mental Health

Hearing

At a recent hearing of the Energy and Commerce Committee's Health Subcommittee, Congressman Greg Gianforte urged lawmakers to focus on addressing addiction and questioned a leading expert about the connection between marijuana and mental health.

"To consider making any Schedule I drug legal and more readily available without adequate research is a misplaced priority when addiction continues to ravage our country," Gianforte said. "Instead, we should continue to focus on combating addiction."

"We need to continue to support those who face addiction and need help most, rather than making marijuana easier to access when we don't know the effects it will have on our communities," Gianforte said.

Citing the increasing mental health crisis in the United States and the high suicide rate in Montana, Gianforte asked the director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse at the National Institutes of Health whether there is a connection between marijuana use and an increased risk of suicide or mental health problems.

"There have been some large epidemiological studies that have noted an increased risk for suicide among regular users of THC," Dr. Nora D. Volkow responded. "And so we cannot ignore it, but we need to determine if these [studies] are reproducible and understand the extent to which it is contributing indeed to suicidality."

"It brings us back to the fact we just have to do the research," Gianforte concluded.

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