3 UCSD scientists call for tighter regulation of marijuana advertising

The federal government should more aggressively regulate the marketing of marijuana, particularly products that feature unsubstantiated health claims, three UC San Diego physicians say in the latest issue of Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).

A viewpoint column written by Drs. John W. Ayers Jr., Theodore Caputi, and Eric C. Leas said that misleading advertising can be found throughout the for-profit marijuana industry.

But the three physicians were especially critical of MedMen Enterprises,a Culver City-based company that operates in many states, and in many cities, including San Diego.

“Health and medicine are implied in the name of this company, even though a majority of MedMen’s stores sell recreational marijuana,” the physicians state in the viewpoint article.

“Billboards read, ‘Heal. It’s legal.’ The company’s blog, Ember, has an entire section dedicated to health, including a claim that marijuana ‘can reduce anxiety, pain, and so much more,’ a physician’s recommended list of marijuana products for menstrual cramps, and promotion of marijuana as a safe, natural, and non-addictive alternative to prescriptions, even implying that marijuana can treat opioid addiction, an opinion with which experts disagree.”

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has the authority to police unsubstantiated product claims, and has done so in a modest number of instances involving marijuana.

In late 2017, the FDA notified the public to beware of fraudulent advertising, pointing to companies that had claimed that cannabis can be used to prevent, diagnose, treat and cure cancer.

“That’s not enough,” Ayers told the Union-Tribune. “The FDA doesn’t enforce this aggressively. We need more effective regulations about health claims, and ads that are meant to appeal to children.”

MedMen notes on its website that the advertising it does for products like marijuana and for CBD, a cannabis derivative, are statements that have “not been evaluated by the FDA. (They are) not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.”

In California, it is lawful for people 21 and older to possess, own, and use marijuana, and to grow limited amounts of cannabis. However, the medicinal value of marijuana has not been clearly established. Many doctors, including some at UC San Diego Health, prescribe cannabis to help some patients cope with chronic pain. And UCSD is currently doing a small clinical trial to see if CBD can alleviate severe autism in children.

But the National Academy of Science, Engineering and Medicine said in a landmark report in 2017 that it remains largely unclear whether marijuana can be broadly used through medicine to treat various problems -- primarily because the drug has not been widely studied.