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The United States surgeon general on Thursday issued a public warning that smoking or vaping marijuana is dangerous for pregnant women and their developing babies. At a news conference with other top Trump administration health officials, the surgeon general, Dr. Jerome Adams, said he was concerned that pregnant women, teenagers and others were unaware of the health hazards posed by new, professionally grown marijuana crops. (Kaplan, 8/29)

Citing greater access and increased potency of what’s available on the market, Jerome M. Adams and Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said the drug “carries more risk than ever” and announced that they would be starting a public awareness campaign on social media about the effect it can have on the developing brain. The initiative, they said, is funded by President Trump, who donated his full second-quarter presidential salary of $100,000 to the effort. It’s a drop in the bucket compared to his personal fortune but underscores how much of a priority addiction and substance abuse is for the administration, they said. (Cha, 8/29)

Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar noted the amount of THC — the chemical that leads to psychological effects in marijuana — now is about three times higher than a few decades ago. A third of teens who vape use their e-cigarette devices for marijuana oil, said Adams, and edibles, oils or waxes lead to another tripling of the effect of the THC. "As I like to say, this ain't your mother's marijuana," he added. The "rapid normalization" of marijuana use by young people is of particular concern, Adams said. It's now the third most common illegal substance used by high school students after alcohol and electronic cigarettes, he said, and one in five of teens who try it will become addicted. Teens are also more likely to miss or drop out of school, and significant drops in cognition have been reported in adults who started using as young teens. (O'Donnell, 8/29)

"We need to be clear: Some states' laws on marijuana may have changed, but the science has not and federal law has not," HHS Secretary Alex Azar said. In 2017, about 9.2 million people ages 12 to 25 reported that they used marijuana in the last month, according to HHS. High school students' perception of marijuana as harmful has been declining over the past decade, the department has found. (Roubein, 8/29)

Young people who regularly use marijuana are "more likely to show a decline in IQ and school performance [and] are more apt to miss classes," Adams said. And frequent use of the drug can also impair a child's attention, memory and decision-making.In addition, it can be habit-forming. "Nearly 1 in 5 people who begin marijuana use during adolescence become addicted," Adams said. "That's scary to me as the dad of a 15-, a 13- and a 9-year-old." (Aubrey, 8/29)

While the medical community is largely uniform in its view that marijuana use by pregnant women or adolescents carries associated risks, the announcement comes amid a murkier landscape on marijuana and its components. The Food and Drug Administration this year has worked to better regulate supplements containing CBD, a non-psychoactive compound within marijuana. The agency also approved a CBD-based drug last year as a treatment for seizures. (Facher, 8/29)

"Once upon a time people thought tobacco was safe for you," until a surgeon general's report was published highlighting the health risks, he added. And he called on policymakers to consider the downsides of pot use while developing their laws and regulations. (Luthi, 8/29)

This is Adams' first advisory this year and his third since being named surgeon general in 2017. Last year, he issued an advisory on using the medication naloxone to reverse an opioid overdose, and an advisory on e-cigarette use among youth, calling it an "epidemic." (Howard, 8/29)

It seemed like a new era in the half-century battle against the deadly toll of tobacco: U.S. health officials for the first time would begin regulating cigarettes, chew and other products responsible for a half-million American deaths annually. "The decades-long effort to protect our children from the harmful effects of smoking has finally emerged victorious," then President Barack Obama said in a speech before signing the 2009 measure into law. (Perrone, 8/29)