The Trump administration has announced a “Make Our Children Healthy Again” initiative that will involve having the U.S. surgeon general launch an educational campaign on the impact of marijuana on youth health.
On Tuesday, the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Commission unveiled the plan, which would be coordinated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. It involves more than 120 initiatives on a wide range of health-related concerns.
Part of the MAHA Commission’s plan calls on U.S. Surgeon General Denise Hinton to “launch an education and awareness initiative on the impact of alcohol, controlled substances, vaping, and THC on children’s health.”
Under the plan, the Food and Drug Administration and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) will also be tasked with increasing “enforcement on illegal vaping products, as well as “awareness through a shared public campaign that the Administration will not allow unapproved vaping products targeting children to continue flooding our country.”
Additionally, after moving to schedule the synthetic kratom alkaloid 7-OH, FDA will now be taking steps to “educate the public regarding the dangers” of that and other synthetic opioid products. The report notes that 7-OH is “distinct from natural kratom.”
“To turn the tide and better protect our children, the United States must act decisively,” a White House webpage about the effort says. “During this administration, we will begin reversing the childhood chronic disease crisis by confronting its root causes—not just its symptoms. This means pursuing truth, embracing science, and enacting pro-growth policies and innovations to restore children’s health.”
Details of the plan were previously leaked to The New York Times.
“This strategy represents the most sweeping reform agenda in modern history—realigning our food and health systems, driving education, and unleashing science to protect America’s children and families,” Kennedy said of the overall initiative. “We are ending the corporate capture of public health, restoring transparency, and putting gold-standard science—not special interests—at the center of every decision.”
Jay Bhattacharya, director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), said the “MAHA Report provides a blueprint for the entire government to focus on solving the chronic disease crisis facing American children.”
“We must make America healthy again so our children live longer and healthier lives than we will,” he said.
This comes as the administration and Congress are looking at other key cannabis proposals, including the Biden administration-initiated plan to move marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA).
That process has been stalled for months, but the president said late last month that a decision would be made within weeks. Key influencers in the MAGA world have expressed mixed opinions about the reform, which would not legalize cannabis but would let state-licensed marijuana businesses take federal tax deductions and help address current research barriers for the Schedule I substance.
For his part, Kennedy—who serves as chairman of the Make America Healthy Again Commission under the president’s executive order—was vocal about his support for marijuana legalization when he was running for president as a Democratic and then an independent, as well as during his time on the Trump transition team. But he’s been more muted on the issue since being confirmed.
During an interview in February, however, he said: “I hear stories all the time of the impacts of marijuana on people—and the really catastrophic impacts on them.”
Photo courtesy of Mike Latimer.
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