On the February 9 Fox & Friends Sunday, the show highlighted a Canadian study linking marijuana use to schizophrenia.
Fox & Friends Sunday
February 9, 2025
7:45 a.m. Eastern
RACHEL CAMPOS-DUFFY: All right, it's time now for your "Weekend Wellness," and this week we're focusing on a new study on the dangers of smoking excessive marijuana. A Canadian study found that nine percent of those who use marijuana excessively develop schizophrenia compared to just 0.6 percent for those who don't. Here to unpack it all is Fox News medical contributor Doctor Nicole Saphier.
Nicole, I have always been on the side of not legalizing, and the reason -- marijuana use -- and the reason is my husband was a prosecutor, and he dealt with a lot of, you know, these groups that were trying to help rehabilitate people on drugs, and they always told him -- this was before we saw the legalization -- "Please don't legalize -- please don't allow, you know, your party to get behind legalization because it's a gateway drug to other drugs." But you're saying there's also other impacts on just your mental health?
DOCTOR NICOLE SAPHIER, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Well, that's right, Rachel. So, first of all, it's important to recognize that there are some benefits for marijuana -- specifically, medical benefits when it comes to glaucoma, pain, appetite stimulate, and even -- even has some benefit with multiple sclerosis, and then cancer patients. However, I have also -- like you -- have been very cautious about legalization of marijuana because there are known risks with it. And this large population-based study out of Canada looking at over 13 million people in the province of Ontario is showing that there is nearly a 15 times risk associated with schizophrenia with cannabis use disorder.
Now, this is not surprising because we have already been well-documented of the risk of other psychoses when it comes to cannabis use. It can also negatively affect your heart, your lungs, your metabolic system. It can also increase your breast tissue and cause an increase in breast cancer. And you can see depressed sperm count and fertility with it. So it is very concerning when it comes to people using this a lot more, and you're seeing rising levels of THC over the years in marijuana that people are using.
Now, when you ask people, "Why are you using marijuana?" a lot of people say, "Well, I have anxiety," or, "I just want to relax myself." Well, let me tell you, not everything that is natural is good for you. So you should always talk to your doctor before you use it, but I can tell you there are far safer other herbs that I like that are natural that can help with relaxation.
(...)
