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Mehmet Oz, the head of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), says “there are going to be consequences” as more Americans choose marijuana over alcohol—including problems caused by “high-dose hemp and CBD.”
As the Trump administration works to finalize a cannabis rescheduling proposal and prepares to roll out a CBD coverage plan through Medicare under Oz’s agency, the health official curiously raised concerns about non-intoxicating cannabidiol and hemp products overall.
During an interview with Katie Miller—the wife of top Trump advisor Stephen Miller—Oz was asked whether shifts in consumer preferences away from alcohol and toward cannabis pose any risks. And the CMS administrator answered affirmatively.
“Anything that’s strong enough to help you is strong enough to hurt you. So yes, there are going to be consequences,” he said. “We already know that some of the high-dose hemp and CBD is a problem.”
The comments are especially notable given that Oz is leading an initiative tied to the marijuana rescheduling executive order President Donald Trump issued in December that’s meant to incorporate CBD coverage under federal health care programs. The health official has made multiple statements over recent years supporting the therapeutic use of marijuana and its constituents.
As part of Trump’s executive order, the attorney general was separately directed to expeditiously complete the process of moving marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA).
As for hemp and CBD, those were federally legalized under the 2018 Farm Bill the president signed into law during his first term, though industry advocates have warned about cannabinoid products’ continued availability under more recent legislation Trump approved to recriminalize hemp THC.
Trump himself shared a video on Truth Social last year touting the benefits of CBD, particular for seniors.
Meanwhile, an industry stakeholder working with the administration on its CBD Medicare initiative said recently that CMS already finalized a rule to provide federal health insurance coverage for the cannabinoid, but the White House has not confirmed the status of the rulemaking.
Oz, for his part, spoke about the initiative at the signing ceremony for the underlying executive order, crediting Trump and U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for “pushing for change” and “relentlessly” pursuing an agenda rooted in a “deep passion for research.”
The plan has been to create a pilot program enabling eligible patients to access hemp-derived cannabidiol that’d be covered under federal health insurance plans, projected to launch by April, according to Oz.
At the signing ceremony in December, Oz also gave kudos to Howard Kessler, founder of The Commonwealth Project, which produced the video about the benefits of cannabidiol for seniors that Trump shared.
While CMS implemented an earlier final rule last April specifically stipulating that marijuana, as well as CBD that can be derived from federally legal hemp, are ineligible for coverage under its Medicare Advantage program and other services, the agency is now revising that policy.
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CMS had already announced certain changes as part of a rulemaking process that was unveiled late last year, affecting “marketing and communications, drug coverage, enrollment processes, special needs plans, and other programmatic areas” for insurance programs it oversees. One of those changes dealt with cannabidiol coverage.
In recent years, Oz has encouraged audiences to be open to therapeutic cannabis and advocated for sweeping policy changes around the drug.
“We ought to completely change our policy on marijuana. It absolutely works,” he said in a 2020 interview, calling cannabis “one of the most underused tools in America.”
In 2024, he wrote in a syndicated health column that there’s evidence cannabinoids can curb seizures, alleviate nausea associated with cancer treatment and potentially help manage pain—especially in older people.
Oz also said in 2020 that he believes that, particularly for seniors, marijuana for pain represents a “safer solution than, for example, narcotics in many cases.”
Kyle Jaeger is Marijuana Moment’s Sacramento-based managing editor. He’s covered drug policy for more than a decade—specializing in state and federal marijuana and psychedelics issues at publications that also include High Times, VICE and attn. In 2022, Jaeger was named Benzinga’s Cannabis Policy Reporter of the Year.
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