Mehmet Oz, a Republican candidate in Pennsylvania's U.S. Senate race, argues that the Democratic nominee, Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, is wrong to support marijuana legalization because allowing recreational use is apt to aggravate the state's already high unemployment rate. "There are not enough Pennsylvanians to work in Pennsylvania," Oz said during a recent Newsmax interview, "so giving them pot so that they stay home is not, I don't think, an ideal move….We need to get Pennsylvanians back at work, gotta give them their mojo, and I don't want marijuana to be a hindrance to that."
Oz, who is still awaiting the results of a very close primary pitting him against businessman David McCormick, not only played a doctor on TV for 13 seasons (a fact that helped win him former President Donald Trump's endorsement); he is also a retired heart surgeon. Given that background, you might suppose that Dr. Oz was drawing on his medical expertise when he averred that a lack of "mojo" is a well-documented side effect of cannabis consumption. Instead he was simply repeating a hoary anti-pot trope that, like many of the claims Oz made on his syndicated talk show, has no firm scientific basis.
