A member of the state Cannabis Control Commission on Wednesday called a “Statement of Concern” about the health effects of marijuana composed by more than 40 scientists, pediatricians and mental health and addiction clinicians a “publicity stunt” by “prohibitionists.”

Shaleen Title, who was jointly appointed in 2017 by Gov. Charlie Baker, Attorney General Maura Healey and Treasurer Deborah Goldberg to serve in the social justice seat on the commission, made the remarks at a press conference the Cannabis Community Care and Research Network held on the State House steps to try to debunk the statement.

“I thought it was so important to come and show my support and say thank you, thank you, thank you from the bottom of my heart to see that when prohibitionists try and have a big publicity stunt, that it doesn’t work, that the whole community comes out, that scientists, researchers, patients, caregivers and everybody who is here to be honest, to be real and say what they think,” Title told a group of about three dozen people.

Jody Hensley, a spokeswoman for the Massachusetts Prevention Alliance, a nonprofit that works to protect young people from addiction and the group that distributed the Statement of Concern to state lawmakers, said MPA found Title’s language “offensive.”

“She is an appointed state official charged with control of commercial marijuana, and she’s using inflammatory language,” Hensley said.

The Statement of Concern that Title was referring to was drafted by a neuroscientist, with more than 40 signatories and supporters — health and medical professionals from institutions including Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School — who said that marijuana is being governed and regulated in Massachusetts as if it were an “ordinary commodity,” rather than following a public-health framework.

The statement said that scientific evidence clearly establishes that marijuana — and specifically THC, the psychoactive chemical it contains — has harmful effects, including risk of addiction, impaired cognitive function and increased risk of psychosis and other mental illness.

“When public health is not prioritized in the regulation of addictive substances, the public and our young people are put at risk,” the document said.

The statement recommended that Massachusetts temporarily suspend all licensing and conduct a public health impact assessment, by public health professionals, of the commission’s Social Equity Program “to avoid worsening health inequities and disparities among vulnerable populations and communities.”

In a speech at the State House on Wednesday, Marion McNabb, CEO of the Cannabis Community Care and Research Network, agreed that youngsters and those with severe mental health conditions should not have access to cannabis.

But, she argued, “We have all the resources and academic capital to create a model state in Massachusetts that balances upholding public health and safety principles, while allowing the adult use cannabis industry to grow, driven by science, research, data and best practices.”