In a significant about-face, The New York Times editorial board acknowledged the serious downsides to marijuana legalization in an op-ed published Tuesday. That position is a notable shift from the paper’s long-standing support for the drug.
The Times Backtracks
As reported on Wednesday’s AM Update, the opinion piece titled “It’s Time for America to Admit That It Has a Marijuana Problem” comes nearly 12 years after the Times published a six-part series urging Congress to repeal the federal marijuana ban in the summer of 2014. At the time, the editorial board claimed that addiction and dependence were “relatively minor problems” and suggested legalization would not significantly increase use or cause major harm.
Now, the paper of record has conceded many of those predictions were wrong. The editorial admitted that legalization has coincided with a sharp rise in use, with roughly 18 million Americans now using marijuana almost daily. That figure is far higher than in past decades and amounts to more than those who drink alcohol daily.
The Times also pointed to mounting health and public-safety concerns, including rising addiction rates, increasing hospitalizations tied to paranoia and psychotic disorders, and a growing number of innocent people injured in accidents caused by people driving under the influence of marijuana.
Still, the editorial board stopped short of calling for prohibition, instead laying out its ideas for a regulatory crackdown that would include tax increases, potency restrictions, and a second look at medical marijuana.
The Times’ February 2026 conclusion: “The unfortunate truth is that the loosening of marijuana policies — especially the decision to legalize pot without adequately regulating it — has led to worse outcomes than many Americans expected. It is time to acknowledge reality and change course.”
The Potency Problem
As it relates to potency, the op-ed acknowledged that today’s cannabis is “far more potent” than the pot that preceded legalization. An October 2025 report from Stanford Medicine noted that marijuana in the 1970s contained between 1 percent and 4 percent tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the primary psychoactive compound in pot, whereas today’s legal cannabis flower contains, on average, 20 percent THC. Some strains are as high as 35 percent, and it is now possible to buy marijuana products with THC levels of 90 percent or more.
To compensate, the Times suggests imposing restrictions on “the most harmful forms of marijuana,” which it said would be similar to regulations for alcohol and tobacco. “The appropriate response is both to make illegal any marijuana product that exceeds a THC level of 60 percent and to impose higher taxes on potent forms of pot, much as liquor is taxed more heavily than beer and wine,” the editors wrote.
Alex Berenson, a former New York Times reporter and one of the leading voices against marijuana legalization, said such a cap would have unintended consequences. “The Times’ suggestion sounds nice, but it will not solve the underlying problems with cannabis use or legalization – and it will create a massive black market by criminalizing some of the industry’s most popular products,” he told AM Update. “We’ll be left with the problems of criminalization and legalization.”
The Misunderstanding
Berenson, author of Tell Your Children: The Truth About Marijuana, Mental Illness, and Violence, has long argued marijuana is linked to psychosis, mental illness, and violence. During an appearance on The Megyn Kelly Show in January, he warned that many Americans misunderstand the strength of today’s marijuana.
“Fifty years ago… if you smoked a joint, it had a few milligrams of THC in it. Now, it might have 100 milligrams of THC in it,” he explained. “The reason is that the industry has gotten really, really good at making what they call ‘flower’ – herbal cannabis – a lot stronger. So, it used to be, let’s say, 1 to 3 percent THC. Now, you couldn’t sell that in a store. You’d be laughed out of the store. It’s mostly 20 to 30 percent THC.”
But it’s not just about joints. “The other issue is that a lot of people don’t even use flower cannabis anymore. They just vape,” Berenson added. “So, that’s basically just ingesting a chemical, either inhaling it… eating it in a brownie… putting a little tincture on your tongue that’s just pure THC. One of the things that people who use cannabis say is, ‘Oh, it’s a plant. It’s natural.’ This stuff is no more natural than anything else that comes out of a lab.”
You can watch Megyn’s full interview with Berenson in episode 1,226.
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