A Crisis of Extraordinary Proportions

Pamela Garfield-Jaeger writes:

After years of doubling down on the legalization of marijuana and minimizing its harms, The New York Times has finally broken the seal of truth by admitting that marijuana is far more harmful than most people want to acknowledge. The article, titled “It’s Time for America to Admit That It Has a Marijuana Problem,” marks a dramatic reversal and walks back years of misleading claims.

This shift is significant because, in the past, The New York Times compared restrictions on marijuana to the era of alcohol prohibition and portrayed cannabis as benign, even medicinal. It denied the risk of addiction, as many speculated that legalization would not significantly increase use. The Times was highly influential in shaping public opinion and policy, contributing to the widespread legalization of marijuana across 24 states for recreational use and 40 states for medical use. This week, it quietly began to reverse course.

Despite the Times’ previous assertions, data from the National Center for Drug Abuse Statistics shows a 65.2 percent increase in marijuana use between 2015 and 2024, with 34.8 percent of high school seniors saying they had experimented with the drug. Alongside increased use, we are seeing serious side effects, including addiction, lung disorders, attention-span problems, memory and cognitive impairment, suicidality, and psychotic symptoms such as delusions, hallucinations, and paranoia. Now that the fruits of marijuana legalization are clearly visible, The New York Times is suddenly retreating from its earlier enthusiasm.

My unpopular views on marijuana came long before the Times changed its tune. They originated from my experience as a therapist in inpatient and outpatient psychiatric settings, starting in the mid-to-late 2000s. My role required conducting assessments and thoroughly reviewing patients’ histories. Over time, I noticed a troubling pattern reported by families of patients diagnosed with schizophrenia: Many of these individuals were functioning normally until they began using marijuana. In some cases, the drug use was not even long-term. At first, I struggled to believe it. But as I investigated further, I found that my experience was not an anomaly; there was research supporting what I was seeing clinically.

My understanding deepened further several years later while I was in private practice. By then, I was no longer treating patients with acute psychiatric conditions. Nevertheless, one patient in his mid-40s, with no prior history of psychosis, changed everything. He sought therapy for anxiety and relationship issues. He held a well-paid tech job in Silicon Valley and was functioning well enough that we had discussed discharging him from treatment.

That changed when he began using marijuana. He rapidly became erratic, paranoid, and consumed by irrational thoughts and delusions. I expressed serious concern and referred him to a physician, but he insisted that marijuana was helping him and refused to follow my advice. His behavior escalated to the point that his coworkers called 911. When police arrived, his paranoid delusions led him to lunge at officers, and he was shot and killed.

Were my patients and I simply unlucky? Unfortunately, no. This problem is widespread. I have since heard countless similar stories. Speak with any professional working in an acute psychiatric setting, and they will confirm that cannabis-related psychosis is far more common than most people are willing to admit. For example, Dr. Amy Mayhew, a psychiatrist and clinical director at Maine Medical Center, has reported seeing a high number of teen patients presenting with psychosis despite having no family history of such symptoms, yet a clear pattern of high-potency marijuana use. The connection was impossible for her to ignore.

With the New York Times op-ed circulating, conservative influencer Brett Cooper has also come forward to share her family’s experience. She wrote on X: “My mom and I have been told that my brother’s psychosis — now full-blown diagnosed schizophrenia — is most likely drug-induced from his years of smoking weed. This drug isn’t harmless, no matter what our culture and the screaming people in comment sections tried to tell us.”

Alex Berenson, the bestselling author of Tell Your Children: The Truth About Marijuana, Mental Illness, and Violence, responded to Cooper’s testimony by stating, “Now that the opioid crisis is — thankfully — starting to recede, the cannabis crisis is going to take center stage.” He is correct. This is a crisis of extraordinary proportions. Marijuana is not benign. It is dangerous. And it is long past time for The New York Times to finally admit that.

There cannot be a “free” market in general, but not in drugs, or prostitution, or pornography, or unrestricted alcohol, or unrestricted gambling. That is an important part of why there must not be a “free” market in general, which is a political choice, not a law of nature. Enacting and enforcing laws against drugs, prostitution and pornography, and regulating alcohol, tobacco and gambling, are clear examples of State intervention in, and regulation of, the economy. Radical change would be impossible if the workers, the youth and the poor were in a state of stupefaction, and that baleful situation, which has been contrived in the past, is being contrived again today.

We need a single category of illegal drug, including cannabis, with a crackdown on possession, including a mandatory sentence of two years for a first offence, three years for a second offence, four years for a third offence, and so on. I no longer believe in prison sentences that included the possibility of release in less than 12 months; in that case, then your crime was not bad enough to warrant imprisonment, which the possession of drugs is. We need to restore the specific criminal offence of allowing one’s premises to be used for illegal drug purposes. And Peter Hitchens’s The War We Never Fought should be taught in schools.