Almost seven years ago, the New York Times invited me to speak to its editorial board about the dangers of legalising marijuana. I was excited to get the chance to tell this key institution of American life what I — and many other researchers — knew to be true: that legalising and commercialising the drug would be a public health disaster. Suffice to say, I didn’t receive much support.

That is why this week’s turn of events is so significant. On Monday, the paper published an editorial entitled: “It’s time for America to admit it has a weed problem.” It argued that marijuana’s harms are more serious than commonly acknowledged, and that commercialisation and social normalisation are amplifying them.

The editorial pointed to marijuana’s serious addictive potential and its links to a wide range of mental health problems. Surveys, it noted, suggest that around 18 million Americans now use the drug almost daily, while hospitals are seeing rising numbers of patients with marijuana-linked paranoia and chronic psychotic disorders. The “unfortunate truth”, the paper concluded, is that the loosening of marijuana laws has produced worse outcomes than many expected.

Notably, the New York Times is now one of several institutions sounding the alarm about the growing dangers of the drug. Last September, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists issued an excellent clinical consensus in September supporting the value of marijuana screening during pregnancy and warning of its dangers. Then, in November, the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) published a review of the literature concluding that “evidence from randomized clinical trials does not support the use of cannabis or cannabinoids for most conditions for which it is promoted, such as acute pain and insomnia”.

And that is to say nothing of the growing body of research from institutions such as Columbia University and the University of California, which is systematically documenting marijuana’s adverse public health effects. The Wall Street Journal has also highlighted alarming data on use among young people and severe psychiatric disorders. Even within the Times itself, once a reliable cheerleader for liberalisation, scepticism is spreading: columnist Ezra Klein has begun to rethink the case for permissive marijuana policy.

The public also appears to be growing sceptical. Gallup polling shows that support for legal marijuana has fallen sharply from its 2023 peak and is now trending steadily downward across the electorate. Among Republicans, the collapse has been especially stark: support has plunged from 55% at its high point to just 40% in 2025. That reversal is precisely why President Donald Trump’s decision to reschedule marijuana — directing his administration to move it into a category recognising accepted medical use — has proved so politically toxic within his own party.

Small wonder, then, that the advance of marijuana legalisation has stalled nationwide. Not a single state has legalised it over the past two election cycles. Nor is it surprising that efforts to roll back legalisation are now gathering momentum across the country. One such measure is moving steadily toward the ballot in Massachusetts this November.

That’s the deep motive force driving the Times editorial — the widespread consciousness of how harmful and corrosive marijuana is. Recall what we are talking about: a drug that a major study linked to as much as 30% of schizophrenia cases among young men, a drug associated with sharply higher risks of heart attack and diabetes, and a drug increasingly connected to rising crime in communities across the country. All this is clearly filtering upward from the people who actually have to live day-to-day with these consequences.

The paper’s newly cautious posture — even as it continues to support legalisation with regulation — should be read as a bellwether. The Times still carries real authority, and its shift gives cover to those who have long harboured these concerns but hesitated to voice them. Public health data has pointed this way for years. Now the chorus is growing, and the pressure on lawmakers will only intensify.

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Kevin Sabet, a former three-time White House senior drug-policy adviser, is president of Smart Approaches to Marijuana.

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