This is not the same marijuana that was smoked in past decades. You won’t relive those experiences in your bell bottoms and Indian print shirts. That weed had 3 to 5% THC, the active ingredient that gets you “high.” Today, many shops sell products that contain as much as 90% THC.
President Trump, a teetotaler himself, recently had his acting attorney Todd Blanche sign an order to reclassify state-licensed medical marijuana as a less dangerous drug. It used to be classified with heroin and psychedelics as Schedule I and now is classified as III. Schedule III makes it obtainable for medical reasons with a prescription. Although the order does not legalize cannabis for medical or recreational use under federal law, recreational use still remains illegal under U.S. law but research with its products will continue. More than half of U.S. states have legalized marijuana within the last decade. Major licensed medical marijuana operators who register with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration will get tax breaks for federal use. Last week, President Trump signed an executive order about psychedelics to declassify their status as well.
Doctors Fight Back
Says the vice chair for addiction psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medicine, Jonathan Avery, M.D. ” more people are landing in the emergency room after accidentally overdosing on high-potency THC products, particularly edibles, where people can under-estimate how much they have taken.”
Even though the cannabis industry promotes its products to relieve anxiety, depression, pain and sleep problems, its products are causing those mental health disorders. If used daily, cannabis can cause cannabis use disorder in about a third of those who are habitual users and can cause psychosis such as schizoid disaffective disorder.
Marijuana can affect the developing brain of a teenager. Research has found that cannabis users who started taking it in their adolescence lost several IQ points between the ages of 13 and 38. States have attributed more car crashes to smoking POT.
Sources: The Wall St. Journal, 4/24/26, ” U.S. to Reclassify Marijuana as Less Dangerous Drug.”
The New York Times, 4/23/26, ” Trump Administration Loosens Restrictions on Medical Marijuana.”
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Wesley Cullen Davidson
Wesley Cullen Davidson is an award-winning freelance writer and journalist specializing in parenting. Currently, she is targeting her writing about recovery to parents whose children have substance abuse disorders.