Marijuana Is for Dummies

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Marijuana Is for Dummies

Even as Trump eases regulation, evidence grows of pot’s damage to young brains.

By The Editorial Board, WSJ

April 26, 2026 3:36 pm ET

The Trump Administration last week moved to reclassify marijuana as a less dangerous drug. Is the goal to reduce America’s collective IQ?

The main practical effect of the Justice Department’s reclassification of cannabis as a Schedule III drug under the Controlled Substances Act will be to let marijuana growers and retailers deduct expenses from their taxes like other companies. It will also send a message of government approval for a drug that is harming young brains.

A study last week by researchers at the University of California, San Diego, of 11,000 adolescents offers timely new evidence. It found that pot users experienced impaired brain development compared to non-users—including worse verbal recall, processing speed, inhibition control, working memory and spatial skills.

The researchers controlled for socio-demographics, family history of substance use disorders, prenatal substance exposure and a teen’s use of other substances. This rules out confounding factors.

On many cognitive measures, the study found, pot users had performed better at younger ages than non-users. But as they got older and used more pot, they flat-lined while their peers continued to improve. “These differences may seem small at first, but they can add up in ways that affect learning, memory and everyday functioning,” says the study’s lead author Natasha Wade.

Some two dozen states have legalized marijuana for recreational purposes, and 40 have for putatively medicinal use. This has allowed licensed businesses to grow and sell the drug and its highly potent psychoactive THC. Last week’s reclassification applies only to businesses that are licensed to produce and sell so-called medical marijuana, so expect pot shops to start touting their therapeutic benefits.

The pot lobby and its friends in state governments have insisted legalization wouldn’t increase teen use, but that’s proven to be false, like so many of their claims. A study this month in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that adolescent cannabis use shot up some 38% after California voters in 2016 approved a referendum legalizing the drug for recreational use, then declined during the pandemic when teens were stuck at home. The good news is that more parents are becoming aware of weed’s dangers, such as increased risk of mental illness and cardiac problems.

Too many Americans still think pot is harmless, and the Trump Administration is contributing to that delusion.