Opinion

ALEX BERENSON: I warned about cannabis dangers 7 years ago and nobody wanted to listen

Author of 'Tell Your Children' says personal stories about psychiatric harms are finally breaking through media groupthink

By Alex Berenson Fox News

Published February 18, 2026 5:00am EST

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Suddenly warnings about cannabis are everywhere.

At the beginning of February, researchers reported severe mental illness has spiked in young people in Canada alongside access to high-potency cannabis.

The next day came the release of "A Killing In Cannabis," a book about a 2019 murder in California — and the violence that plagues the marijuana business and that legalization has not resolved.

Then, on Feb. 9, the New York Times dropped its support for full cannabis legalization. Writing that the United States has "a Marijuana Problem," the paper admitted cannabis addiction and psychosis have become a crisis. It called for a ban on THC extracts, a move that would recriminalize much of the legal industry. (THC is the chemical in the plant that gets users high, and vapes offering near-pure hits of THC are now popular among users — and a big driver of industry profits.)

NY TIMES WALKS BACK STANCE ON MARIJUANA LEGALIZATION, ADMITS LOOSENING OF POLICIES HAS MADE COUNTRY WORSE OFF

Recreational cannabis is available at legal retail stores in many U.S. states. (iStock)

I don’t want to say I told you so.

But I did.

In 2019, I wrote "Tell Your Children," meticulously documenting the decades of research linking cannabis and THC to mental illness, especially psychosis and schizophrenia.

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