Politically Unstable: The dangers of reclassifying marijuana

Video

Monday, August 25, 2025

President Trump is considering reclassifying marijuana as a Schedule III drug. What are the consequences of that move? Would legalization make the industry safer?

Alex Berenson, author of “Tell Your Children: The Truth About Marijuana, Mental Illness, and Violence,” joins Kelly Sadler on Politically Unstable to offer insight on the dangers of reclassifying marijuana.

[SADLER] The president said that he was gonna make this decision within the next few weeks. We know that his administration has been lobbied heavily by the cannabis industry, who says the reclassification would help them become more profitable. The medical community has argued it allowed them to study marijuana as a medical drug and its potential uses, as well as the president has cited high levels of arrests, incarcerations, and wanting to bring those down for people who want to use pot recreationally.

This is a very complex issue, Alex. And I know that you’ve written a book about it, “Tell Your Children: The Truth About Marijuana, Mental Illness and Violence.” Many states have already legalized the use of marijuana. We’re seeing it just walking down the streets of D.C., for example, you can almost get a contact high. What are your thoughts as the president deliberates what to do about the reclassification of marijuana?

[BERENSON] The president has a difficult decision ahead. He has been lobbied a lot by the cannabis industry, which obviously would like cannabis moved from Schedule I to Schedule III, mainly for the tax benefits that it would have. Right now, basically, all its profits are taxed at a very high level, at a very high rate, and that’s made it difficult for the industry to grow. I mean, I think what the president has to ask himself is not, “Hey, should we be throwing a lot of people in jail for cannabis use?” Because I think most, almost every American would agree, we shouldn’t really, and we don’t. That’s the thing, we don’t. Cannabis is legal on the state level in many states, most states either medically or recreationally, and now in many states recreationally. And even in states where it’s not legal, and which is just a handful, there’s almost nobody in jail at this point for cannabis possession or even low level dealing.

Now, it’s not true that, you know, that people don’t get arrested for cannabis use sometimes. But people get arrested for alcohol use, and alcohol is legal, right? If you’re drinking and driving, you can be arrested. And if you’re high and driving, you can be arrested. That’s a cannabis arrest, but that’s not a function of the basic legality of the drug. That’s a function of what you’re doing with it. So to me, the question is not, hey, do we want to put millions of people in jail for cannabis? Because we’re not doing that, we’re not going to do that. The question the president should be asking himself is, do I want to facilitate an industry that is promoting the use of this dangerous drug to minors, and promoting sort of unhealthy and problematic levels of use. Because it’s well known, this is true of alcohol and it’s even more true of cannabis. It’s true of all illegal and legal drugs. I mean, legal recreational drugs, that most the revenues these industries generate are generated by a tiny fraction of people who are heavy users who oftentimes have problems as a result of their use, who create problems for other people and their families as a result of their use.

Does the President of the United States want to say, I’m going to help this industry make a little bit of extra money on the backs of a lot of people who have real problems with use and their family members? And we’re already seeing in the states that have legalized and sort of more generally because attitudes towards cannabis have changed, we’re seeing a lot more hospitalizations from people with something called “scromiting,” which sounds like a fake thing, but it’s a real thing where you use so much THC that you mess up your ability essentially to swallow and you can wind up vomiting so much that you end up in the ER. And in extreme rare cases people actually die because their electrolytes are so messed up. That may sound unbelievable, but it is true.

We’re seeing children have overdoses on gummies. And in some cases, they need to be hospitalized too. And we’re seeing what I wrote about in “Tell Your Children,” which is a lot of mental illness that’s related to cannabis use. And so the president doesn’t have to say, I want to put a million people in jail. He can just say, look, I don’t think at the federal level, legalizing this industry makes sense.