Big Weed Is the Next Big Tobacco Hijacking Gen Z Brains
I’m watching something heartbreaking happen to Gen Z, and it’s not just on their phones.
It’s in their brains.
On my latest Working Healthcare podcast episode, “Wine, Weed and the Next Generation,” I sit down with my Zoomer son to ask why he calls high-THC cannabis “the stupid drug” of his generation — and how we are on course to destroy his entire peer group.
Here’s the backdrop: 24 states plus Washington, D.C. have legalized recreational marijuana for adults 21 and older. Yet under federal law, cannabis is still a Schedule I drug — grouped with heroin and treated as more dangerous than cocaine or fentanyl in Schedule II.
So we’ve normalized retail weed for young adults while the federal government still classifies it as among the most dangerous substances.
Now Massachusetts could become the first state to reverse course. A new campaign just turned in more than 74,000 signatures to repeal recreational cannabis in 2026 — after building a $1.6 billion market with tens of thousands of jobs.
And it’s not just Massachusetts:
• Idaho voters will weigh a 2026 measure to block future marijuana legalization initiatives.
• A recent federal funding bill quietly moved to effectively ban most THC-infused snacks and drinks nationwide.
There is a real anti-weed backlash building.
Drug policy scholar Kevin Sabet, who leads Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM) and backed the Massachusetts effort, argues that “Big Weed” is copying the worst of Big Tobacco, alcohol and opioids — an addiction-for-profit industry that depends on heavy, daily users, not casual use.
As a healthcare executive and mom, I’m not interested in locking people up for marijuana. I’m interested in the system we’ve built around it. We’ve already seen what happens when profit-driven industries engineer addiction.
Do we really want to run that play again on today’s teenagers and young adults?
In “Wine, Weed and the Next Generation,” my son and I wrestle with one core question: What would it take for parents, clinicians and policymakers to get ahead of this instead of waiting for the hindsight autopsy?
If you care about the next generation’s brains — as a parent, educator, healthcare leader, employer or policymaker — I’d love for you to listen and then tell me where you land: Is cannabis just another adult vice we’re overreacting to, or have we industrialized a “stupid drug” that is quietly numbing a generation we need fully online?
Listen to Dalton's full episode: https://lnkd.in/ea2kPRZU
Drop your perspective in the comments. And if you listen, let me know what surprised you most. 👇 👇 👇
