Why is marijuana legalization such a mess in New York? The answer seems clear: The rollout of licensed dispensaries has been "a disaster," as Gov. Kathy Hochul puts it, because of misguided policies and bureaucratic ineptitude. But Manhattan Institute Fellow Charles Fain Lehman is unsatisfied by that explanation. He prefers one that makes little sense but gives him an excuse to discuss "the real problem with legal weed": that marijuana addiction is more common and severe than people tend to think.
In a recent New York Times Magazine article, Lehman argues that Americans generally do not take the problems caused by excessive or reckless marijuana use seriously enough. While he may be right about that, his own take errs on the side of hyperbole by equating "cannabis use disorder" (CUD), a broad concept encompassing a wide range of behavior, with addiction, an especially severe subset of CUD.
