If you want to take our weed away, you’ll need to come up with a much more clever truism
It’s the go-to opener or even headline for every reporter who wants to sound hip to the cannabis landscape while signaling to respectable people that we can’t have marijuana anarchy. You’ve heard and seen it in various grotesque forms: The stuff these kids are smoking these days isn’t the same Thai Stick that your parents puffed on at some ambiguous time in the past, presumably between 1950 and 2000.
This is infinitely silly discourse, and also harmful with the attempt to repeal adult-use in Mass underway. Because while many things, like cars and furniture, have become crappier over the past half-century, cannabis had room for exponential improvement, having been confined to damp warehouses and secret basements for generations. Our point being that of course it’s gotten better—and that’s a good thing. Anybody who says otherwise hates grass, plain and simple, like your average mainstream news dork for example.
Furthermore, the phrase could be used to describe almost anything: These are not your parents’ donuts! Your folks didn’t have dildos like these? Your grandparents could only dream of these new Nikes. Where does it end?
More importantly, for this exercise at least, is that the tired cliché must be put to rest. And so that is what we’ve come to do. Here’s a cross-section of offenders who have leaned on this insult to call into question everything from high-potency products to the need for artisanal gummies, starting with the newspaper of record that even recently recognized it as a cliché while still deploying it. Moving forward, we ask that they please, please put it to rest.
The “Retraction” Cliché
- Offender: The New York Times
- Context: In an April 2026 editorial titled “America Must Admit It Has a Marijuana Problem,” the editorial board walked back its long-standing advocacy for legalization by citing health risks and the “cliché” itself.
- The Quote: “Today, you can buy marijuana products with THC levels of 90 percent or more. As the cliché goes, this is not your parents’ weed. It is as if some beer brands were still sold as beer but contained as much alcohol per ounce as whiskey.”
The “Warning Label” Cliché
- Offender: BrainFacts.org (Society for Neuroscience)
- Context: A deep dive into the “myths and facts” of modern cannabis, specifically focusing on the biological effects of increased THC.
- The Quote: “This is not your parents’ marijuana and this is definitely not your grandparents’ marijuana. People need to be aware of that.”
The “State-Sponsored PSA” Cliché
- Offender: MediaPost / Partnership for a Drug-Free New Jersey
- Context: Reporting on a 2025 New Jersey awareness campaign that used billboards of boom boxes and skateboards to warn parents about pot potency.
- The Quote: “Not Your Parent’s Marijuana: Campaign Warns Of Today’s Increased Pot Potency. … a new billboard warns that ‘More than just music has changed since the ’90s.'”
The “Academic Innovation” Cliché
- Offender: UMass Amherst
- Context: An April 2026 release discussing how cannabis entrepreneurs are outpacing clinical researchers in product development.
- The Quote: “‘Not Your Parents’ Cannabis:’ Legalization Lights Up Innovation — But Not Clinical Research. UMass Amherst economists find entrepreneurs are way ahead of scientists…”
The “Medical Health” Cliché
- Offender: WebMD
- Context: A feature on the safety of melatonin and other substances used by teens, comparing modern THC concentrations to those of the 1970s.
- The Quote: “Not your parents’ weed. Ammerman notes that marijuana available to teens today is far more potent than that available a generation ago.”
The “Old-School Grass” Variation
- Offender: Campus Drug Prevention (DEA-run podcast)
- Context: This one is a more or less harmless professional reflection on how student drug use has changed over several decades.
- The Quote: “One of our friends in the field has said, you know, it’s not your father’s grass, probably because back then, it was grass… now the potency of THC is exponentially higher.”
