It's very clearly not providing an opinion guised as a question. It suggests that it could go up or down, and concludes that it is something to watch out for, because these are two variables very likely to be connected.

Not only that, but not even explaining how it could be a problem (or not a problem!) with anything specific.

You can take the exact same structure he uses there and apply it to any piece of news.

But you know, pageviews...

A generation ago that paragraph would have been about the "risk "of people starting with pot and moving to heroin/crack/whatever.

Times change, or maybe they don't.