A book written by Alex Berenson on marijuana shows how jaded opponents are
Alex Berenson has written a book that attempts to put marijuana in a bad light. In “Tell Your Children: The Truth About Marijuana, Mental Illness, and Violence,” he tries to degrade the entire marijuana industry and repeatedly points out information that only serves to spread FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) in an effort to stop legalization. If he had put the same amount of effort into learning the subject as he did falsely trying to bash it, he would now be a better man.
Berenson points out that marijuana leads to schizophrenia. What he (more than likely) intentionally left out was the fact that science has already proven the opposite. A number of studies have shown that marijuana can ease mental health issues. The would-be author simply pulled data from a report that showed certain individuals already suffering from extreme mental health issues could see their issues exacerbated – a fact he “conveniently” left out.
He also tried to claim that teens will become dependent on marijuana if it is legalized. This has, again, already been shown to be a fallacious argument, as both Washington State and Colorado have reported just the opposite. He states that 10-15% of teens will develop a dependency; however, what he fails to mention is that that is the same figure for alcohol addiction.
It’s incredible that anyone would, after the continued acceptance of marijuana on a global level, try to take the industry down. Too much evidence – both scientific and anecdotal – already shows the positive benefits of Mother Nature’s wonder drug. After a cursory glance of the book (more than that is enough to cause anyone to have an upset stomach over the misinformation), it becomes glaringly obvious – either Berenson is the world’s worst researcher or he simply attempted to capitalize on marijuana’s prevalence to fatten his wallet. Either way, the only thing he proved is that he is one of the world’s worst authors.
