The author of a book on marijuana continues to find his theories shot down
There has already been substantial evidence refuting Alex Berenson’s new book, “Tell Your Children: The Truth About Marijuana, Mental Illness, and Violence.” His attempts at destroying the marijuana industry have been increasingly met with snickers and mockery, and he continues to lose a serious amount of public support for his unfounded and biased tirades. While giving him any type of press is not good, it’s important to point out how wrong he was in his interpretation of the facts. Some could say that Berenson is the “Alex Jones” of the marijuana industry – all fluff, no fact.
Berenson has been called out for cherry-picking information to try and support his claims, while others call him a phony. One reviewer called the book “fear and falsehoods in the guise of objective reporting.” He has begun to lose traction, though, as more organizations are pulling the plug. Last week, NPR canceled an interview it had planned with Berenson and now Mother Jones has retracted its own report of the book.
Mother Jones bills itself as a “reader-supported investigative news organization.” When Berenson was set to release his book, the group glowingly promoted it, pointing out that Berenson was able to prove research “linking heavy use with violent crime and mental illness.”
Now, however, editors with the organization have issued an update, a correction to the previous reports. They say that Mother Jones “overstated” the conclusions, explaining, “An earlier version of this article [on Berenson’s book] overstated the connection that NASEM researchers found between marijuana, bipolar disorder, and the risk of suicide, depression, and social anxiety disorders. It also overstated the connection between the increasing number of pot users and the number of people over 30 coming into the ER with psychosis; the researchers in that case ‘did not directly examine whether marijuana had led to any psychotic diagnoses.’ A handful of other facts and statements in the piece have been updated for accuracy.”
As Christopher Ingraham of the Washington Post put it, that’s “a whale of a correction.”
