Alex Berenson’s attempts at bashing marijuana are falling flat
It’s becoming more and more evident that Alex Berenson’s book on marijuana is more fiction than fact. “Tell Your Children: The Truth About Marijuana, Mental Illness, and Violence” was an attempt by Berenson to “set the record straight” on marijuana, but he has quickly become the laughing stock of the entire industry. Now, even scientists are coming forward to recognize him as a fraud.
In the book, Berenson does an excellent job at cherry picking information in order to substantiate his theories. He claims that “marijuana causes psychosis and psychosis causes violence,” which has already been shown to be inaccurate. Dr. David L. Nathan, a distinguished fellow in the America Psychiatric Association and the board president of Doctors for Cannabis Regulation, states, “[Berenson] either minimizes or excludes evidence that contradicts his hypothesis, and he goes beyond what the evidence says, like cannabis causing psychosis.”
Berenson also made reference to a study conducted by UCLA’s Cannabis Research Initiative. However, he completely missed the mark. This is per Dr. Ziva Cooper, the research director for the center and one of the authors of the report. She said, Berenson’s writing is “wrong and a gross misinterpretation of our conclusions in the text. And to make that claim is quite dangerous and is misinformed.”
The would-be author only tried to capitalize on the marijuana hype with his book. It has become apparent that he has no knowledge of, and is definitely not an expert on, either marijuana or psychology. After the book made waves following its release, many of the publications that praised it retracted their positions, admitting that they had, too, fallen for the tricky performance concocted by someone who is ultimately nothing more than a scam artist.
