Cannabis and Psychosis
– By Howard Sierer –
The New York Times and I find ourselves in complete agreement for a change.
In 2019, I took a lot of heat when I wrote that marijuana has serious medical side effects:
“Much of what advocates and the media have told you for decades about the health effects of marijuana is wrong. Drowned out by an alliance of recreational marijuana users, libertarians and corporate America’s love of lucrative new markets, marijuana’s serious medical consequences are being ignored, even in conservative Utah.”
Author Alex Berenson’s book “Tell Your Children” was likewise attacked by many of the usual leftwing suspects, including Vox and Rolling Stone. Even the usually-rational Washington Post piled on with three op-eds deriding the return of “reefer madness” and claiming the book rehashed negative myths about marijuana here, here and here.
Berenson explains that he drew all these attacks because his book can be summed up in two three-word sentences: Cannabis causes psychosis. Psychosis causes violence.
His book cited extensive scientific and epidemiologic evidence backing his conclusions. One levelheaded reviewer called his book “a brilliant antidote to all the…false narratives about pot.”
Berenson says that the people who hated the book were unable to find factual errors in it. Thus, they attacked it on the now-familiar grounds that it was filled with “misinformation” – that is, the information they did not like.
Subsequent years have continued to pile up medical evidence confirming the book’s main points. Acknowledging the accumulating data, the liberal New York Times published what Berenson calls an “extraordinary” article affirming the link between cannabis and psychosis. The Times wrote:
“In addition to uncontrollable vomiting and addiction, adolescents who frequently use high doses of cannabis may also experience psychosis that could possibly lead to lifelong psychiatric disorder, an increased likelihood of developing depression and suicidal ideation, changes in brain anatomy and connectivity and poor memory.”
Other than that, no need to worry if your children are using marijuana.
Six words that all of us would do well to remember: Cannabis causes psychosis. Psychosis causes violence.
Just ask the New York Times.
