Is Alex Berenson trolling us with his anti-weed book?
A former ‘New York Times’ journalist wrote about a “hidden epidemic” cause by pot — but it seems he got the science wrong
Saturday, January 12, 2019
There’s been a flurry of media coverage around a new book called Tell Your Children: The Truth About Marijuana, Mental Illness, and Violence. One of the main points is that legalization is a terrible idea, because legal pot is already causing more people to become schizophrenic and psychotic, and people who are schizophrenic and psychotic are more likely to commit violent crimes. Alex Berenson, the book’s author — a former journalist who spent the past decade or so writing mysteries and thriller novels — landed plum op-eds in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. And yet, this theory is deeply flawed. (See also: The reasonable way to view marijuana’s risks | What Alex Berenson’s new book gets wrong about marijuana, psychosis, and violence)
