793 Comments

I don't know how many of you are as old as I am and remember the very mild pot that was available in the 70s. Today's Marijuana is not the same thing at all. There are many studies about the psychotic effect modern MJ can have, particularly in the young. Horrible events like the one recounted by Alex may not happen often but they are far more likely than they once were.

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I dunno, Alex. You’ve kinda lost me here…

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The obvious culprit here is global warming and systemic racism.

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There’s a lot to consider in these cases and I think you’re jumping to conclusions. Laced cannabis, pre-existing mental illness, etc. I don’t think cannabis can make just anyone into a stone-cold killer. I think the ability and urge to kill someone is deeply rooted in their psyche and it’s possible cannabis could bring that to the surface. I appreciate your posts and hearing the other side, but I think your over-simplifying.

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Psychotic people should definitely NOT smoke pot or use any altering substance illegally. That doesn't mean that pot makes people psychotic.

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I'm going to have to go ahead and disagree with you on this one Alex. Just to be clear, I'm not defending or supporting or denouncing the use of cannabis. I don't have a dog in that fight. But there are billions of people smoking and eating or who have otherwise used cannabis products. If there were a direct correlation to cannabis use and psychotic episodes let alone murder I'd think we'd have heard about it in rather dramatic fashion, don't you? In fact I'd think everyone would know someone whose had these problems. No, I'm going to put my money on this damaged human had a psychotic disorder long before he ever ingested cannabis. And the cannabis is an incidental variable in the overall equation and this is more an indictment of a mental health system that failed this couple. That's a fight I do have a dog in. 25 years I was in it. 17 of them as a Case Manager for DMH in Massachusetts. I also raised my wife's daughter who began suffering bipolar disorder at the very rare age of 5. I know the system and I know it's as broken as those it purports to be helping. Sad case all around.

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That is the first time I ever heard of somebody acting violently from cannabis

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I cannot tell you how many of my long time acquaintences 60-70 have over the last 5 years made the drive to CO and bought cookies and gummies and gotten F'd up beyond what used to be smoking a joint. At thanksgiving 2019 a couple almost had to go home! They got something bad or way to strong. A month ago I was invited to The Rolling STones concert and a 65yr old flight attendant in our group pulled out her "gummies"... I said Hell NO. She got antisocial and stood in the hallway behind us through the whole concert. I don't like being with someone high, because they leave you mentally and get in their own little world. Maybe it's fun if you're both doing it together. I agree, something is not right with the new stronger strains. Also, if someone cannot be around others in a social setting without getting high, what's the use of living? I have finally quit drinking wine because I drank at every occasion and drank a bottle daily through the first year of Covid out of boredom and lonliness! Not worth living that way. I thank God every morning for feeling GOOD and having a sober mind.

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How about we all read the book “Tell your children the truth about Alcohol and it’s destruction of the mind, body and other people”. I’m not a big fan of making it easy for kids to use pot because developing brains are a whole different subject. However, resorting back to irrational and mostly false fear based information like “Reefer Madness” only makes young people think adults are idiots and will never look at Marijuana use properly. This dude was probably an unstable person naturally and this is just the exception that proves the rule. Marijuana is not the Devil.

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I see a deeper meaning and red flag here. Cannabis, alcohol and other drugs are being supported and defended by a deep state that sees the need to keep the general population in a “frequent happy state” and dependent state to more easily and effectively control them.

Slavery is more alive and well than ever. It’s just high tech style deception now.

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Been smoking heavily and daily for decades since moving to CA. I used to drink and at times I would become an angry drunk and occasionally violent to material object but not people. In all my times with MJ i have never felt angry like I did drinking. I frankly almost never feel angry at all and certainly far from ever being VIOLENT. I think the people who act out on Pot are the same people who act out under the influence of alcohol, prescription pills, sugar, depression, hunger, etc etc.

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LMAO alex how many users are not violent psycho's hmm? what is the occurrence, 1 in 1 billion or what? Less than the coronavirus problems that is for sure.

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I have to disagree, cannabis induced psychosis only arises when it's genetically inherent.

You cannot develop cannabis induced psychosis unless you have a family history of psychosis.

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I have two friends, whose young sons (20ish) were chronic pot smokers, but otherwise perfectly healthy. They woke up one day with severe symptoms which were later diagnosed first as psychosis and later as a form of schizophrenia. The two specialists they saw (one at UCLA) had no doubt marijuana was the cause. This seems to be common now, unlike the pot we all smoked 20 years ago. Their conditions are permanent. It obviously doesn't happen to everyone, but it's happening, kind of like myocarditis is rare, but isn't.

I knew something was amiss with this enormous push to legalize it, and the feds refusal to enforce the then-federal law against commercial sales/dispensaries. Again, it seems that this "movement" came from the top down and not the other way around. There are no coincidences, no mistakes.

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seriously Alex you wrote a book on Marijuana?? i am 72 been around it since i was 16 never knew still dont know anyone it has harmed. most cases of this have Fentynal mixed in.

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Brings back memories of "Reefer Madness".

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Psychosis does not come about by smoking pot. About the only thing we can say for sure about it is that there is a hereditary factor to it. I have worked in the field seeing people in crisis and I've never seen anything like it. Some drugs, meth, will make you crazy, but that's not psychosis. Psychotic people can be very rational and act purposefully. Crazy people are just off the wall, (https://www.luhrenloup.com/zombie-woman-terrorizes)

Anything can cause a person predisposed to psychosis to slip into a psychotic state. It could be the way the sunlight was refracting against the bedroom mirror.

These cockamamie ideas have more to do with one's moral attitude than with facts.

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Stick to the issue at hand. Stopping mandatory vaccination.

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Sounds like quilt by association. It's like saying guns cause murders. For pot, it seems as likely that psychos are attracted to pot and other narcotics as an attempt to escape their psychosis, as it would be that pot causes the problems. Lots of people try pot and don't become psychotic. Pot is probably an innocent bystander.

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no one said its always safe for everyone. its just nearly infinitely safer than alcohol or tobacco.

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Yeah, I don't believe that for a minute. I've been smoking marijuana for 45 years, and have never been so out of sorts that I lost control of my mental or physical capabilities, like alcohol does, not even close. So this person is lying. They are a murderer and using marijuana as there false excuse, when marijuana doesn't have that effect on anybody. Don't believe this for a moment.

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Stick to covid analysis, please. This is ridiculous and Dr Mike has already schooled you on your terrible takes about marijuana.

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Well Berenson, there goes your credibility. Of course you should be careful using edibles but really?

https://www.facebook.com/notes/bruce-cain/why-the-right-to-grow-your-own-medical-cannabis-must-be-protected-from-tax-regul/1941658819193430/

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Yeah...no.

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All the folks here saying "I've smoked for years and I'm fine so he's wrong" -- that's exactly what all the pro vax people say. "Billions of doses of vaccine and the sky isnt falling"

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While I appreciate the discussion, there is just not enough evidence to clearly state this. You are adding to reefer madness. How about we allow legalization and decriminalization on a federal level, so medical research can be conducted. Till then why add to the hysteria?

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I guess most of you are too young or have forgotten all of the experiments that many governments did with pot... yes, most definitely, it can cause psychological problems, both acute and long term, and permanent impairment. Does it happen to everyone? No, but it happens to enough. Stay off the weed, son...

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This guy was psycho before the weed.

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The LEFT is out for destroying our country (and the world in that matter).

They propagate FAMILY destruction and SOCIETY destruction. How else one can explain the release of criminals from prisons, legalization of opiates, destruction of traditional marriage by propagating LGBTQ+$#!@....... etc.

They preach tolerance but don't tolerate anything that differs from their view. I lived in communist society and I know how it works. If one doesn't fit in the cookie cutter, he is first shamed publicly, if that doesn't work, he's sent for 're-education', if that doesn't work, well, he disappear. I run away from that but I'm going to fight it here in USA!

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Alex - cannabis is exactly how you got on my radar, and I thank you for it. Having never done marijuana, or even smoked a cigarette in my lifetime - I tried medical cannabis in middle age, DESPERATE for relief from restless leg syndrome (which is REAL and TERRIBLE for some people, btw). You are 100% correct, imho, that there are certain people for whom cannabis is most definitely not a fit, and I believe that number is higher than the industry would have us believe. I reacted terribly to it and was truly surprised. Telling my sister about it (embarrassingly) she casually said "oh yes it made me feel super paranoid." As dumb as it sounds, all of this was news to me. Thanks for having to courage to report on this issue.

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Some people in this comment thread seem shocked by this, but I don't doubt that weed can cause psychosis in some people (even if it's a small subset of users). It should be studied further instead of being dismissed.

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With the studies that have come out linking cannabis and schizophrenia, has anyone tracked the rise in homelessness caused by mental illness and the legalization of cannabis? The legalization was a paradigm shift in triggering mental illness because the strains had much higher thc amounts and access to edibles with high THC and pure oils. This isnt the weed people were using before legalization. Sure, almost everyone has used weed but it was fairly low thc strains. When legalization occurred there was a few big steps like lab testing of THC, this step allowed selective breeding of strains to produce higher and higher content. This is franken-weed and it may be the reason we see all the mental illness and homelessness.

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Cannabis will be the next scapegoat for covid 19 vaccine induced heart attacks in the young.

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Can someone smoke so much that instead of getting married in Vegas, they get the vax?

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So wrong...

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Playing video games for 14 years at 50 to 60 hours a week probably didn't have anything to do with it.

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Some of the largest studies in the world have been conducted outside of the "weed friendly" USA and have been ongoing for years. At the highest levels of medical research, it's no wonder why the question, "is weed bad for the human body", no longer discussed......they know full well it is bad so why continue to kick a dead horse! As the son of an accomplished surgeon and later on a county medical examiner, I was shown what continued use of weed will do to the respiratory system compared to a non-smoker healthy person. Same for cigarette smoking. Some things in this world are just not good to be consumed in any manner or form.

It's also no longer questioned whether weed causes a decreased immune response in the body... once again they know it does! It also causes lung hyperinflation, increased airway resistance and inflammation and there are studies linking weed usage to higher rates of outpatient treatment for a whole laundry list of respiratory issues compared to those who do not use it.

I'd like to see a study of Covid19 deaths compared and contrasted with lifestyle issues such as weed usage and see where that gets us. I got big betting money that it would be highly negative on the side of weed usage.

Enjoy your weed!

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Every time I have tried pot I've wanted to kill!!! Kill a bag of oreos and a 1/2 gallon of milk.

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I tell friends who will listen that Alex Berenson is the last of the true investigative journalists still doing his job.

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This book was really informative. I gave a copy to a friend who has a psychological and drug counseling program. He's told me of some of the lunatic proposals at the state level of using cannabis to help PTSD sufferers. Based on no data at all.

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Well Berenson, there goes your credibility. Of course you should be careful using edibles but really?

To say the very least your book is totally unbalanced and seems to be an attempt to resurrect the old "Reefer Madness" nonsense. I spent 30 years pushing for "the right to grow" for Cannabis activists. Cannabis is one of the safest drugs. You cannot die from an overdose. And as my essay makes clear: in the 90's it was discovered that all humans, fish, animals have an Endocannabinoid System where Cannabis supplementation can improve many health problems. So "yes" you can get uncomfortably "high" on Cannabis edibles. But there is very little evidence that this has precipitated murder and mayhem. Most users of edibles quickly learn the limits.

It is kinda funny in an odd way. You do recognize that many of the Covid deaths were from an average of 3 comorbidities but you don't seem to understand that Cannabis users -- that on rare occasions become violent -- also suffer comorbidities such as psychosis, schizophrenia as well issues of nurture: no father figure in a child's upbringing. I think you should research anything you take into your body -- including Cannabis, Vaccines, Big Pharma drugs. But pushing this "Reefer Madness" narrative is not helpful. Stick to writing about what you research.

https://www.facebook.com/notes/bruce-cain/why-the-right-to-grow-your-own-medical-cannabis-must-be-protected-from-tax-regul/1941658819193430/

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I’m not a user of cannibis but I am a highly trained medical professional (including two years of medical school) with a 47 year career in critical care medicine and surgery who has a reasonable level of understanding of cannabinoids.

Cannabis doesn’t “cause“ psychosis any more than cocaine, or alcohol when used “appropriately”. I have never used cocaine, but I do enjoy a glass of wine, Maker’s, or a single malt.

Overdose of any recreational “drug” including alcohol may cause severe alterations in the human psyche. The same is true of many drugs we legitimately use when they are misused. Dextromethorophan for suppressing coughs comes to mind (no pun intended).

You must separate and understand cause and effect here correctly.

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Documented proof of this, They had it right in the thirties.

https://youtu.be/sbjHOBJzhb0

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We have a culture of drug users. Fat obese, idiot mutants. I’ve been to the airport at 5am and have seen people with giant 36oz beers. Plates of fried food. 5am! Losers. This country is comprised of a lot of mutant losers.

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Pot increases the risk of psychosis/psychotic episodes greatly, as Mr Berenson demonstrates in his book. What some people seem to have trouble digesting is that the fact they use and have not had "problems" is NOT dispositive evidence this is untrue. It does mean those same users are still playing with fire when they use. Each time they use they are more at risk; the opposite is not true. Why take the risk - AND possibly endanger others - for a cheap thrill/escape?

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By the way, what now, 6 or more years later that Colorado still evades and minimizes the consequences seen in their first state legalization of pot, the DUIs and MVAs, the toddlers getting poisoned from accessing edibles, and the pathetic dumbing down of businesses that have pot smoking jerks minimally working and ineffectively handling services...

Want to know why people flock to Colorado, in two words: NO ACCOUNTABILITY!!!

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Many will try to dismiss this due to their personal experiences with Cannabis, but just like most everything, different people can have different reactions. Todays blunt puffers don't just "puff puff pass" . Many smoke 3, 5, 7 blunts a day and are incapable of Sleeping, Eating, Driving etc without it. Full blown dependency and psychosis. Without it, they become EXTREMELY agitated.

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I know three young people over the last 10 years that had breakdowns/psychotic episodes due to marijuana use. None have fully recovered. It has devastated there families. I was shocked. I, nor them, knew this was a thing. And I amazingly know three! I did a little research and it is a real thing but not talked about. So sad and scary.

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Thanks for sharing this. I learned long ago to never step between weed and those that love and worship it. They will defend it with religious zeal.

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You are completely right--I observed it firsthand among many of my friends when I lived in Fort Collins and was dating a guy who was growing a garage and basement full of plants. The sad part is the marijuana-induced breaks were so uncharacteristic of the people I knew. And so violent and scary. Yet everyone is supposed to pretend like marijuana is completely safe and "just grass" and it's unscientific to say anything else (when the exact opposite is true--the data clearly shows the harm). And they get so, so, so angry if you suggest otherwise, as evidenced by people in this comment thread. Like, "Alex, I can follow you with the COVID stuff, but say one thing about marijuana and adverse effects, I'm out."

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