Alex Berenson Got It All Wrong On Marijuana

Stop blaming ancient healing substances

Alex Berenson published this substack recently.

Tell Your Children

That first sentence twists the truth to support his agenda. What the study really says is: Previous heavy abuse of marijuana correlates with 25% of schizophrenia. This article pretty much mirrors the book he published in 2019.

The title: Tell Your Children: The Truth About Marijuana, Mental Illness, and Violence. I deliberately don’t provide the link to Amazon. I don’t want to promote a book that fosters fear-mongering and prohibition.

Every concerned parent (and who isn’t) that doesn’t know much about drugs will be scared out of their socks reading the title of his book. Fear sells, I suppose. His fear-mongering is my main issue with his book and his substack article.

Further, it irks me when people use phrases like “The Truth” as if any truth is ever settled. I also got annoyed about his casual attitude of claiming causation where there is only correlation. And lastly, he doesn’t realise his hypocrisy regarding freedom of choice.

This is not personal. I mostly enjoy his writings. I have been a paid subscriber in the past. But he is a big deal at Substack with thousands of followers and is one-sided, not considering other viewpoints. Many people fought hard for many years to legalise Marijuana in the USA. Fear-mongering articles and books like that could undo all that hard work.

For several reasons, this topic is close to my heart. So I feel compelled to show another viewpoint. I am also disappointed about the lack of professionalism in his writing. After all, he is a former professional NYT journalist.

Despite all that, he sells. Judging from the 4.8-star rating and the comments in his substack, many middle-aged mums and dads lap up the fear porn without any critical thinking or bigger perspective. Fear and obsessions can be more addictive than drugs. The following reviews are for his book, but the critique fits perfectly with his recent article:

Joel Hammer

4.0 out of 5 stars One Sided but mostly accurate

Reviewed in the United States on 7 April 2019

Verified Purchase

Just finished this book on marijuana. It is written by an ex-reporter and now a novelist. He is married to a forensic psychiatrist in NY State. She evaluates mentally ill criminals for the state. He was inspired to write this book when discussing an awful murder one night at dinner, some guy killed, cut up, and burned his grandmother, that sort of thing. He was a straight-up schizophrenic. His wife just mentioned, “Of course, he was high on pot. He smoked all his life. They all do. ”

With that start for his book, you can understand this is a one-sided presentation of the case against legalised marijuana.

Another two-star review:

Laura Nelson

2.0 out of 5 stars Straight up Propaganda Against the Legalization of Marijuana but was Enjoyable to Read

Reviewed in the United States on 27 July 2019

Verified Purchase

Draws on isolated incidents to make the argument. Correlation is not causation.

One more:

Watchman

1.0 out of 5 stars Reefer Madness in the Age of the New Jim Crow

Reviewed in the United States on 19 January 2019

Verified Purchase

[…] He does have his critics as well. Most have pointed out the most obvious fault of the book, simply that correlation does not equal causation. […]

Those critics include people whose work Berenson hijacked to make his argument. He quotes one study as having established pot as a cause of psychosis, a conclusion that he trumpets as “arguably the most important finding of all.” Trouble is, some of those who worked on the study don't buy his case.

Ziva Cooper is a pharmacologist and cannabis researcher. She was one of the co-authors of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine report that Berenson cites. Cooper didn't care for the Berenson's breezy use of the study's statistics and has been anything but quiet about it. On Twitter, she called him out for his fear-mongering NYT op-ed. “In response to the recent @NYTimes editorial on cannabis and as a committee member on the @theNASEM #cannabis and #cannabinoids report we did NOT conclude that cannabis causes schizophrenia.” […]

But to be fair, could he be right, despite flawed use of sources? Yes. Researchers have found a connection between psychosis and cannabis consumption. Unhappily for his ominous conclusion, they've also found similar links between this mental illness and nicotine, alcohol and caffeine. In a study of 2 million Swedes, smoking cigarettes was a predictive sign of psychosis. The more a tobacco smoker smoked, the higher the risk.

Most of the comments on his substack article were happy to swallow the narrative unquestioned and slander one of the most beneficial plant medicine known to humans. He knows his audience. The narrative is straightforward: Beware. Cannabis causes psychosis and schizophrenia in young people and turns them into violent murderers.

Tara, the mother of Mila, who tragically lost her daughter to suicide, seems to be a staunch supporter. In her comment, she provides two links:

What Happened To Our Daughter is a well-written and heart-breaking story where Tara mostly blames semi-legal poisonous and high-potent marijuana pens for her daughter’s suicide.

Heather Heying, of Dark Horse and Natural Selections fame, also published parts of her story here: Mila's Story.

She put the blame mainly on the Lockdowns, which was even more heartbreaking to me. It vividly depicts how Canada’s brutal Covid response destroyed Mila’s life. I could very much relate to Mila’s dilemma. However, unlike Mila, marijuana and other drugs kept me healthy and sane in those dark days of isolation. And I bet I wasn’t the only one.

And that’s the reason why I need to write this substack. This topic is way more complex than Alex’s makes it out to be.

There is no doubt to me that her abuse of high-potency and poisonous marijuana pens strongly contributed to her suicide. However, we also have a chicken and egg dilemma here. What came first? In this case, based on Heather’s account, the brutal Covid response led to substance abuse.

We will never know all the causes of Mila’s tragic suicide. But, as illustrated in my series about free will and determinism, I believe the whole universe did.

It is in our human nature to look for a single-cause relationship. It gives us a target to concentrate our anger and grief. It gives us something to fight for and to do. And often, the only alternative seems to blame ourselves, especially in cases of suicide.

But, speaking as a psychotherapist, neither heals our pain. The healing often lies in understanding and surrendering to determinism, which religious people might label “God’s will”. And it seems that Tara is seeing that too. In one of her comments, she replies:

Tara

Writes Slowdown Farmstead

May 6

It is hard to understand. In our daughter's case I think it was the lockdowns that led to a smaller social circle, lack of school and a group of kids that had easy access to blackmarket THC via our Native reservations here in Canada that openly sell poisonous, unregulated products to minors. A veritable storm of circumstances.

It is lovely to see all the support Tara gets in the comments. However, Mila’s story is so tragic and heartbreaking that a specific tone in the comments section didn’t foster any robust debate about the problems regarding marijuana misuse.

Most of the other comments were shared stories about how violent and dangerous marijuana makes people, which is the absolute opposite of what most users experience. Alex set the tone, and his fan club followed suit elevating single cases of violence to a pattern with wild casual links. Only a tiny number did some critical thinking and got some likes.

Paul R

May 6·edited May 6

Schizophrenics use cannabis to self medicate, so of course there's a correlation

LIKED (21)

J J

May 6

They have also used alcohol...

LIKE (4)

REPLY

I agree with Alex that everyone, especially teenagers and young adults, should be very cautious with any drug or prescription medicine, legal or illegal. I witnessed a psychotic episode of a friend’s teenage son after excessive marijuana use. But it is never the drug. It is the improper use of the drug. It is the abuse of the drug.

I was fortunate enough to use many so-called “dangerous” drugs late in my life. Lucky because I had all my life to get careful and wise about it. And I read and studied their use intensely before I used them. And I rarely used them recreationally but almost exclusively intentionally and for specific healing purposes. And healing they did—tremendous healing on so many levels.

Therefore, I can confidently say that the drugs are not the problem. It is our drug culture that is the problem. The total lack of guidance and expertise causes almost all drug harm.

It’s worse. Prohibition often causes part of the harm. Because of prohibition, there is no safety standard for the drugs. Imagine you buy alcohol and don’t know what’s in it and how potent it is. It could be 10%, 40% or 60% alcohol, different every time. Imagine the harm it would cause. So many people would die.

This is the story of all prohibited drugs. And that is the leading cause of the high casualties. People think opiates are dangerous because it is one of the biggest killers in the US. Instead, they kill people because they vary vastly in their potency from batch to batch and are also deliberately laced with other drugs.

In Australia, the behaviour of the police is harming and killing teenagers. They often strictly oppose organisations that assist drug harm at big concerts because “it advocates drug use.” Teenagers often smuggle drugs into concerts in their mouths. Then the police ask them to open their mouth, and they swallow what was meant for a whole day in one go. With no help available on-site, a lot of harm happens.

And teenagers get harmed by drugs because there is no guidance, and they do stupid things. It doesn’t help that they consider themselves as bulletproof. They would do the same stupid things driving cars, but this is an example where a legally regulated approach saves countless lives. A similar method - a drug licence - was proposed by some people but so far, no success.

But properly guided intentional drug use is much more than just harm prevention for recreational use. We, the people, have been deprived of the most potent and healing molecules known to mankind for centuries. We are also on the brink of losing the knowledge of using them effectively and safely.

Through the millennia, the world’s people have used a vast range of drugs under strict protocols and supervision from shamans, healers, priests and other experts to the great benefit and healing of people on all levels.

This culture was destroyed first by the churches that burned the female shamans, often midwives, on the stake as witches. Then, the Christian missionaries continued the eradication of shamanic healing with drugs all around the world. Finally, the capitalistic medical-pharma complex did the rest of the job.

Fortunately, some shamanic ritualistic wisdom is still practised in a few indigenous communities worldwide. Ethnobotanist Dr Mark Plotin produces the brilliant podcast “Plants of the Gods.”

He gives many examples of how indigenous shamans apply powerful drugs for many tribal occasions. Plotin participated in many ceremonies and had first-hand experiences with these drugs and rituals. One of many, the Ayuvasca ceremony, is slowly re-introduced in the West.

Indigenous people use many powerful drugs every day without any addiction or harm. There are specific drugs for almost every tribal occasion: Hunting, Parenting, Lovemaking, Resting, Dancing, Socializing, Talking to ancestors, War, Birth, Death and all sorts of diseases.

Learning about the ancient traditional use of drugs was a game-changer for me. It suddenly dawned on me: “How stupid are we as a culture to prohibit these useful drugs and give up on these old shamanic traditions?”. It set me on a journey of discovery and learning, and my life improved dramatically.

As Paracelsus states, all drugs can be a remedy if used in the correct dose. Furthermore, none of our prohibited drugs is dangerous or addictive if used under an experienced healer's guidance.

Our perverted and unnatural relationship with drugs is directly linked to our loss of meaningful spiritual experiences. Thousands of years of organised religions conditioned people to think that spirituality is based on a belief in a particular god or ritual. But humans always have and are supposed to live in two realms.

There is the rational social, and practical realm of daily life to nourish the body. And then there is the irrational spiritual realm to nourish the heart and soul. Entering and leaving the spiritual realm used to be weekly occasions facilitated and supported by shamans, drugs and rituals.

It is in our nature to do so. There is an innate drive in us to enter the spiritual world. We are all mystics by nature. But we were robbed of our rituals and facilitators. But the drugs, although illegal, are still used. Badly used, but still used.

And that is the reason why all wars on drugs failed. They are the food for our souls and our ticket into the spiritual world. My working theory is that any addiction is a spiritual disease where the person wants a spiritual experience but repeatedly gets it wrong and has to repeat it.

It’s all unconscious, of course. And sometimes, an awakening happens, but it’s labelled psychosis or schizophrenia by so-called experts who have no idea about the spiritual world. R. D. Laing, a famous English psychiatrist, is an exception. He once said (from memory):

The Schizophrenic and Mystic are in the same ocean. But the Mystic swims while the Schizophrenic drowns.

Most psychotic episodes are misunderstood and are “spiritual awakenings” the person can’t cope with because he doesn’t have the proper support. Instead, he is labelled as sick and dysfunctional by a medical profession that has lost all access to spirituality, wisdom and genuine compassion. Stanislav Grof, the famous LSD researcher, termed the phrase “spiritual emergency”.

I had a lived experience comparing two different outcomes of two similar spiritual emergencies many years ago. I had a spiritual emergency crisis during a 10-day Vipassana silence retreat.

My symptoms were wild, and any psychiatrist would have diagnosed me with a psychotic episode. But, unfortunately, there was no competent spiritual master at the retreat to guide me through it.

They drove to a medical centre and talked to a doctor down the corridor behind closed doors while I waited in the lobby. I overheard that they tried to convince the doctor to section me into a mental hospital.

After they left, I talked to the doctor. Finally, I could convince him to give me sleeping pills and let me book a Bed and Breakfast.

I contacted a spiritual healer the day after, who helped me to overcome the acute emergency. Finally, I was functional enough to return home independently with public transport. It took me another three months to fully work through the crisis with the help of an Osho disciple I found online. It wasn’t easy, but in the end, I became a much better person.

A year later, the same happened to a good friend of mine. Same retreat. But he wasn’t as lucky. He did end up in a mental hospital, diagnosed with psychosis and put on heavy medication. He was a Zombie for a year until he joined a NZ Maori program based on work, community and spirituality. After a few months, he was off medication and back to normal.

Alex Berenson has no clue what he is talking about. Marijuana is one drug that could be used to enter the spiritual world. So it is no surprise that many people who take heavy doses of Marijuana have spiritual emergencies. Without spiritual guidance and support, they often freak out, end up in the medical system, and are labelled for the rest of their lives.

By pushing for prohibition or decriminalisation, nothing is solved. It’s not the drug. It is our culture and awful mental health philosophies.

The last point I want to raise concerns this sickening “help-ism” currently swamping the world. A compulsion to protect everyone from everything. Alex’s hypocrisy lies in the fact that he vehemently fights the “help-ism” that leads to masks, lockdowns and vaccine mandates but then advocates for “help-ism” when it comes to drugs.

He firmly defends having a Covid vaccine but wants to deny people the choice to ingest marijuana legally. While it is honourable and compassionate to highlight the link between heavy marijuana use and possible psychotic episodes for young people, fear-mongering and prohibiting the drug is not a solution.

One more time - it is never the drug. It is how we use it. And a lot of work lies ahead of us to regain the vast benefits of using drugs in the wholesome healing way they should be used.