Sale! Tell Your Children: The Truth About Marijuana, Mental Illness, and Violence

★★★★★ One of the most important books I have ever read. One of the most important books I have ever read. Eye opening, and insightful , in my own life explains a lot about my family and friends that I have had when I was younger. People that I had known, and how they changed they had so much promise and potential, some of them including my some in family went very wrong in their lives, trouble with the law , trouble keeping a job, living on the streets I mean homeless. This has opened my eyes to the evil of this drug marijuana, and the mind altering effects that it has on some peoples personalities who have used it , and the deception that the legalization of marijuana groups use to push this drug.After reading this book, I believe that this this drug has destroys more lives than any other drug due to the fact that is used by more people and is widely excepted and is seen as harmless, it is not harmless, it causes people to lose motivation, ambition, and drive for success and it also destroys brains cells , the only cells in the body that do not self repair. Every city leader should be given a copy of this book so they can be able to make wise and informed discussion about allowing the sale and captivation marijuana in their communities.The drug lobby so distorted the truth about marijuana use that the leaders of our communities believe that it is a good source of revenue to help pay for the needs of the community. Not realizing the cost in the future, and all the hell it will bring down on the community. In the meantime we our sending billions of dollars to other countries, its great to want to help others, but we should help our own people first.

★★★★★ Oh sure Weed is benign... Hardly. Put down the Joint and those edibles & pick up this book. I learned a great deal by reading this well researched book. Yes the media (does anyone still believe they are actually reporting truth in news) has hidden the ugly facts of Weed and its many casualties. As have the Cannabis lobbyists propaganda efforts such as Drug Policy Alliance* who are raking in million$ off our stoned brain habits. Yes CBD, which isn't the same as Weed can ease pain in muscles via drops or creams. I've used the cream and yes it has helped but so has over the counter, Salon Pas with lidocaine which is just as or even better at fraction of cost.The issue is Weed smoked in the 60's & 70's had a much lower level of THC like 1-2%. You could pass joint after joint around and get mellow vs paranoid psychotic. Well today those edibles and reefer you're consuming have Exponentially higher levels of THC. Thus the over the edge dangers they produce. As a dispensary rep out of Colorado shared, "We try to attain what the customers are wanting" which is more of a buzz with little product. Which equals the dangerously high THC levels. Ever hear how many ER visits are made in CO due to tourists trying some edibles du'jour?Some basic math as stated in book; average joint weighs half a gram, = about 500 milligrams of marijuana. In the 70's the THC accounted for 1-2 % of that weight or 5 to 10 milligrams of THC. Burning the joint to smoke it destroys about half of the THC. So user sharing a joint actually consumed about 2.5-5 milligrams THC per joint. Versus today, marijuana has 20-25% THC, Equal to 100 Milligrams per joint! Plus demand for higher concentrated forms of THC in Wax or Shatter have increased the severe mental health struggles of many. * Billionaire George Soros has been the primary source of millions upon millions given to lead the legalization of Marijuana in America. Gee what a swell guy. Another of his endeavors was to "break" the British pound whereby he added a mere billion to his personal wealth. So ask yourself why would Georgie have such an interest to legalize a drug for the masses? Certainly doubt his motive is altruistic in nature.Another gem the book reminds us of, it took years to fight the tobacco industry on cigarette use and its health risks. We're at a tipping point with recreational legalization of Marijuana.

★★★★★ A great public service. Well, being a neuroscientist who has focused much effort on cataloging the overwhelmingly strong evidence linking marijuana use to psychosis, I wasn’t sure that I would learn too much new from this book. I expected the text to be satisfying in all the ways that a well-written text can be, particularly when compiled by an accomplished author who did not always hold the views he now espouses and who once worked as a journalist for the New York Times, a paper renowned for its investigative rigor but which has fallen short of that standard with respect to the particular topic at hand. To my great surprise, the book delivered more than merely compensating for the shortcomings of his former employer. Berenson not only unearthed important epidemiological work new to me, both in this country and abroad (a recent cohort study of marijuana use rates and psychosis in Finland), but in conjunction with a colleague in academia, initiated some ground-breaking analyses of his own using hospital records. The result was a direct hit on a weakness in American healthcare that marijuana proponents take advantage of, the lack of tracking of psychosis incidence.The CDC collects data on all manner of “reportable” diseases, but a psychotic disorder like schizophrenia is not one of them. Thus, when marijuana proponents point to a lack of discernible change in psychosis rates with changing marijuana use rates in this country, they slyly skirt the fact that no one is counting psychosis incidence on a yearly basis. Even many physicians have come to accept the mantra that psychosis rates are unchanging, certainly not helped by the standard line in medical school textbooks that schizophrenia rates remain constant across time and across geographical regions, at about 1%. What? Is this yet another example of lack of mental health parity with physical disease? No disease known to man exhibits a constant incidence and prevalence through time and space, be the cause genetic or environmental. And, as Berenson accurately points out, the evidence for an environmental component (of which marijuana is one) in psychotic disorders is strong.What he and his colleague identified in a database on hospital emergency department visits and hospital admissions was a remarkable increase in patients entering for psychosis in conjunction with a marijuana use disorder from 2006 to 2014, a time when marijuana use was also increasing markedly according to annual federal studies conducted by SAMHSA. Lacking access to the individual patient records, rigorous epidemiology could not be conducted, but this preliminary view of the hospital trends conveys a bleak picture that has gone unreported until now, in this book.The most courageous step he took was to cover the marijuana-induced psychosis followed by violence cases, because not only are the details so depressing, it is easy to be viewed as an extremist if you talk about them. Berenson covers two of the famous examples, Jared Loughner and Richard Kirk, as well as many others that did not receive much press coverage.The core value of Berenson’s accomplishment is to make key scientific knowledge available to the public while illuminating connections between facts that cover a vast territory, from scientific journals to interviews of esteemed psychiatrists to details gleaned from chatting with a convicted murderer. This kind of work would risk the career of an academic, but can be done without too much risk by a journalist the caliber of Berenson. I can only hope the invaluable public service he has performed will be recognized and given the credit it is due.