Tell Your Children By Alex Berenson

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Tell Your Children: The Truth about Marijuana, Mental Illness, and Violence
By Alex Berenson
Simon & Schuster

This was the hardest book I’ve ever re­viewed. It’s not that the information was too heady or difficult to grasp. No, the book was a challenging read because the information was so heart-breaking. Although I found the book heavy and disheartening at times, I believe its message is absolutely critical to communicate.

The Weston A. Price Foundation is commit­ted to highlighting what shores up our health and what destroys it—and marijuana decidedly falls into the latter category. It was Tara Couture, a Canadian homesteader at Slowdown Farmstead, who first brought this book to WAPF’s atten­tion. Marijuana incited her daughter’s descent into mental illness, addiction and, ultimately, suicide. (See Tara’s article, “What Happened to Our Daughter,” in the Winter 2023 issue of Wise Traditions. Tara discussed “Slow Diet in a Fast World” on Wise Traditions podcast episode 175 in 2019.)

In Tell Your Children, Alex Berenson adopts a somber, no-nonsense tone, presenting factual, clear and convincing information based on stud­ies, science and case after case illustrating the issues marijuana brings about. Not everyone will want to hear or believe his message. After all, marijuana seems so benign. Most of us have heard (and been swayed by) marijuana propa­ganda, along the lines of, “Marijuana is safe. Way safer than alcohol. Barack Obama smoked it. Bill Clinton smoked it, too, even if he didn’t inhale. Nobody ever died from smoking too much pot.” That first “marijuana is safe” sentence may very well remind you of other propaganda we’ve had drilled into us from 2020 on, but we know that just because a statement is endlessly repeated does not make it true.

Berenson makes a strong case for why mari­juana is actually the opposite of safe. Kicking off with a bit of history, he starts by reviewing the use and sale of marijuana in Mexico and India. He then shifts the spotlight to the U.S., where in 2012, Colorado and Washington became the first states to legalize recreational use. In 2018, those two states were joined by seven more, including California, as well as Washington, D.C. Sixty percent of Americans now support legalized cannabis.

Some may ask, “Doesn’t marijuana offer medical benefits?” Not so fast, says Berenson. There are indeed some studies that point to the possible medical benefits of CBD (cannabidiol), which is not psychoactive (meaning it doesn’t make you “high”). However, most cannabis today has almost no CBD and lots of THC (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol), the problematic compound that “can induce euphoria, enhance sensation, distort the perception of time, and increase hunger.” Proponents of marijuana use capitalize on the public’s confusion about the difference between CBD, THC and cannabis to promote this dangerous drug.

Facts that Berenson cites to highlight marijuana’s dangers include a sharply increased risk of heart attacks and a strong link with psychosis and schizophrenia. Marijuana also has a “gateway effect,” leading to future abuse of heroin, opiates and cocaine. In countries where marijuana use is on the rise, there has been a corresponding surge in mental illness, and states with legalized marijuana have seen steep increases in murders and assaults. Mari­juana users are three times as likely to be violent as those who drink alcohol. The chapter titled “Study after Study after Study” and the book as a whole provide many more specifics. (Note: The squeamish may wish to avoid Part Three titled “The Red Tide.”)

The opioid crisis has garnered a lot of attention, but Berenson argues that marijuana is a crisis of greater magnitude. Because it’s more of a “slow-motion problem,” it may go unnoticed. Psychosis doesn’t often occur during first-time use; psychotic breaks tend to show up roughly six years later. Nonetheless, law enforcement officers recognize the connection between marijuana use and crime, and “cannabis-related presentations” are flooding emergency rooms. Psychiatrists see more and more patients who are struggling with marijuana-induced mental health issues.

Convincing the public of the dangers is not easy. As a Denver psychia­trist states, “We’ve put it out there, and the community is not receptive.” I hope and pray that the readers of this review will be receptive and read the book. Our future depends on it. This is just one reason why this book merits a thumbs up.

This article appeared in Wise Traditions in Food, Farming and the Healing Arts, the quarterly journal of the Weston A. Price Foundation, Summer 2024

 

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