What are the cities in which they legalized marijuana

The new book claims that marijuana causes aggression, psychosis, suicide, violence, and that its legalization in Washington state even led to an increase in the number of homicides by 40%.

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There is little specific information about the benefits of this substance, because its illegality for a long time complicated the study, writes Daily Mail.

However, according to the former New York Times reporter Alex Berenson, there is clear evidence that marijuana is not as safe as claimed by representatives of groups advocating for the legalization of cannabis.

In your new book, Tell Your Children: The Truth About Marijuana, Mental Illness, and Violence (Tell Your Children: The Truth About Marijuana, Mental Illness, and Violence) Berenson brings together a variety of findings—including studies showing that cannabis can cause mental illness, a 50 percent increase in hospitalizations for schizophrenia since 2006, and homicide statistics in Washington that have soared to their highest point in years—since How the state was the first to legalize recreational marijuana.

Public health officials are hesitant to draw clear parallels between these data, but Berenson insists that the correlation was seen too many times for it to hit by coincidence.

According to him, “evidence of the connection between marijuana and psychosis and violence is so convincing that it simply cannot arise in doubt.”

Berenson claims that marijuana destroys the brain, and that all evidence points to this. However, officials from the health care system estimate the situation is not so simple.

The National Academy of Medicine says it still cannot definitively determine what effect marijuana use has on a person's health. US Surgeon General Jerome Adams said in late 2018 that he believes marijuana should be legalized so scientists can better understand its effects on the brain. Former US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy said marijuana "could be useful" in medicine, but warned that legalization is moving faster than science when it comes to marijuana.

But Berenson argues that new data is not needed to see the effect of “grass” on a person.

Although states do not collect data on how many people in their jurisdictions have psychotic illnesses, there has been a sharp increase (2006 percent) in the number of people hospitalized for schizophrenia since 50, along with an increase in marijuana use due to its legalization. In fact, other developed countries have also experienced this, with Denmark seeing a 25% increase in the number of people with schizophrenia and a 100% increase in Finland. And Berenson believes marijuana is a possible reason for this.

The classic counter argument is that psychosis (a complex condition) can be caused by other factors, and marijuana brings relief to people with mental illness.

Last year, however, a group of scientists in Montreal, Canada, found that “cannabis use led to aggressive behavior” in patients in psychiatric hospitals.

The team spent a year studying the behavior of 1136 men and women in psychiatric hospitals in three US cities (Missouri, Massachusetts and Pittsburgh).

Those who used marijuana were twice as likely to face violent outbursts of anger and aggression than those who did not.

They concluded that the relationship between marijuana and violence was “unidirectional” (from marijuana to violence).

Also last year, psychiatry professor Robin Murray of King’s College London presented an overview of 10 other studies that show a clear correlation between cannabis use and psychosis.

One of these studies showed that the risk of psychosis increased as the activity of cannabis increased. This is a very important note, given that THC (a psychoactive substance in cannabis), used in the US now, is about 20 times stronger than it was in the “grass” in the 1970s.

During 10 years, most homicide rates (both at the state level and at the country level) were fairly steady, with small increases or decreases in certain years.

The homicide rate in Washington is slightly different: over the past 15 years, it has constantly fluctuated, so it is difficult to use it for a brief analysis of the impact of marijuana on society. But this did not prevent people from still trying to identify a correlation.

Homicide rate increased in 2008 year, decreased in 2010 year, rose sharply again in 2012 year (to its highest level in recent years), then decreased again in 2013 year (although not to the level of 2010 year), then experienced another peak in 2015 year, then decreased (only slightly) in 2016 year, before going up again.

Data for 2017 year show that the level of killings in the state reached a new maximum, slightly exceeding the 2012 year.

Recreational marijuana was legalized in the state in 2012, and the drug became available to the public in July 2014.

In 2016, marijuana groups rejoiced at the fall in homicide rates, which many perceived as a sign of the relaxing effects of marijuana on state residents.

However, this decline was much smaller than in previous years, and shortly thereafter the number of murders continued to grow again, reaching a new maximum.

Berenson believes that this increase is directly related to the legalization of marijuana in the state.

A psychosis in which someone’s thoughts and emotions are not connected with reality is really connected with murder, this is a proven fact. Berenson is confident that the use of marijuana causes such psychosis and therefore leads to an increase in the number of murders.

The fact that we don’t all turn into killers after smoking “weed,” in his opinion, does not negate his rightness: “Alcohol can cause bar fights, drunk driving, and domestic violence. However, we keep two ideas in mind: that there is one type of alcohol consumption that can simply put people to sleep, and there is another type that can cause violence. With marijuana, those two things are also true, but we kind of forgot that there is a second thing,” Berenson wrote.

The journalist is supported by Doug Fields, a renowned neuroscientist who has studied the effects of marijuana on the brain.

“You won't find anyone in the scientific community who doesn't believe cannabis is linked to violence. The receptors in the brain that cannabis stimulates are in the brain for a reason. They have a function. Joking with them is like “putting a monkey in the system,” Fields said, meaning that the effects of cannabis on the human brain can cause unexpected reactions, including aggression.

This is what all drugs do - opioids, cocaine, ketamine.

But Fields cautions that many see marijuana as different from other - synthetic - drugs because it grows on the ground; the idea is that something from the earth can only enhance what is already happening in the brain.

“The scientific evidence that cannabis has harmful effects, especially on the adolescent brain, is strong, well replicated and varied,” he explained.

Fields said he had long been concerned about how marijuana affects the brain of each individual and, in the long run, the society as a whole.

But still, many scientists still claim that they do not have unambiguous data, in fact, considering Americans as guinea-pigs, which can track the influence of “grass” on humans.

Berenson believes that this is largely due to the fact that scientists rarely get involved in political debates, and if they are asked, they speak very cautiously, afraid to say something that has not yet been confirmed by 100%. At the same time, lobbyists for the legalization of marijuana are actively speaking on television, talking about the benefits of “grass”, so consumers more often hear this point of view.

However, it cannot be said that cannabis has only a negative impact on a person, and lobbyists simply attract facts by the ears. Science has confirmed the three positive effects of marijuana use:

The National Academy of Medicine says medical marijuana relieves pain and nausea in patients receiving chemotherapy—but more trials are needed before they can properly endorse such uses of the herb.

The National Medical Academy says THC gives relief to some patients with epilepsy.

Marijuana may also bring some relief to a growing number of people suffering from anxiety, but more research is needed.

In addition, there is no reliable data on the positive effects of marijuana on the human body, except for unconfirmed data.

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