Joe Rogan Experience #1246 - Pot Debate - Alex Berenson & Dr. Michael Hart

... two, one, and we're live, ladies and gentlemen. Uh, or gentleman, you too.

(laughs)

Ladies and gentlemen listening, but you too, uh, unless you have some non-binary handle that you enjoy. It's, it's a new world. Uh-

I don't. (laughs)

Please, please introduce yourself.

Sure. So, uh, I'm Dr. Mike Hart, originally from St. John's, Newfoundland. Uh, now I'm residing in London, Ontario, and I'm a family doctor. And I've been practicing cannabis medicine for just over five years.

And you, sir?

Uh, my name's Alex Berenson. I used to be a New York Times reporter. Uh, then I became a spy novelist. And most recently, I wrote the book Tell Your Children: The Truth About Marijuana, Mental Illness, and Violence, which came out last month and, uh, has not endeared me to the cannabis advocacy community, I'd say.

Have they, uh, attacked you mercilessly for this book?

Yes, they have.

Yes.

And, and that's, and that's okay. Um, uh, I've also heard from a lot of parents, uh, you know, some users, but parents who've told me, uh, that the book really encapsulates their, their family's problems-

Hmm.

... in the last couple years.

Um, I suspect m- my, my real thoughts here, before we even get started, is that we're gonna find that the truth is somewhere in the middle here. Um, I don't think marijuana is 100% safe, honestly, for everybody. I really don't. I know too many people that have had experiences where they took too much, particularly edibles, and, uh, I don't, I don't wanna say I know anybody who had psychotic breaks, but I know some people that freaked out for weeks, you know. In fact, uh, we just had a, uh, a comedian here from Brazil, um, a couple days ago, Rafi Bastos, who said he took a couple of hits of a vape pen and was high for 14 days.

(laughs)

Went to a psychiatrist and, and he's a big guy. He's like 6 foot 5, 6'6", you know, and, you know, they told him to keep taking it 'cause, you know, he's like, "You're so big. Just keep smoking." And so he, he doesn't smoke, so he just kept hitting his vape pen, and he said, "I was high for fucking two weeks."

Yeah, so you need to do it properly, right?

Yes.

It needs to be held to the same standard as any other medicine.

Yeah.

So we need to identify that there's risks and there's benefits to it.

Yes.

Right? And, and some people are definitely, you know, going to be more susceptible to those risks.

Yeah.

And we need to kinda, you know, tease out those people and make sure that those people, you know, don't, uh, put themselves at risk.

Yeah, I, I think so as well. And this is one of the reasons why I wanna state this, 'cause I'm a well-known marijuana advocate, but I, I do believe, I believe absolutely there are great benefits to it. I think there's great benefits in terms of, uh, relieving pressure, ocular pressure for people that have glaucoma, people with AIDS who are on medication, people with cancer that are going through chemotherapy find great benefit in terms of helping them. And then there's also some people with autism, I know people that, who, their children have autism, and they give them small amounts of edible marijuana and it stops seizures. It's incredibly beneficial in the form of CBD for a lot of different ailments. But I think with all things, and this is a, a stance that I've kind of, like, really come to accept over the last few years, with all things that affect the mind, they affect everyone slightly differently.