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

Joe Rogan (0:06)

Three, two, one. And we're live, ladies and gentlemen. Or gentlemen, you too. Ladies and gentlemen listening, but you too. Unless you have some non-binary handle that you enjoy. It's a new world.

Please, please introduce yourself.

Michael Hart (0:23)

Sure, so I'm Dr. Mike Hart, originally from St. John's, Newfoundland. 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.

Joe Rogan (0:34)

And you, sir?

Alex Berenson (0:35)

My name is Alex Berenson. I used to be a New York Times reporter.

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 has not endeared me to the cannabis advocacy community, I'd say.

Joe Rogan (0:52)

Have they attacked you mercilessly for this book?

Alex Berenson (0:55)

Yes, they have, and that's okay. I've also heard from a lot of parents, you know, some users, but parents who've told me that the book really encapsulates their families' problems in the last couple years.

Joe Rogan (1:11)

I suspect, my real thoughts here, before we even get started, is that we're gonna find that the truth is somewhere in the middle here. 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 I want to say, I know anybody who had psychotic breaks, but I know some people that freaked out for weeks.

You know, in fact, we just had a comedian here from Brazil a couple days ago, Rafi Bastos, who said he took a couple of hits of a vape pen. He was high for 14 days. Went to a psychiatrist and he's a big guy. He's like 6'5, 6'6, you know, and they told him to keep taking it because, you know, he's like, you're so big, just keep smoking. And so he doesn't smoke, so he just kept hitting his vape pen. He said, I was high for fucking two weeks.

Michael Hart (2:08)

Yeah, so you need to do it properly, right? It needs to be held to the same standard as any other medicine. So we need to identify that there's risks and there's benefits to it. Yes. And some people are definitely, you know, going to be more susceptible to those risks.

Joe Rogan (2:22)

Yeah.

Michael Hart (2:23)

And we need to kind of tease out those people and make sure that those people don't put themselves at risk.

Joe Rogan (2:29)

Yeah, I think so as well. And this is one of the reasons why I want to state this, because I'm a well-known marijuana advocate. But I do believe, I believe absolutely there are great benefits to it. I think there's great benefits in terms of relieving pressure, ocular pressure for people that have glaucoma, people with AIDS who are on medication, people with cancer that are going through chemotherapy, chemotherapy find great benefit in terms of helping them.

And then there's also some people with autism. I know people that, their children have autism and they give them small amounts of edible marijuana and stop 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 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.

Michael Hart (3:19)

Absolutely, yeah. Alex, you want to say something?

Alex Berenson (3:21)

No, no. Well, first of all, I suspect, you know, there are people who said, don't go on with Joe. He's just going to, you know, he's going to try to eat you alive and especially, it'll be two on one.

I told them the truth. First of all, I'll go on with anybody and I'm glad you had me on or you're having me on because, you know, Bill Moore, he won't have me on. He's afraid to talk to me about this. Why?

Joe Rogan (3:44)

What did he say?

Alex Berenson (3:46)

Well, you know, he told the, or his people told the Simon and Schuster PR people, we just don't want to have them on. And NPR had a national NPR show had an interview scheduled with me, an hour long segment, and they canceled it. They said, they said, we don't believe in the conclusions of the book. Okay, you don't believe in the conclusions of the book? Have me on. Ask me anything. And that's why I'm so happy that you're not afraid to have me on, that we can have a conversation, that we can have a conversation. But come at me with any question you want about the science. I mean, I'll say right off the top, I don't think marijuana is medicine.