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Tucker Gets Heated Debating Pro-Marijuana Author

(Fox News 1/16/2018)

Mike Brest Reporter
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Tucker Carlson debated the potential negative effects of marijuana Wednesday night with an author who recently published a pro-marijuana book.

David Bienenstock is the author of “How to Smoke Pot (Properly): A Highbrow Guide to Getting High.”

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“Most of the claims made by [marijuana] proponents are unproven. But the CDC does say there is a relationship between marijuana use and rising schizophrenia rates and violence. So why should we legalize something we know causes schizophrenia?” Carlson asked.

“Well, I mean the first thing we need to understand is cannabis is objectively safer than many substances that are legal. Alcohol, tobacco, many pharmaceutical drugs. To get to your point about —,” Bienenstock responded.

Carlson interrupted, “Wait. Can we pause for a second? How do we know that it’s safer than alcohol and tobacco? Since I don’t really think we know much about it. We have been studying nicotine for hundreds of years and alcohol for thousands. We don’t really know that much about them. Why do we say we know that when we don’t really know that?” (RELATED: Chronic Pain Sufferers Now Have Access To Medical Marijuana In Illinois)

“We can compare the number of people who die from each substance every year. Hundreds of thousands of people from alcohol and tobacco and zero people from cannabis,” Bienenstock replied.

Back in November during the midterm elections, Missouri and Utah legalized medicinal marijuana use, while Michigan residents voted to legalize recreational usage and North Dakota rejected the state’s proposal to legalize the drug.

Macro of marijuana with trichomes and crushed weed in a grinder for chopping a cacannabisn a black table close up (Shutterstock/Lifestyle discover)

“Really?” Carlson followed up. “No. That is not actually true.”

“I’m saying you are looking at it wrong. If weed smoking causes schizophrenia and there is a suggestion that it does, schizophrenia kills lots of people and so does suicide and so does violence,” Carlson continued. “If marijuana use hikes rates of violence and it seems there is a lot of evidence that it does, then that kills people. So the question is not do they die from lung cancer, the question is do they die from suicide or violence?”

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