Giving Compass' Take:

· Bill Keller talks with Alex Berenson, Keith Humphreys, Maria McFarland Sánchez-Moreno, and Mark A.R. Kleiman about the possible impacts of legalizing marijuana and how it affects the human body and health. 

· How is legalized marijuana being regulated? What are some concerns associated with the legalization of marijuana? How does marijuana use affect the human body? 

· Read more about the case against cannabis. 

On Jan. 7, The Marshall Project published an interview with Alex Berenson, a former New York Times reporter and author of "Tell Your Children: The Truth About Marijuana, Mental Illness, and Violence," which warns that the rush to legalize the drug has obscured evidence of its dangers. The interview stirred up a storm on social media, so we decided to enlarge the discussion.

Berenson is joined by three other panelists. Maria McFarland Sánchez-Moreno is the executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, a non-profit that advocates ending the war on drugs, including the "responsible regulation" of marijuana. Its donors include companies in the legal, for-profit cannabis industry, whose gifts, the group reports, made up less than 1 percent of the alliance’s 2018 revenue. Keith Humphreys is the Esther Ting Memorial Professor at Stanford University. He has been deeply involved in drug policy as a researcher and White House advisor. Mark A.R. Kleiman is a professor of public policy at the New York University Marron Institute of Urban Management, where he leads the crime and justice program. He is also chairman of BOTEC Analysis, which advises Washington State and Maine on cannabis regulation.

The Marshall Project: This first question is for all of you. Let's start with the core question Alex set out to answer in reporting his book: What do we know about the connection between marijuana and mental illness? What would you say is established medical science, and what is still unresolved?

Alex Berenson: Okay, I'll jump in. Marijuana causes psychosis. This is an established medical fact, not open to debate. It can cause temporary psychotic episodes even in healthy people. It worsens the course of schizophrenia and provokes severe relapses in people with schizophrenia whose disorder was controlled.

Read the full article about marijuana at The Marshall Project.