IMO, Berenson writes well on a variety of tough subjects and backs up his assertions with solid reporting.
In the Substack post linked below he notes that the NYT reported in June about weed & psychosis — a sea change in attitude for establishment media from just a couple of years ago when the WaPo (paywall) criticized Berenson’s book in an op-ed calling it “the return of ‘reefer madness.’” And in another oped criticized it for promoting “myths about marijuana.” Another said it was “ramping up the alarmism.”
Today’s weed strains can have 6x,7x,8x or more psycho-active THC in them than the weed of the 60s & 70s. And the powerful cannabis extract ‘Shatter’ — legal in Colorado & Washington State — can be 80 percent THC content.
Berenson writes that today’s weed is so strong that it can tip a vulnerable small fraction of users into psychosis. Two three-word sentences summarize the book’s thesis: Cannabis causes Psychosis. Psychosis causes Violence.
I don’t think the power of today’s weed is widely known. I didn’t and so I used to be pro weed legalization. Then I read this book and realized a lot of the homelessness on West Coast city streets is actually drug-caused mental illness.
I highly recommend reading Berenson’s book & telling your children about it.
Stevo, good point. We smoked ditch weed in the 60s and 70s. FWIW, legislation can cap the amount of THC. I have zero interest in pot, love my cigars, but want the tax benefits and money saved not filling up the courts, even with misdemeanor cases. But it won’t happen in my lifetime.
I see the Houston library branch I frequent has a copy. I’ll read it soon and post.
Recommended Book — Secret Agenda: Watergate, Deep Throat and the CIA by Jim Hougan (1984)
Here’s a snip from Amazon’s blurb:
Ten years after the infamous Watergate scandal that brought down the Nixon presidency, Jim Hougan—then the Washington editor of Harper’s Magazine—set out to write a profile of Lou Russell, a boozy private-eye who plied his trade in the vice-driven underbelly of the nation’s capital. Hougan soon discovered that Russell was “the sixth man, the one who got away” when his boss, veteran CIA officer Jim McCord, led a break-in team into a trap at the Watergate. Using the Freedom of Information Act to win the release of the FBI’s Watergate investigation—some thirty-thousand pages of documents that neither the Washington Post nor the Senate had seen—Hougan refuted the orthodox narrative of the affair. Armed with evidence hidden from the public for more than a decade, Hougan proves that McCord deliberately sabotaged the June 17, 1972, burglary. None of the Democrats’ phones had been bugged, and the spy-team’s ostensible leader, Gordon Liddy, was himself a pawn—at once, guilty and oblivious.
I found Hougan’s book to be well written with claims backed up by solid fact-finding.
Written in 1984, when no one knew who Deep Throat was, it’s interesting to read Hougan’s speculations. Gen. Al Haig was a top choice of DC insiders.
Got tired of Dobie’s treasure hunting tales. I guess someone gave me this book and I started reading it not knowing it was about Pat Tillman. It bounces around the cast of characters and locations a little too much for my tastes but the thorough description of Pat Tillman, the man, is really good. I’m only about a quarter into it.
I read Shelby Foote’s Civil War about 30 years ago. Best general history of the war ever written, IMHO.
I’m reading a really good true crime/history called Killers of the Flower Moon. It’s about the murder of numerous Osage Indians in Oklahoma in the 1920s (they were rich because oil was found on land that had been given to them) as well as the beginnings of the FBI. They’re making a movie of the book.
The like is for reading Chesterton on the elliptical.
Funny how writers change. I read, but didn’t entirely get Gravity’s Rainbow, but Inherent Vice hit every note I look for in a book. Difficult writers knock it out of the park when they write something accessible to the rest of us.
Funny anecdote. When Barry was a senator he asked a high ranking military friend about aliens. Paraphrasing, “Barry, I cannot and will not answer that. And if you know what’s good for you then you’ll never ask me about that topic again.”
I’ve read several authors in chronological order which helped greatly. Melville was the first which made Moby Diick (come on! Can’t use diick?) easy. He had a unique way of writing, almost a cadence. Never had to read Hemingway in school so did the same. The most erratic, inconsistent writer I’ve read since the Bible. I complained to my dad about him and he said you had to treat him as you would an impressionist painter. That helped a lot.
Reading S.C. Gwynne’s “Hymns of the Republic: The Story of the Final Year of the American Civil War”
It was not as engrossing to me as the other Gwynne books recommended in this thread (Perfect Pass, Empire of the Summer Moon, Rebel Yell). But it was interesting to read details of many of the tragic mistakes made in the fog of war some of which cost thousands of lives and to read about the leaders who made those decisions: some malcompetent, some military geniuses. And I learned about battles I had never heard of, like the massacre at Fort Pillow.
Gwynne describes Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest as “the sort of spectacular military accident that only a desperate war can produce… He rose in a single year from private to Brigadier General of Cavalry.” Wow!
The chapter about the fall of the Confederate capital Richmond, VA reminds me of Kabul a couple of years ago: On Sunday 2 April 1865 Richmonders knew things were bad but thought the city could last for a few more weeks, maybe a few more months — but it was only a few more hours!
This reminded me of how Hemingway described going broke in The Sun Also Rises — “‘How did you go bankrupt?’ Bill asked. ‘Two ways,’ Mike said. ‘Gradually and then suddenly.’”
About halfway through “The Greatest Beer Run Ever”.
Incredible story. I recognize so many locations and the Tet Offensive. Fast paced, easy read, great for a poolside book especially if you were around for the Vietnam War.
