Tucker Carlson And A Guest Tried To Warn About The Dangers Of Marijuana, And People Cried ‘Reefer Madness’

Since Trump left office, Tucker Carlson has become the most hated man in conservative media, and for good reason. He’s spread misinformation about vaccines, floated white supremacist theories, even tried to defend the failed MAGA coup of January 6. So consider this latest social media dogpile a lighter side of Tucker nonsense: On Wednesday, a lot of people watched him and a guest try to claim marijuana use is dangerous, and that only led to widespread mockery.

During his daytime show Tucker Carlson Today, Fox News’ most watched and despised host had a chat with former New York Times reporter Alex Berenson about weed. Marijuana use has skyrocketed during the pandemic, and a number of states, including even New York, have recently legalized it. So Carlson and Berenson decided to play killjoys, claiming that, while it’s not chemically addictive like heroin or cocaine, it could totally kill you dead. Maybe.

After Carlson admitted that, having grown up in Southern California, he smoked marijuana “as a child,” Berenson brought up what is called “cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome.” What is that? He said it’s basically “uncontrollable vomiting as a result of THC.” Granted, this is real. It’s just, according to Cedars Sinai, rare. But if you catch it, Berenson said, “it can actually kill, you become so dehydrated, you need to get to an emergency room.”

Mind you, this is only among habitual users, and again, it’s rare. But Berenson and Carlson then escalated it even further, comparing weed to benzodiazepines, like anti-anxiety medication or muscle relaxers, which are addictive and are known, in many cases, to cause problems worse than the ones that drew doctors to prescribe them. They’re not comparable.

But by then the two had gone into Reefer Madness territory. Soon Berenson was being paranoid about a fairly common side effect among some, but not all: the paranoia. “If you’re sliding into mental illness, start smoking a lot, you may temporarily muffle that anxiety at the cost of your paranoid syndromes getting worse,” Berenson said.

But some people had simple solutions for such thoughts: Get better stuff.

Some called BS.

https://twitter.com/jewish_worker/status/1382455947218534407

https://twitter.com/ScottWamplerBMD/status/1382449933656018945

Others simply belittled them as old school scaremongering.

https://twitter.com/andizeisler/status/1382445703482417155

https://twitter.com/thor_benson/status/1382480069914894339

Some offered an antidote, if weed’s making you puke.

And others thought that kind of sounded awesome, frankly.

https://twitter.com/EyesOnTheRight/status/1382444110099984384

Still, better Tucker saying nonsense about marijuana than…anything else he likes to talk about.