JerryBellune@yahoo.com

State lawmakers are struggling with 2 drug questions.

• Should they make medical marijuana use legal?

• Should they follow more progressive states and make recreational use legal, too?

In those states, research found, more people became heavy users despite links to violence and mental illness.

A shrewd 30-year campaign has made the public more tolerant of marijuana, writes former New York Times reporter Alex Berenson in a new book, “Tell Your Children: The Truth About Marijuana, Mental Illness and Violence.”

Psychiatrists and epidemiologists think cannabis has more risks than advocates say.

In 10 years, those who said they used it at least 300 times a year rose from 3 million to 8 million.

What they consume is more potent. The amount of THC (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol), the chemical that produces a drug high, rose from less than 2% in the 1970s up to 25% today.

Research from Finland and Denmark shows a significant increase in psychosis since 2000 after increases in cannabis use. Last year, a survey found serious US mental illness among young adults doubled since 2008.

None of this proves cannabis use caused increases in psychosis or other mental illness. What it suggests is that marijuana can cause violence in the psychotic.

If the mentally ill don’t use cannabis, they are only moderately more likely to become violent than the rest of us, Berenson wrote.

When they use drugs, the violence risk skyrockets because it tends to cause paranoia. Even advocates admit it can cause paranoia.

Researchers have found that alcohol is a risk factor for domestic abuse, assault and murder. Less research has been done on marijuana, because advocates have stigmatized those who question its use. They say it has a mellowing effect.

But a 2012 federal survey of 9,000 adolescents linked marijuana use to a doubling of domestic violence.

Advocates said making cannabis legal would reduce crime and free police to go after criminals rather than marijuana users.

After Alaska, Colorado, Oregon and Washington made cannbis legal, murders rose from 450 to 620 a year and aggravated assaults from 30,000 to 38,000.

20 years ago, advocates said we could enjoy the benefits of cannabis and opiates without their problems.

They were wrong. Opiates are riskier than cannabis.

Since overdose deaths became a crisis, public attention has focused on them.

Mental illness and violence that follow cannabis use may soon be widespread, too, Berenson wrote.