August 29, 2025 • 36 mins
Hour 2 of the Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show delivers a hard-hitting discussion on public safety, mental health, and media accountability. The hour opens with a look at Labor Day travel and gas prices hitting a four-year low, contrasting today’s affordability with past inflationary spikes. From there, the conversation pivots to the Minneapolis church shooting, where the hosts criticize mainstream media outlets like CNN and The New York Times for allegedly misrepresenting the shooter’s gender identity and downplaying the role of transgender issues in the tragedy.
Clay and Buck raise urgent questions about gender transition treatments for minors, exploring whether hormone therapy and puberty blockers could impact mental health and decision-making. They argue that these medical interventions, combined with untreated psychological conditions, may contribute to violent behavior—an issue they say the media refuses to address.
The hour also dives deep into gun control debates, including mental health screenings for firearm ownership and the potential misuse of such laws against veterans with PTSD. The hosts reject “feel-good” legislation and instead advocate for practical security measures, such as armed guards in every school and house of worship, estimating a nationwide program could cost $10 billion annually. They highlight deterrence strategies like concealed carry laws and veteran-based security programs as effective ways to protect children.
Special guest Alex Berenson joins to discuss the link between cannabis use and psychosis, citing research that high-potency THC can increase the risk of schizophrenia and violent behavior. Berenson warns that replacing alcohol with marijuana is not a public health win, arguing that cannabis poses greater long-term risks to brain health. The conversation also addresses misconceptions about SSRIs and antipsychotic medications, emphasizing their life-saving role for individuals with severe depression or psychosis and pushing back against political narratives demonizing these treatments.
The hour closes with a strong message to parents: no drug that alters consciousness is without consequences. Berenson urges families to educate teens about the risks of THC, Adderall, and other substances, while also calling on policymakers to resist industry pressure to reschedule cannabis under federal law.
Make sure you never miss a second of the show by subscribing to the Clay Travis & Buck Sexton show podcast wherever you get your podcasts! ihr.fm/3InlkL8
For the latest updates from Clay & Buck, visit our website https://www.clayandbuck.com/
Connect with Clay Travis and Buck Sexton:
FB - https://www.facebook.com/ClayandBuck/
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
We man our number two Clay Travis buck Sexton show,
appreciate all of you hanging out with us. Our friend
Alex Bearnson gonna join us at the bottom of the hour,
then Mary Catherine Ham in the third hour, two hours
left of the week.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
We appreciate all of you hanging out with us. As
we are.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Rolling into Labor Day weekend, I know many of you
either already on the roads or potentially going to be traveling.
Worth mentioning that we are at a four year low
in gas prices, you have to go all the way
back to I believe, twenty twenty one, and still the
(00:37):
Democrats are not driving on the interstate era, or if
they were, they were wearing masks in their cars by
themselves to win.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
The price of gas was this affordable.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
So if you factor in inflation as well, which unfortunately
Joe Biden brought us, it's even better because the average
cost of goods have gone up substantially. Yet gas is
cheaper now than at any point in the next four years.
And this is primarily going to be a driving weekend
for a lot of people out there. I know people
also flying. I'm going to be driving a decent distance
(01:08):
and so many of you are as well, So just
a good sign there. And as we move into winter,
I would expect for prices to come down again, as
usually you see a bit of a surge in gas
prices during the summer because so many people are traveling.
Cracker Barrel, by the way, is in full on retreat.
We may have some fun with that before all is
(01:29):
said and done, but I do think it's worth us
continuing to share with you some of the basic lies
that are being shared with so many people out there
relating to what happened in Minneapolis. Most places still not
really addressing the fact that this was a trans terrorist
that took these lives of these innocent kids in Minneapolis,
(01:52):
and in fact, they're not even being honest about the
gender of the person who did this. This was a
man pretending to be a woman. CNN is worried about
misgendering the shooter such that they keep referring, and so
does New York Times, so does the Washington Post. They
keep referring to this shooter as a her. This is
(02:15):
what it sounds like. They won't even tell you who
this person was in the context of their own gender,
or that the transidentity might have been involved. Here is
cut eleven. What you heard on CNN. This is Andrew McCabe.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
Listen for the mother to not even return to the
state to answer law enforcement questions, to try to provide
some assistance. I'm sure she's grieving for her daughter, but
this is, Yeah, it's a really perverse and strange element
in this story. It's inexplicable to me at this point.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
I mean, you can hear those there.
Speaker 4 (02:52):
Inexplicable, Yeah, he says the daughter. They are doing this
buck on Emma NBC New York Times. They are refusing
to say this was a boy. They are claiming that
it's a girl. They're saying that these parents have lost
a daughter, meaning the killer. They are worried about misgendering,
(03:14):
and as a result, they aren't even talking about the
trans element here. Now, I think the parent discussion should
be a part of this. Because they changed the gender
of this kid at seventeen years old, I think we
should be talking in earnest how many different drugs was
this kid on. How screwed up did that potentially make
(03:36):
the mental capacity of the kid, How much did it
exacerbate what is likely mental illness? Already to be suddenly
flooding the body with hormones.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
Pluck.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
Here's something I was thinking about last night as I
was doing some prep when I got back home late
last night. And I know we've touched on it a
little bit, but I feel like it's almost verboten to
even discuss what is the health impact long term going
to be for these trans people as they enter into
their fifties, their sixties and seventies and start to age
(04:09):
and have real health problems as most people do as
they age. When you're talking about people with open wounds
that are constantly flooding their body with hormones, is there
any way these people are going to have remotely normal
life spans, It's like you're not allowed to discuss it.
But some of these people are so young when they
got this done that we haven't really dealt with, Hey,
(04:30):
what happens when you're sixty five and you had trans surgery.
These people are going to die decades younger and earlier
than they otherwise would have. And with the ones that
they're starting at thirteen and fourteen, I mean, their bodies
are never going to fully develop, Their bones are not
going to helop. I just get angrier the more I
think about this.
Speaker 4 (04:49):
Yeah, it's horrible what has gone on. And part of
the problem is that a lot of damage has already
been done, and so the people that are involved in
that damage are very unlikely to ever admit what has
gone on. Right, Yeah, I mean on the on the
medical side of things, and the fact that you honestly
I hadn't heard that sound bite yet. The fact that
(05:11):
this is being done where you have people saying that
a daughter that they that the parents of the shooter
lost a daughter. This is crazy. Top, Yes, this is crazy.
This is not acceptable. This is not something we go
along with. It was a crazy guy who killed children
and tried to kill a whole lot more. Remember this individual, uh,
(05:35):
this this mass shooter. It's it's a horrible tragedy that
he killed an eight year old and I believe an
eight year old and a ten year old at prayer
in a church or walking into a church to pray.
It could this person, with the guns that he had
there and the fact that there was an undefended soft target,
it could have been so much worse in terms of
(05:57):
the casualties. And people were hit and they thankfully survived.
Quick action by the first responders and by emergency rooms
in the area to save lives.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
But Clay that.
Speaker 4 (06:10):
Anyone would take even a second to worry about the
courtesy of the preferred pronouns of this maniac is itself mononiacal.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
It is absolutely unacceptable.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
And remember this is the former acting director of the FBI,
So you would think of anyone out there, if you
are an investigator, you would think that you would want
to stick to the facts way more than anybody else.
And the facts are this was a boy trying to
identify as a girl. The way that he hesitated there
and the fact that he actually pointed out that the
(06:44):
mom is not cooperating with authorities is all very strange
because what it would suggest is that maybe she knew
that her son was I don't see how she could
not knew that her son was a potential threat to everyone.
And so far she is not talking because she is
afraid that she might get charged in relationship to the shooting,
(07:06):
because somehow this crazy person had access to guns. And
let me just reiterate this all the time. You can
strongly believe in the Second Amendment, and if you are
a parent, also understand that your individual kid may not
need to be in possession of a gun. And I
(07:27):
don't mean that because you're worried about them shooting up
other places or killing other people. I mean your kid,
if they have mental illness, or they have depression, or
they have some form of psychoactive issue that you are
aware of as a parent, they shouldn't be around firearms Like.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
This has nothing to do.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
I get so fired up about this because I've got
three boys, Buck, I just don't believe that in any
of these mass shooting situations there weren't tons of clues
that these parents saw and they just pretended that it
wasn't there, and they let their kids remain in possession
or in ownership of firearms.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
Right.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
And so I look at this, this mom is hiding.
It sounds like from investigators not participating in the investigation.
I think it's probably going to come out that she
knew her son was a threat both to himself and
to others, and she just pretended it was going to
go away. I think that's what's going to come out. Also,
it's not going to surprise you. But I wanted to
play this. The WNBA coach in Minneapolis. She has decided
(08:34):
to weigh in, and she says, hey, we can't tell
kids anything positive because we don't care about them. This
is woke WNBA nonsense. But I wanted to play it
for you too. This is what you might be hearing
if you were watching CNN or MSNBC.
Speaker 5 (08:48):
It's such an indictment of our society and our lack
of regard for life. There are things that we can
do about it, and we know, but for some reason,
as Americans, we value some things different. It's sickening, sad
for the kids.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
Sad for the kids to go up like this, sad
for kids. I want to the door. I not know
what's going to happen. Hearts go out to obviously the
I've lost kids.
Speaker 5 (09:11):
That are hurt, the teachers that have to go through this,
families that drop their.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
Kid office schools on parts.
Speaker 5 (09:17):
Hearts go out to them. The sad thing is they
can't sit here and tell them that help is on
the way because we're not going to do a damn thing.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
About okay, and she's not talking about doing a damn
thing about it. As in investigate what's going on with Tran,
she means she wants all your guns taken away and let's.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
You know, they always want to talk about mental health.
Speaker 4 (09:35):
Should should should being trans bar you from owning a
buying and owning a firearm. I mean, the left would
absolutely freak out about that. But are we going to now?
They want mental health checks, they want this is why again, Yes,
you can hear the conversation with Trey. I was shocked
at mister Gowdy's uh. I thought he misspoke on which.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
Which is how we started that interview with me giving
him an opportunity to say, upon reflection, because you do
life radio, you do live TV, you're not perfect. So
I thought he would address it and take back some
of it what he said. He did not at all,
not at all.
Speaker 4 (10:06):
He's like, we need a new law, we need a
new law that's going to stop people from and I say, okay,
what's that law going to be as well? If someone's
adjudicated mentally okay, well, first of all, a lot of
places already have something on you know that's similar. The
problem is adjudicating somebody mentally deficient. The problem is figure
or you know, mentally incompetent to own but basically a
danger to themselves and others. What do you think the
(10:28):
system that we have is going to catch everybody that's crazy.
Good luck with that one. And what are the what
are the implications the civil rights and First Amendment and
other implications of Oh, we're deciding that you're crazy, so
we're taking away your right. Everybody knows I'm saying this,
and a lot of you are already nodding your heads.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
Oh, you mean they're going.
Speaker 4 (10:45):
To try to take guns from veterans who have PTSD right,
because that's going to happen in blue states. You mean
they're going to try to take guns from people. You
know that a whole range of things. It'll be used
as a tool, weaponized immediately and right away. And so
what's the law? And to the point being made here
by was the w he said was a w nb
W NBA head coach, Yeah, head coach. Okay, they say
(11:06):
we know what to do.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
Say what it is? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (11:09):
If the whole the whole point here is that people
get to point at their political adversaries and say they're
the bad people because they won't do the good thing.
What's the good thing? What's the thing that we'll say?
You know, yesterday with Trey I even said, look, we're
talking about uh putting more arm guards at schools. We're
talking about maybe having a program that specifically puts veterans
(11:30):
who have firearms training to protect our kids, to protect
our houses of worship, a lot of places of armed
security all over the country.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
Why not protect our kids.
Speaker 4 (11:39):
That's something, and that's something that might actually work passing
a law that that that what that says, if you're
the most insane, vile lunatic on the planet, you can't
get a gun.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
Well, yeah, we got to.
Speaker 4 (11:50):
Find out who the insane vile lunatic is before they
shoot everybody. And that's the part of this that they
don't even address. They don't even talk about.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
I just I ever, any time this happens. I do
not see this as political. Every single public and private
school in America should have security guards armed. They're twenty
you know, every hour that the kids are there. I
don't understand how this isn't standard operating procedure. I've said it.
I always think about it in the context of would
(12:19):
I want this for my kids? And if the answer
is what I want it for my kids, almost without exception,
my answer for all of you is going to be
I want it for your kids and grandkids too. My
kids public and private school have had armed security. I
don't understand why the mediate response from this when we
look at what we spend and waste dollars on, you
(12:42):
ran through the math. Basically, I mean, this is ten
billion dollars a year nationwide that we could put in
place and say, let's do it. When I look at
the way that we waste money protecting kids' lives at school,
young innocent kids, and what every bad guy out there know, Hey,
(13:02):
there's arms security at this school, because what did we
see with Covenant. These these evil people are doing stakeouts
of the schools to see whether or not they're secure,
and if they are, maybe it makes them change their
minds just a little bit. The bridges is a good
example this. I was talking about this with my wife
the other day. You know, they put fences basically higher
(13:25):
up on bridges to try to limit suicides, and people
drastically do not commit suicide at the same level when
they just have to climb up a little bit more
over the top of a fence or a secure areas.
Speaker 4 (13:39):
Of fences as a security system make it harder slow
people down. By the way, true with the border as well,
I've seen at the border people scaling the fence, but
you know what you see them, it slows them down
and then you can arrest them on the other side.
It's not that people go if you have a ten
foot fence, I'll have an eleven foot ladder. Guess who's
waiting for you on the other side of that fence.
If it's well constructed and it's double layer and there's
(14:02):
sensors in place. Border patrol. Yes, all security measures are
imperfect on their own, but that doesn't mean they're not useful.
And it's certainly useful. I would even advocate for a
program that says, look, why does conceal carry work so well?
Clay and a total credit to more guns, less crime.
John Lott on this. What you find out is that
(14:23):
it's not that everyone has to conceal carry. It's that
in places where there is concealed carry, the bad guy
has to think somebody here might have a gun, and
that changes the calculation. Sometimes they do and they go
for it anyway, and then there's a good guy with
a gun there. But in the school system, if you
even just had let's say, if a state said, you
know what, we're going to have a program, some uniform,
(14:44):
some out of you know, some open carry, some concealed carry.
Changes the calculation for school shooters inherently, and there's no
loss of attendant rights. There's no I'm going to harass
people who are good, people who haven't done anything like
That's the part of it that also has to be
taken into account.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
I wish if we were going to have a conversation
nationwide about that's the one we'd go to. It's the
one that I try to push every single time any
of these incidents happen. Look talk with any Israeli citizen
these days, they'll tell you peace and quiet's the top priority.
No one wants the current conflict in the region to
go away more than the average person living in Israel.
But there's still a huge demand for security. Your gift
(15:25):
to the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews creates new
bomb shelters across Israel, necessary supplies for those existing bomb
shelters out there. We know, unfortunately how much all of
these shelters are going to be needed. Now is the
time to help Israel's most innocent and most vulnerable. To
rush your gift. Call eight eight eight for eight eight IFCJ.
(15:49):
That's eight eight eight for eight eight IFCJ. You can
go online to IFCJ dot org. That's IFCJ dot org.
Speaker 6 (16:00):
These are freedom stories of America, inspirational stories that you
unite us all each day. Spend time with Clay and
find them on the free iHeartRadio app or wherever you
get your.
Speaker 4 (16:12):
Podcasts, and welcome back in here to Clay and Buck.
And I want to remind you please send us your talkbacks,
your thoughts, all that good stuff, and also call us.
We are live and we love our live callers. So
let's get to Rob in Oaklahoma. Let's talk Rob. What's
going on?
Speaker 7 (16:31):
Well? I wanted to let you guys know, Buck, you're
discussion with Trey Gaddy. You are brilliant. That guy has
lost his mind. I used to love him. But here's
here's my point is all of the things that we're
talking about are are I agree with you? I agree
with you one hundred percent. Armed security in the in
the schools, whether it's veterans, whether it's police, whether it's
(16:55):
armed teachers, you know, trained, armed, trained, all good, all good,
But my understanding is this guy shot from outside the
school in Yeah.
Speaker 4 (17:05):
Rob, we I mentioned this when we were talking about this,
You're you're totally correct, by the way, I'm just jumping
and tell you. I said, in this instance, maybe armed
security would have been able to Look, there were two
killed and about a dozen wounded. Maybe armed security would
have been able to respond, but they wouldn't have been
able to neutralize the threat, most likely right away. Because
if you're going to shoot at a building from the outside,
(17:25):
but the shooter didn't make it into the building.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
I believe he shot for four minutes. I think that's
the report, and we're going to get more and more
details about that. Yes, the initial your point is well taken,
but I think still armed security would have made had
armed security.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
There than not, is the point?
Speaker 4 (17:43):
And uh and so, But yes, we're totally looking at
the tactical analysis of this with an understanding that some
maniac is going to be firing a rifle at the
side of a church. I mean the stained glasses and bulletproof,
we get it.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
Uh, all right.
Speaker 4 (17:56):
Look, cell phones aren't meant to last forever. They're built
to be tough, but the inner workings of a cell
phone slow down over time, just like a laptop computer,
maybe even faster thanks to Puretalk. Your cell phone is
something you can upgrade very easily. If it's time switch
to pure Talk this month, They're gonna give you a
Samsung Galaxy A thirty six for free with a thirty
dollars thirty five dollars thirty five dollars a month qualifying plan.
(18:18):
Those thirty five bucks a month provide for unlimited talk,
text and plenty of data, and a free Samsung phone
with scratch resistant guerrilla glass and a battery that lasts
all day on America's most dependable five G network.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
Look.
Speaker 4 (18:30):
Supporting companies like Puretalk is a good thing. You win
by cutting your cell phone bill in half. They win
by hiring more Americans and hiring and helping veterans make
the switch in as little as ten minutes. I've done it,
You can do it too. Puretalk's my cell phone company.
Dial pound two five zero. Say the keywords Clay and
Buck to get your free phone today. That's pound two
five zero, Say Clay and Buck to switch to America's
(18:53):
wireless company, Puretalk.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
So welcome back in Clay, Travis Buck, Sexton show our friend.
Alex Bear and Sen, formerly of The New York Times,
write about almost everything on COVID, remember back when that mattered.
Now it's just like everybody wants to pretend COVID never
existed and there were never restrictions, and they never said, hey,
go sit in circles in public parks. They never said, hey,
(19:15):
take your put your mask on to walk to a restaurant,
then you can take your mask off as soon as
you sit down. That none of this absurdity. Schools weren't
shut down all these things. I thought about it this
morning because I'm still angry about it. When I took
my kids, we had a doctor's appointment, and you had
to wear a mask to go to a kid's pediatric
appointment for years in much of the country. But Alex,
(19:37):
we want to talk with you now about the school
shooting and in Minneapolis. We have been talking about this
quite a lot, and we're going to get into a
variety of different angles that you think are significant, But
let's start here. How much attention do you think there
should be your a parent, Buck is now a parent, Obviously,
I've got three kids. On the idea of miners being
(20:00):
given drugs relating to their gender. In the wake of
the school shooting in Nashville and the school shooting in Minneapolis.
Is it reasonable to say, hey, let's look at what
we're giving these minor kids.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
Is it having an impact in their decision making?
Speaker 7 (20:17):
Yes? I mean I think if you frame it that way,
the answer is one yes. And you know that's not
to say that you know, most trainings kids or kids
getting you know, or or you know or even young
adults getting transformones or in any way violent or dangerous,
but uh, you know this has now happened a number
of times, and I think it you know it it
(20:39):
raises this bigger question, right, like, these are very powerful drugs,
you know, sex hormones are you know, they're they're they're
very powerful even though they're naturally occurring. That doesn't mean
they're not powerful and are when you frame it us,
are they affecting kids decision making? That's a that's a
perfectly reasonable question to ask.
Speaker 4 (21:00):
Now, Alex, I know you are very vocal about your
what you see as a connection between psychosis from marijuana
slash THHC, right, the psychoactive drug that is what people
are smoking the weed for, and in general just the
psychosis of it. But you also think that the walk
(21:20):
me through here what you believe because I've seen you
on Twitter talking about this, or rather writing about this.
Do you think there's a link between the psychosis that
has has been a huge factor obviously in some of
these horrific shootings and marijuana used.
Speaker 7 (21:35):
Talk us through that, sure, So start with this cannabis.
And you know, Livten, I wrote a book right in
twenty nineteen called Tell Your Children that went into this
connection in depth. And so although I'm not an MD
or a PhD, I believe that I am qualified to
talk about this in a serious way. And I've read,
you know, basically all the literature that I can find
(21:58):
on it, and the evident has really only gotten stronger
since till your term came out, which was six years ago.
There's been more studies done. So look cannabis, you know,
flash THC because as you said, TC is the active
ingredient in cannabis, is the drug in cannabis that makes
people high, can cause and worsen psychotic episodes in people.
(22:20):
There's there's no question about that. I think even the
cannabis lobby would acknowledge that, and there is now, I
would say, very good evidence that in some people, especially
if you start using cannabis at a young age, and
especially if you use a lot of it, and especially
if you use high potency cannabis, and unfortunately, all those
three things are all connected. If you're doing that, you
(22:42):
increase your risk of developing schizophrenia. And schizophrenia is essentially,
you know, a permanent psychotic condition, right, So people with
schizophrenia will become psychotic. They'll maybe manage their psychosis with drugs,
drugs called antipsychotics, they may get a little bit better,
but then they're likely to become psychotic again. They'll they'll
(23:03):
relax sort of. The definition of schizophrenia is that it's
a it's a psychotic condition that's not drug related, it's
not related to dementia, it's not related to anything else,
and it just comes and goes and it's a really
terrible illness. Okay, about one in one hundred and fifty
people have this illness, and for the most part, they
don't get married, they don't work, they don't have kids.
(23:25):
They die about twenty years younger than other people on average,
because it's you really can't function very well in society
with schizophrenia. The other thing about schizophrenia, about psychiasist is
that people who have it are much more likely to
become violence. There's no question about that. They're also more
(23:45):
likely to be the victims of violence, So let's be
clear about that too. But you know when the classic line,
the line that I use and tell your children, is
when you see somebody if you're just a you know,
an ordinary person. You're on the subway platform in New
York City. You see somebody talking to himself who clearly
hasn't showered or you know, bathed, who might be homeless
(24:06):
at the other end of the platform or near you.
You walk over to the other end of the platform.
If you intuitively know that psychosis is dangerous. Human beings
know this. They know that people who are disconnected with
reality can be dangerous to them, and that's particularly true
when a psychosis has a paranoia flavor. So if I
become mentally ill and I'm convinced that you are out
(24:27):
to get me, I might lash out and hurt you.
And that might be if you're a stranger, it might
be if you're my child, it might be if you're
you know, a police officer. Right, So, once I become
convinced that you're a risk to me, I will lash
out against you. And this is a real connection. I
don't think anybody is serious in the psychiatric community, in
(24:48):
the medical community with doubt any of those things. So
that I've just told you so, the question then becomes
in encouraging people or allowing people, or allowing an industry
to spring up the encourages the use of cannabis and THFC,
which is a known psychomametic drug.
Speaker 2 (25:06):
Are we.
Speaker 7 (25:08):
Essentially facilitating or encouraging. Encouraging is the wrong word, but
but is it.
Speaker 1 (25:14):
Like let me cut let me cut you off here
for a sex result, let me cut you off for
a sec alex. Because I think this is important. I
mentioned that we're all parents. I think a lot of
people around our age, and we're all around the same
age actually bought into the idea that we'd that THHC
is in some way healthier to use and less damaging
(25:36):
than alcohol. And if you look, if you look at
the data right now, and I think this is important,
alcohol use among young people is hitting record lows. They
are not in any way using alcohol like past generations have. Also,
nobody young by and large smokes right like nicotine, and
the idea that you would smoke a pack of day,
(25:57):
the use of cigarettes has collapsed among the young, but
use of THC, use of weed related products has surged,
and the idea has been alex that this is healthier
and better for kids, better for young people, young adults.
What you're telling us is that the evidence is actually
that we're trading less dangerous objects for more dangerous ones
(26:21):
based on some of the data that you're seeing.
Speaker 7 (26:23):
So it's more complicated even than what you just said.
And here's why alcohol use is down, okay, but it
is not clear that people who use cannabis use less alcohol, okay.
People use drugs tend to use drugs, okay. So what
you get is sort of an additive effect where people
are using alcohol and cannabis.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
And so there's not as much of a substitution as
my question implied based on what the data you see shows.
Speaker 7 (26:52):
That's right. There are some people who are just using
less drugs right, just the way they're kids, you know,
kids like people I would say, teens in young adults.
They have sex less. Some of them don't drive, which
just seems absolutely crazy to me. They seem perfectly content,
a lot of them to sit at home and essentially
do nothing. And those are not the and some of
(27:12):
those people are using cannabis, but some are not. But
there's definitely a group that is using cannabis and other drugs,
even including psychedelics, in addition to alcohol. So what I
would also say is it's not People say to me,
how can you say cannabis is less dangerous than alcohol?
Nobody ever ever odd on cannabis on THHC, which isn't
quite true. People can od on it, mostly they don't
(27:33):
die on it. And here's the answer to that, the
true answer to that cannabis is less physically dangerous than alcohol.
No one could seriously disagree with that. If you drink
too much alcohol, your liver can stop and you'll die.
All right, that is not very likely. I mean, it's
not going to happen if you use cannabis. But cannabis
is more dangerous to your brain than alcohol. People don't
(27:53):
get psychotic except in very very rare times or or
in very life eight stage alcoholism from using alcohol. They
do get psychotic, paranoid and psychotic all the time when
they use cannabis. Okay, it's almost a feature of the drug.
And so so those are people are more dangerous to
(28:15):
the people around them in general than somebody who's using
alcohol and yes, sorry.
Speaker 4 (28:21):
No, I want to ask you finish your thought. I
if something else, go ahead.
Speaker 7 (28:26):
So the question is like, as a society, we're sort
of trading. We're trading a bar fight for like a
mass stabbing or a mass shooting, right, so or maybe
we're training ten bar fights or one hundred bar fights
or a mass shooting. But that is a real trade
that we're making. This idea that somehow substituting cannabis for
alcohol was going to be a good for public health
(28:48):
doesn't look like it's the case at all. And by
the way, people, one last thing is this idea that
when people are high and they drive, they don't speed.
It's not true. This idea that people who use cannabis
have a better mental health is one hundred percent not true.
In addition to this, this what I'm talking about with psychosis.
Speaker 2 (29:06):
So, Alex, I hate I hate weed.
Speaker 4 (29:08):
I hate weed too, Just to be clear, So I'm
i'm you know everything you're saying here, I'm it jives
with what I think and that I want to ask
you something else that's that's related. But because when these
things happen, you have a lot of people that will say, oh,
you know, and I'm seeing this on the right particularly,
which is why I want to talk about it. They go, oh,
it's they start blending ssriris and this. I think there's
(29:28):
a lot of misinformation or a lot of people need
to understand. Like I mean, I just say this, I
knew someone very well many years ago who was bipolar.
And I knew this person someone you know, it was
a woman who I was dating on meds, totally normal,
doing great, very successful in life. Off meds, cannot function,
And so I just think that, you know, people, there's
(29:49):
this thing of like SSRI zombies are running in and
killing people. The right needs to understand that actually, in
the mental health world, there are people who are their
lives are saved by being on these drugs actually, and
a lot of veterans who deal with PTSD whom I
know have gotten tremendous benefit from SSRI. So can you
(30:10):
speak to this a little bit because I think people
just are like everybody on SSRI should get off.
Speaker 2 (30:15):
I'm like, that is a terrible idea.
Speaker 7 (30:17):
It's a terrible So I don't understand. I hate for SSRIs. Okay, Look,
I think SSRIs are overrated as drugs, and most people
who have mild depression are going to recover from that
depression on their own, whether or not they take an SSRI.
But there are some people out there who have really
severe depression who really can't function very well without an SSRI.
(30:38):
And by the way, if you have psychosis, there are
drugs called antipsychotics, and those drugs, those are difficult drugs
for people. They cause a lot of weight gain, they
cause movement disorders in some people. But if you have psychosis,
you need anti psychotic like those drugs help people. And
I think there's a really important distinction to make that
(31:00):
gets lost between essentially recreational drugs drugs of abuse and
SSRIs and antipsychotics. And so people will say when I
say this, like people are like, he's a simp for pharma,
And I say to them, like, do you know who
I am?
Speaker 2 (31:14):
I'm yeah, me.
Speaker 4 (31:15):
Well, this is why this is why I wanted you
to talk about it, Alex, because I when I try
to point out reality people too, I'm like, no one's
like sitting around just popping lots of prozac because it's
so fun.
Speaker 7 (31:26):
That's exactly right. So so the distinction isn't between a
drug you prescribe and a drug that's not prescribed. The
distinction is between drugs that get you high and drugs
that don't get you high. So what gets you high.
Stimulants get you high, So that's like an ADHD drug
adderall that's amphetamine. Those dorugs get people high. Benzos anti
anxiety drugs people take to get high. Nobody takes prozacs
(31:47):
to get high. Nobody takes vyprexa, which is an antipsychotic,
to get high. Those drugs have no street value because
they don't get you high, and.
Speaker 4 (31:55):
The people who need them really really need them in
many cases.
Speaker 7 (32:00):
Is one percent right? And so again like are sthrized
potentially over prescribed? Sure, I'll tell you something right now.
Right now most emphasized are off patent okay, off patent, lexipro,
off pentent okay. That means that the companies don't make
any money basically from them, and they're still being prescribed.
Why because there's some people out there who need them.
(32:22):
And you're totally right to make that point. And again
I'm not like, I agree with you. I don't understand
why the right has suddenly gotten fixated on SSR.
Speaker 4 (32:30):
Yeah, they're demonizing ssris' and they're wrong. Honestly, a lot
of the people that are doing this are just wrong
and they don't know what they're talking about. And I'll
just say it out loud because I know it's true.
Speaker 1 (32:38):
All right, let me ask you this, Alex as we
go to break, because I do think so many people
listen and their moms and dads, their grandma and grandpas.
What would you want them to tell their kids who
are fifteen or sixteen years old and have bought into
this idea that you can use THHC products as much
(32:59):
as you want and there's nothing to be concerned about
with that. In thirty seconds, what would you want them
to know in thirty seconds?
Speaker 7 (33:07):
And then and then I hope you give me one
final segment, But in thirty seconds, what I'd say to
you is, it's not just about TC and it's not
just about alcohol. There's no free lunch. Okay, a drug
that gets you high, that that alters your relationships to
the world, You're going to pay a price for it.
And it may be a small price, and it may
be a price that you're willing to pay to have
(33:27):
that U for or that intoxication in the moment. But
don't make the mistake of thinking cannabis and TC is medicine.
Don't think that if you're you know, popping your adderall
to stay up all night and you want to feel
good like that, that there's not a price to be paid.
These drugs are addictive. They change your brain chemistry, and
you will pay, and you may be able to tolerate
(33:49):
that price, but it is coming. That's what I would
say to them.
Speaker 1 (33:52):
That's what Okay, parents, the kids, we got to go
to break to the hit the read. We'll come back
and get one minute from you to close out the
opuka if you'll stick with us. Yeah, regular season football
is here. Let me give you a pick. Buck is
playing I'm playing Ohio State Texas tomorrow. Phenomenal Tennessee's playing Syracuse.
That's where all these picks are from. You get fifty
(34:13):
bucks right now if you go to prizpicks dot com.
Code Clay Jeremiah Smith, star wide receiver for the Ohio
State Buck Eyes more than eighty three and a half
yards This game is at noon tomorrow. Deshaun Bishop running
back for Tennessee. More than one half of a touchdown
rushing or receiving this will be up at clayanbuck dot com.
Arch manning more than one half touchdown passes if that
(34:36):
hits four to one, regardless, you get fifty bucks when
you play five dollars Prizepicks dot com. College football is here.
Code Clay Texas, Florida, Tennessee, Georgia, California. You can play
everywhere forty plus states, thirteen million playing price picks dot com.
Speaker 2 (34:52):
Code Clay Stories.
Speaker 6 (34:54):
Are freedom stories of America, inspirational stories that you unite
it each day, spend time with Clay and buy find them.
Speaker 2 (35:04):
On the vree iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your.
Speaker 4 (35:07):
Podcasts alex you want, We're just gonna give you the
floor for a second.
Speaker 2 (35:10):
You had more on this when you're en fuego go ahead.
Speaker 7 (35:14):
So listen. Here's what I want to say. The President
of the United States right now has a very important
decision that he's that he's trying to make about whether
or not cannabis should be reschedulized, rescheduled as a as
a less dangerous drug under DEA rules. And so if
he does that, okay, by the way, it's currently called
Schedule one. But that doesn't affect your ability in a
(35:37):
legalized state to buy it. It doesn't mean anybody is
arrested for possessing it or using it. All that stuff
is under the current situation, okay. But the cannabis industry
desperately wants them to reschedulize because it will be a
huge boost to their profits, okay. And that will mean
more pop as, it will mean more dispensaries, It will
(35:58):
mean more kids and young people and young adults smoking
a lot. This is what they want. And they don't
want it because it's gonna change public health or get it.
Or they don't want it because it's gonna get you know,
kids out of jail. Because it doesn't change any laws.
It just will make their lives. We do and you me,
Laura Ingram. We don't have money in this, Okay. We
(36:21):
are talking about this because we think it's important for
the health of kids and young adults. And I know
it's a tough choice, but the president should go with
his gut. I know that he's concerned about substance confused.
I know you know, he's seen its effects on people.
And he should keep cannabis as a schedule warm drug.
And he should listen to people who don't have.
Speaker 4 (36:42):
Money, alexperience and everybody Alex thanks for being here.
Speaker 2 (36:46):
Guys, Hour three coming up. Stick Around
We man our number two Clay Travis buck Sexton show,
appreciate all of you hanging out with us. Our friend
Alex Bearnson gonna join us at the bottom of the hour,
then Mary Catherine Ham in the third hour, two hours
left of the week.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
We appreciate all of you hanging out with us. As
we are.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Rolling into Labor Day weekend, I know many of you
either already on the roads or potentially going to be traveling.
Worth mentioning that we are at a four year low
in gas prices, you have to go all the way
back to I believe, twenty twenty one, and still the
(00:37):
Democrats are not driving on the interstate era, or if
they were, they were wearing masks in their cars by
themselves to win.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
The price of gas was this affordable.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
So if you factor in inflation as well, which unfortunately
Joe Biden brought us, it's even better because the average
cost of goods have gone up substantially. Yet gas is
cheaper now than at any point in the next four years.
And this is primarily going to be a driving weekend
for a lot of people out there. I know people
also flying. I'm going to be driving a decent distance
(01:08):
and so many of you are as well, So just
a good sign there. And as we move into winter,
I would expect for prices to come down again, as
usually you see a bit of a surge in gas
prices during the summer because so many people are traveling.
Cracker Barrel, by the way, is in full on retreat.
We may have some fun with that before all is
(01:29):
said and done, but I do think it's worth us
continuing to share with you some of the basic lies
that are being shared with so many people out there
relating to what happened in Minneapolis. Most places still not
really addressing the fact that this was a trans terrorist
that took these lives of these innocent kids in Minneapolis,
(01:52):
and in fact, they're not even being honest about the
gender of the person who did this. This was a
man pretending to be a woman. CNN is worried about
misgendering the shooter such that they keep referring, and so
does New York Times, so does the Washington Post. They
keep referring to this shooter as a her. This is
(02:15):
what it sounds like. They won't even tell you who
this person was in the context of their own gender,
or that the transidentity might have been involved. Here is
cut eleven. What you heard on CNN. This is Andrew McCabe.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
Listen for the mother to not even return to the
state to answer law enforcement questions, to try to provide
some assistance. I'm sure she's grieving for her daughter, but
this is, Yeah, it's a really perverse and strange element
in this story. It's inexplicable to me at this point.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
I mean, you can hear those there.
Speaker 4 (02:52):
Inexplicable, Yeah, he says the daughter. They are doing this
buck on Emma NBC New York Times. They are refusing
to say this was a boy. They are claiming that
it's a girl. They're saying that these parents have lost
a daughter, meaning the killer. They are worried about misgendering,
(03:14):
and as a result, they aren't even talking about the
trans element here. Now, I think the parent discussion should
be a part of this. Because they changed the gender
of this kid at seventeen years old, I think we
should be talking in earnest how many different drugs was
this kid on. How screwed up did that potentially make
(03:36):
the mental capacity of the kid, How much did it
exacerbate what is likely mental illness? Already to be suddenly
flooding the body with hormones.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
Pluck.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
Here's something I was thinking about last night as I
was doing some prep when I got back home late
last night. And I know we've touched on it a
little bit, but I feel like it's almost verboten to
even discuss what is the health impact long term going
to be for these trans people as they enter into
their fifties, their sixties and seventies and start to age
(04:09):
and have real health problems as most people do as
they age. When you're talking about people with open wounds
that are constantly flooding their body with hormones, is there
any way these people are going to have remotely normal
life spans, It's like you're not allowed to discuss it.
But some of these people are so young when they
got this done that we haven't really dealt with, Hey,
(04:30):
what happens when you're sixty five and you had trans surgery.
These people are going to die decades younger and earlier
than they otherwise would have. And with the ones that
they're starting at thirteen and fourteen, I mean, their bodies
are never going to fully develop, Their bones are not
going to helop. I just get angrier the more I
think about this.
Speaker 4 (04:49):
Yeah, it's horrible what has gone on. And part of
the problem is that a lot of damage has already
been done, and so the people that are involved in
that damage are very unlikely to ever admit what has
gone on. Right, Yeah, I mean on the on the
medical side of things, and the fact that you honestly
I hadn't heard that sound bite yet. The fact that
(05:11):
this is being done where you have people saying that
a daughter that they that the parents of the shooter
lost a daughter. This is crazy. Top, Yes, this is crazy.
This is not acceptable. This is not something we go
along with. It was a crazy guy who killed children
and tried to kill a whole lot more. Remember this individual, uh,
(05:35):
this this mass shooter. It's it's a horrible tragedy that
he killed an eight year old and I believe an
eight year old and a ten year old at prayer
in a church or walking into a church to pray.
It could this person, with the guns that he had
there and the fact that there was an undefended soft target,
it could have been so much worse in terms of
(05:57):
the casualties. And people were hit and they thankfully survived.
Quick action by the first responders and by emergency rooms
in the area to save lives.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
But Clay that.
Speaker 4 (06:10):
Anyone would take even a second to worry about the
courtesy of the preferred pronouns of this maniac is itself mononiacal.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
It is absolutely unacceptable.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
And remember this is the former acting director of the FBI,
So you would think of anyone out there, if you
are an investigator, you would think that you would want
to stick to the facts way more than anybody else.
And the facts are this was a boy trying to
identify as a girl. The way that he hesitated there
and the fact that he actually pointed out that the
(06:44):
mom is not cooperating with authorities is all very strange
because what it would suggest is that maybe she knew
that her son was I don't see how she could
not knew that her son was a potential threat to everyone.
And so far she is not talking because she is
afraid that she might get charged in relationship to the shooting,
(07:06):
because somehow this crazy person had access to guns. And
let me just reiterate this all the time. You can
strongly believe in the Second Amendment, and if you are
a parent, also understand that your individual kid may not
need to be in possession of a gun. And I
(07:27):
don't mean that because you're worried about them shooting up
other places or killing other people. I mean your kid,
if they have mental illness, or they have depression, or
they have some form of psychoactive issue that you are
aware of as a parent, they shouldn't be around firearms Like.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
This has nothing to do.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
I get so fired up about this because I've got
three boys, Buck, I just don't believe that in any
of these mass shooting situations there weren't tons of clues
that these parents saw and they just pretended that it
wasn't there, and they let their kids remain in possession
or in ownership of firearms.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
Right.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
And so I look at this, this mom is hiding.
It sounds like from investigators not participating in the investigation.
I think it's probably going to come out that she
knew her son was a threat both to himself and
to others, and she just pretended it was going to
go away. I think that's what's going to come out. Also,
it's not going to surprise you. But I wanted to
play this. The WNBA coach in Minneapolis. She has decided
(08:34):
to weigh in, and she says, hey, we can't tell
kids anything positive because we don't care about them. This
is woke WNBA nonsense. But I wanted to play it
for you too. This is what you might be hearing
if you were watching CNN or MSNBC.
Speaker 5 (08:48):
It's such an indictment of our society and our lack
of regard for life. There are things that we can
do about it, and we know, but for some reason,
as Americans, we value some things different. It's sickening, sad
for the kids.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
Sad for the kids to go up like this, sad
for kids. I want to the door. I not know
what's going to happen. Hearts go out to obviously the
I've lost kids.
Speaker 5 (09:11):
That are hurt, the teachers that have to go through this,
families that drop their.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
Kid office schools on parts.
Speaker 5 (09:17):
Hearts go out to them. The sad thing is they
can't sit here and tell them that help is on
the way because we're not going to do a damn thing.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
About okay, and she's not talking about doing a damn
thing about it. As in investigate what's going on with Tran,
she means she wants all your guns taken away and let's.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
You know, they always want to talk about mental health.
Speaker 4 (09:35):
Should should should being trans bar you from owning a
buying and owning a firearm. I mean, the left would
absolutely freak out about that. But are we going to now?
They want mental health checks, they want this is why again, Yes,
you can hear the conversation with Trey. I was shocked
at mister Gowdy's uh. I thought he misspoke on which.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
Which is how we started that interview with me giving
him an opportunity to say, upon reflection, because you do
life radio, you do live TV, you're not perfect. So
I thought he would address it and take back some
of it what he said. He did not at all,
not at all.
Speaker 4 (10:06):
He's like, we need a new law, we need a
new law that's going to stop people from and I say, okay,
what's that law going to be as well? If someone's
adjudicated mentally okay, well, first of all, a lot of
places already have something on you know that's similar. The
problem is adjudicating somebody mentally deficient. The problem is figure
or you know, mentally incompetent to own but basically a
danger to themselves and others. What do you think the
(10:28):
system that we have is going to catch everybody that's crazy.
Good luck with that one. And what are the what
are the implications the civil rights and First Amendment and
other implications of Oh, we're deciding that you're crazy, so
we're taking away your right. Everybody knows I'm saying this,
and a lot of you are already nodding your heads.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
Oh, you mean they're going.
Speaker 4 (10:45):
To try to take guns from veterans who have PTSD right,
because that's going to happen in blue states. You mean
they're going to try to take guns from people. You
know that a whole range of things. It'll be used
as a tool, weaponized immediately and right away. And so
what's the law? And to the point being made here
by was the w he said was a w nb
W NBA head coach, Yeah, head coach. Okay, they say
(11:06):
we know what to do.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
Say what it is? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (11:09):
If the whole the whole point here is that people
get to point at their political adversaries and say they're
the bad people because they won't do the good thing.
What's the good thing? What's the thing that we'll say?
You know, yesterday with Trey I even said, look, we're
talking about uh putting more arm guards at schools. We're
talking about maybe having a program that specifically puts veterans
(11:30):
who have firearms training to protect our kids, to protect
our houses of worship, a lot of places of armed
security all over the country.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
Why not protect our kids.
Speaker 4 (11:39):
That's something, and that's something that might actually work passing
a law that that that what that says, if you're
the most insane, vile lunatic on the planet, you can't
get a gun.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
Well, yeah, we got to.
Speaker 4 (11:50):
Find out who the insane vile lunatic is before they
shoot everybody. And that's the part of this that they
don't even address. They don't even talk about.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
I just I ever, any time this happens. I do
not see this as political. Every single public and private
school in America should have security guards armed. They're twenty
you know, every hour that the kids are there. I
don't understand how this isn't standard operating procedure. I've said it.
I always think about it in the context of would
(12:19):
I want this for my kids? And if the answer
is what I want it for my kids, almost without exception,
my answer for all of you is going to be
I want it for your kids and grandkids too. My
kids public and private school have had armed security. I
don't understand why the mediate response from this when we
look at what we spend and waste dollars on, you
(12:42):
ran through the math. Basically, I mean, this is ten
billion dollars a year nationwide that we could put in
place and say, let's do it. When I look at
the way that we waste money protecting kids' lives at school,
young innocent kids, and what every bad guy out there know, Hey,
(13:02):
there's arms security at this school, because what did we
see with Covenant. These these evil people are doing stakeouts
of the schools to see whether or not they're secure,
and if they are, maybe it makes them change their
minds just a little bit. The bridges is a good
example this. I was talking about this with my wife
the other day. You know, they put fences basically higher
(13:25):
up on bridges to try to limit suicides, and people
drastically do not commit suicide at the same level when
they just have to climb up a little bit more
over the top of a fence or a secure areas.
Speaker 4 (13:39):
Of fences as a security system make it harder slow
people down. By the way, true with the border as well,
I've seen at the border people scaling the fence, but
you know what you see them, it slows them down
and then you can arrest them on the other side.
It's not that people go if you have a ten
foot fence, I'll have an eleven foot ladder. Guess who's
waiting for you on the other side of that fence.
If it's well constructed and it's double layer and there's
(14:02):
sensors in place. Border patrol. Yes, all security measures are
imperfect on their own, but that doesn't mean they're not useful.
And it's certainly useful. I would even advocate for a
program that says, look, why does conceal carry work so well?
Clay and a total credit to more guns, less crime.
John Lott on this. What you find out is that
(14:23):
it's not that everyone has to conceal carry. It's that
in places where there is concealed carry, the bad guy
has to think somebody here might have a gun, and
that changes the calculation. Sometimes they do and they go
for it anyway, and then there's a good guy with
a gun there. But in the school system, if you
even just had let's say, if a state said, you
know what, we're going to have a program, some uniform,
(14:44):
some out of you know, some open carry, some concealed carry.
Changes the calculation for school shooters inherently, and there's no
loss of attendant rights. There's no I'm going to harass
people who are good, people who haven't done anything like
That's the part of it that also has to be
taken into account.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
I wish if we were going to have a conversation
nationwide about that's the one we'd go to. It's the
one that I try to push every single time any
of these incidents happen. Look talk with any Israeli citizen
these days, they'll tell you peace and quiet's the top priority.
No one wants the current conflict in the region to
go away more than the average person living in Israel.
But there's still a huge demand for security. Your gift
(15:25):
to the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews creates new
bomb shelters across Israel, necessary supplies for those existing bomb
shelters out there. We know, unfortunately how much all of
these shelters are going to be needed. Now is the
time to help Israel's most innocent and most vulnerable. To
rush your gift. Call eight eight eight for eight eight IFCJ.
(15:49):
That's eight eight eight for eight eight IFCJ. You can
go online to IFCJ dot org. That's IFCJ dot org.
Speaker 6 (16:00):
These are freedom stories of America, inspirational stories that you
unite us all each day. Spend time with Clay and
find them on the free iHeartRadio app or wherever you
get your.
Speaker 4 (16:12):
Podcasts, and welcome back in here to Clay and Buck.
And I want to remind you please send us your talkbacks,
your thoughts, all that good stuff, and also call us.
We are live and we love our live callers. So
let's get to Rob in Oaklahoma. Let's talk Rob. What's
going on?
Speaker 7 (16:31):
Well? I wanted to let you guys know, Buck, you're
discussion with Trey Gaddy. You are brilliant. That guy has
lost his mind. I used to love him. But here's
here's my point is all of the things that we're
talking about are are I agree with you? I agree
with you one hundred percent. Armed security in the in
the schools, whether it's veterans, whether it's police, whether it's
(16:55):
armed teachers, you know, trained, armed, trained, all good, all good,
But my understanding is this guy shot from outside the
school in Yeah.
Speaker 4 (17:05):
Rob, we I mentioned this when we were talking about this,
You're you're totally correct, by the way, I'm just jumping
and tell you. I said, in this instance, maybe armed
security would have been able to Look, there were two
killed and about a dozen wounded. Maybe armed security would
have been able to respond, but they wouldn't have been
able to neutralize the threat, most likely right away. Because
if you're going to shoot at a building from the outside,
(17:25):
but the shooter didn't make it into the building.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
I believe he shot for four minutes. I think that's
the report, and we're going to get more and more
details about that. Yes, the initial your point is well taken,
but I think still armed security would have made had
armed security.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
There than not, is the point?
Speaker 4 (17:43):
And uh and so, But yes, we're totally looking at
the tactical analysis of this with an understanding that some
maniac is going to be firing a rifle at the
side of a church. I mean the stained glasses and bulletproof,
we get it.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
Uh, all right.
Speaker 4 (17:56):
Look, cell phones aren't meant to last forever. They're built
to be tough, but the inner workings of a cell
phone slow down over time, just like a laptop computer,
maybe even faster thanks to Puretalk. Your cell phone is
something you can upgrade very easily. If it's time switch
to pure Talk this month, They're gonna give you a
Samsung Galaxy A thirty six for free with a thirty
dollars thirty five dollars thirty five dollars a month qualifying plan.
(18:18):
Those thirty five bucks a month provide for unlimited talk,
text and plenty of data, and a free Samsung phone
with scratch resistant guerrilla glass and a battery that lasts
all day on America's most dependable five G network.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
Look.
Speaker 4 (18:30):
Supporting companies like Puretalk is a good thing. You win
by cutting your cell phone bill in half. They win
by hiring more Americans and hiring and helping veterans make
the switch in as little as ten minutes. I've done it,
You can do it too. Puretalk's my cell phone company.
Dial pound two five zero. Say the keywords Clay and
Buck to get your free phone today. That's pound two
five zero, Say Clay and Buck to switch to America's
(18:53):
wireless company, Puretalk.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
So welcome back in Clay, Travis Buck, Sexton show our friend.
Alex Bear and Sen, formerly of The New York Times,
write about almost everything on COVID, remember back when that mattered.
Now it's just like everybody wants to pretend COVID never
existed and there were never restrictions, and they never said, hey,
go sit in circles in public parks. They never said, hey,
(19:15):
take your put your mask on to walk to a restaurant,
then you can take your mask off as soon as
you sit down. That none of this absurdity. Schools weren't
shut down all these things. I thought about it this
morning because I'm still angry about it. When I took
my kids, we had a doctor's appointment, and you had
to wear a mask to go to a kid's pediatric
appointment for years in much of the country. But Alex,
(19:37):
we want to talk with you now about the school
shooting and in Minneapolis. We have been talking about this
quite a lot, and we're going to get into a
variety of different angles that you think are significant, But
let's start here. How much attention do you think there
should be your a parent, Buck is now a parent, Obviously,
I've got three kids. On the idea of miners being
(20:00):
given drugs relating to their gender. In the wake of
the school shooting in Nashville and the school shooting in Minneapolis.
Is it reasonable to say, hey, let's look at what
we're giving these minor kids.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
Is it having an impact in their decision making?
Speaker 7 (20:17):
Yes? I mean I think if you frame it that way,
the answer is one yes. And you know that's not
to say that you know, most trainings kids or kids
getting you know, or or you know or even young
adults getting transformones or in any way violent or dangerous,
but uh, you know this has now happened a number
of times, and I think it you know it it
(20:39):
raises this bigger question, right, like, these are very powerful drugs,
you know, sex hormones are you know, they're they're they're
very powerful even though they're naturally occurring. That doesn't mean
they're not powerful and are when you frame it us,
are they affecting kids decision making? That's a that's a
perfectly reasonable question to ask.
Speaker 4 (21:00):
Now, Alex, I know you are very vocal about your
what you see as a connection between psychosis from marijuana
slash THHC, right, the psychoactive drug that is what people
are smoking the weed for, and in general just the
psychosis of it. But you also think that the walk
(21:20):
me through here what you believe because I've seen you
on Twitter talking about this, or rather writing about this.
Do you think there's a link between the psychosis that
has has been a huge factor obviously in some of
these horrific shootings and marijuana used.
Speaker 7 (21:35):
Talk us through that, sure, So start with this cannabis.
And you know, Livten, I wrote a book right in
twenty nineteen called Tell Your Children that went into this
connection in depth. And so although I'm not an MD
or a PhD, I believe that I am qualified to
talk about this in a serious way. And I've read,
you know, basically all the literature that I can find
(21:58):
on it, and the evident has really only gotten stronger
since till your term came out, which was six years ago.
There's been more studies done. So look cannabis, you know,
flash THC because as you said, TC is the active
ingredient in cannabis, is the drug in cannabis that makes
people high, can cause and worsen psychotic episodes in people.
(22:20):
There's there's no question about that. I think even the
cannabis lobby would acknowledge that, and there is now, I
would say, very good evidence that in some people, especially
if you start using cannabis at a young age, and
especially if you use a lot of it, and especially
if you use high potency cannabis, and unfortunately, all those
three things are all connected. If you're doing that, you
(22:42):
increase your risk of developing schizophrenia. And schizophrenia is essentially,
you know, a permanent psychotic condition, right, So people with
schizophrenia will become psychotic. They'll maybe manage their psychosis with drugs,
drugs called antipsychotics, they may get a little bit better,
but then they're likely to become psychotic again. They'll they'll
(23:03):
relax sort of. The definition of schizophrenia is that it's
a it's a psychotic condition that's not drug related, it's
not related to dementia, it's not related to anything else,
and it just comes and goes and it's a really
terrible illness. Okay, about one in one hundred and fifty
people have this illness, and for the most part, they
don't get married, they don't work, they don't have kids.
(23:25):
They die about twenty years younger than other people on average,
because it's you really can't function very well in society
with schizophrenia. The other thing about schizophrenia, about psychiasist is
that people who have it are much more likely to
become violence. There's no question about that. They're also more
(23:45):
likely to be the victims of violence, So let's be
clear about that too. But you know when the classic line,
the line that I use and tell your children, is
when you see somebody if you're just a you know,
an ordinary person. You're on the subway platform in New
York City. You see somebody talking to himself who clearly
hasn't showered or you know, bathed, who might be homeless
(24:06):
at the other end of the platform or near you.
You walk over to the other end of the platform.
If you intuitively know that psychosis is dangerous. Human beings
know this. They know that people who are disconnected with
reality can be dangerous to them, and that's particularly true
when a psychosis has a paranoia flavor. So if I
become mentally ill and I'm convinced that you are out
(24:27):
to get me, I might lash out and hurt you.
And that might be if you're a stranger, it might
be if you're my child, it might be if you're
you know, a police officer. Right, So, once I become
convinced that you're a risk to me, I will lash
out against you. And this is a real connection. I
don't think anybody is serious in the psychiatric community, in
(24:48):
the medical community with doubt any of those things. So
that I've just told you so, the question then becomes
in encouraging people or allowing people, or allowing an industry
to spring up the encourages the use of cannabis and THFC,
which is a known psychomametic drug.
Speaker 2 (25:06):
Are we.
Speaker 7 (25:08):
Essentially facilitating or encouraging. Encouraging is the wrong word, but
but is it.
Speaker 1 (25:14):
Like let me cut let me cut you off here
for a sex result, let me cut you off for
a sec alex. Because I think this is important. I
mentioned that we're all parents. I think a lot of
people around our age, and we're all around the same
age actually bought into the idea that we'd that THHC
is in some way healthier to use and less damaging
(25:36):
than alcohol. And if you look, if you look at
the data right now, and I think this is important,
alcohol use among young people is hitting record lows. They
are not in any way using alcohol like past generations have. Also,
nobody young by and large smokes right like nicotine, and
the idea that you would smoke a pack of day,
(25:57):
the use of cigarettes has collapsed among the young, but
use of THC, use of weed related products has surged,
and the idea has been alex that this is healthier
and better for kids, better for young people, young adults.
What you're telling us is that the evidence is actually
that we're trading less dangerous objects for more dangerous ones
(26:21):
based on some of the data that you're seeing.
Speaker 7 (26:23):
So it's more complicated even than what you just said.
And here's why alcohol use is down, okay, but it
is not clear that people who use cannabis use less alcohol, okay.
People use drugs tend to use drugs, okay. So what
you get is sort of an additive effect where people
are using alcohol and cannabis.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
And so there's not as much of a substitution as
my question implied based on what the data you see shows.
Speaker 7 (26:52):
That's right. There are some people who are just using
less drugs right, just the way they're kids, you know,
kids like people I would say, teens in young adults.
They have sex less. Some of them don't drive, which
just seems absolutely crazy to me. They seem perfectly content,
a lot of them to sit at home and essentially
do nothing. And those are not the and some of
(27:12):
those people are using cannabis, but some are not. But
there's definitely a group that is using cannabis and other drugs,
even including psychedelics, in addition to alcohol. So what I
would also say is it's not People say to me,
how can you say cannabis is less dangerous than alcohol?
Nobody ever ever odd on cannabis on THHC, which isn't
quite true. People can od on it, mostly they don't
(27:33):
die on it. And here's the answer to that, the
true answer to that cannabis is less physically dangerous than alcohol.
No one could seriously disagree with that. If you drink
too much alcohol, your liver can stop and you'll die.
All right, that is not very likely. I mean, it's
not going to happen if you use cannabis. But cannabis
is more dangerous to your brain than alcohol. People don't
(27:53):
get psychotic except in very very rare times or or
in very life eight stage alcoholism from using alcohol. They
do get psychotic, paranoid and psychotic all the time when
they use cannabis. Okay, it's almost a feature of the drug.
And so so those are people are more dangerous to
(28:15):
the people around them in general than somebody who's using
alcohol and yes, sorry.
Speaker 4 (28:21):
No, I want to ask you finish your thought. I
if something else, go ahead.
Speaker 7 (28:26):
So the question is like, as a society, we're sort
of trading. We're trading a bar fight for like a
mass stabbing or a mass shooting, right, so or maybe
we're training ten bar fights or one hundred bar fights
or a mass shooting. But that is a real trade
that we're making. This idea that somehow substituting cannabis for
alcohol was going to be a good for public health
(28:48):
doesn't look like it's the case at all. And by
the way, people, one last thing is this idea that
when people are high and they drive, they don't speed.
It's not true. This idea that people who use cannabis
have a better mental health is one hundred percent not true.
In addition to this, this what I'm talking about with psychosis.
Speaker 2 (29:06):
So, Alex, I hate I hate weed.
Speaker 4 (29:08):
I hate weed too, Just to be clear, So I'm
i'm you know everything you're saying here, I'm it jives
with what I think and that I want to ask
you something else that's that's related. But because when these
things happen, you have a lot of people that will say, oh,
you know, and I'm seeing this on the right particularly,
which is why I want to talk about it. They go, oh,
it's they start blending ssriris and this. I think there's
(29:28):
a lot of misinformation or a lot of people need
to understand. Like I mean, I just say this, I
knew someone very well many years ago who was bipolar.
And I knew this person someone you know, it was
a woman who I was dating on meds, totally normal,
doing great, very successful in life. Off meds, cannot function,
And so I just think that, you know, people, there's
(29:49):
this thing of like SSRI zombies are running in and
killing people. The right needs to understand that actually, in
the mental health world, there are people who are their
lives are saved by being on these drugs actually, and
a lot of veterans who deal with PTSD whom I
know have gotten tremendous benefit from SSRI. So can you
(30:10):
speak to this a little bit because I think people
just are like everybody on SSRI should get off.
Speaker 2 (30:15):
I'm like, that is a terrible idea.
Speaker 7 (30:17):
It's a terrible So I don't understand. I hate for SSRIs. Okay, Look,
I think SSRIs are overrated as drugs, and most people
who have mild depression are going to recover from that
depression on their own, whether or not they take an SSRI.
But there are some people out there who have really
severe depression who really can't function very well without an SSRI.
(30:38):
And by the way, if you have psychosis, there are
drugs called antipsychotics, and those drugs, those are difficult drugs
for people. They cause a lot of weight gain, they
cause movement disorders in some people. But if you have psychosis,
you need anti psychotic like those drugs help people. And
I think there's a really important distinction to make that
(31:00):
gets lost between essentially recreational drugs drugs of abuse and
SSRIs and antipsychotics. And so people will say when I
say this, like people are like, he's a simp for pharma,
And I say to them, like, do you know who
I am?
Speaker 2 (31:14):
I'm yeah, me.
Speaker 4 (31:15):
Well, this is why this is why I wanted you
to talk about it, Alex, because I when I try
to point out reality people too, I'm like, no one's
like sitting around just popping lots of prozac because it's
so fun.
Speaker 7 (31:26):
That's exactly right. So so the distinction isn't between a
drug you prescribe and a drug that's not prescribed. The
distinction is between drugs that get you high and drugs
that don't get you high. So what gets you high.
Stimulants get you high, So that's like an ADHD drug
adderall that's amphetamine. Those dorugs get people high. Benzos anti
anxiety drugs people take to get high. Nobody takes prozacs
(31:47):
to get high. Nobody takes vyprexa, which is an antipsychotic,
to get high. Those drugs have no street value because
they don't get you high, and.
Speaker 4 (31:55):
The people who need them really really need them in
many cases.
Speaker 7 (32:00):
Is one percent right? And so again like are sthrized
potentially over prescribed? Sure, I'll tell you something right now.
Right now most emphasized are off patent okay, off patent, lexipro,
off pentent okay. That means that the companies don't make
any money basically from them, and they're still being prescribed.
Why because there's some people out there who need them.
(32:22):
And you're totally right to make that point. And again
I'm not like, I agree with you. I don't understand
why the right has suddenly gotten fixated on SSR.
Speaker 4 (32:30):
Yeah, they're demonizing ssris' and they're wrong. Honestly, a lot
of the people that are doing this are just wrong
and they don't know what they're talking about. And I'll
just say it out loud because I know it's true.
Speaker 1 (32:38):
All right, let me ask you this, Alex as we
go to break, because I do think so many people
listen and their moms and dads, their grandma and grandpas.
What would you want them to tell their kids who
are fifteen or sixteen years old and have bought into
this idea that you can use THHC products as much
(32:59):
as you want and there's nothing to be concerned about
with that. In thirty seconds, what would you want them
to know in thirty seconds?
Speaker 7 (33:07):
And then and then I hope you give me one
final segment, But in thirty seconds, what I'd say to
you is, it's not just about TC and it's not
just about alcohol. There's no free lunch. Okay, a drug
that gets you high, that that alters your relationships to
the world, You're going to pay a price for it.
And it may be a small price, and it may
be a price that you're willing to pay to have
(33:27):
that U for or that intoxication in the moment. But
don't make the mistake of thinking cannabis and TC is medicine.
Don't think that if you're you know, popping your adderall
to stay up all night and you want to feel
good like that, that there's not a price to be paid.
These drugs are addictive. They change your brain chemistry, and
you will pay, and you may be able to tolerate
(33:49):
that price, but it is coming. That's what I would
say to them.
Speaker 1 (33:52):
That's what Okay, parents, the kids, we got to go
to break to the hit the read. We'll come back
and get one minute from you to close out the
opuka if you'll stick with us. Yeah, regular season football
is here. Let me give you a pick. Buck is
playing I'm playing Ohio State Texas tomorrow. Phenomenal Tennessee's playing Syracuse.
That's where all these picks are from. You get fifty
(34:13):
bucks right now if you go to prizpicks dot com.
Code Clay Jeremiah Smith, star wide receiver for the Ohio
State Buck Eyes more than eighty three and a half
yards This game is at noon tomorrow. Deshaun Bishop running
back for Tennessee. More than one half of a touchdown
rushing or receiving this will be up at clayanbuck dot com.
Arch manning more than one half touchdown passes if that
(34:36):
hits four to one, regardless, you get fifty bucks when
you play five dollars Prizepicks dot com. College football is here.
Code Clay Texas, Florida, Tennessee, Georgia, California. You can play
everywhere forty plus states, thirteen million playing price picks dot com.
Speaker 2 (34:52):
Code Clay Stories.
Speaker 6 (34:54):
Are freedom stories of America, inspirational stories that you unite
it each day, spend time with Clay and buy find them.
Speaker 2 (35:04):
On the vree iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your.
Speaker 4 (35:07):
Podcasts alex you want, We're just gonna give you the
floor for a second.
Speaker 2 (35:10):
You had more on this when you're en fuego go ahead.
Speaker 7 (35:14):
So listen. Here's what I want to say. The President
of the United States right now has a very important
decision that he's that he's trying to make about whether
or not cannabis should be reschedulized, rescheduled as a as
a less dangerous drug under DEA rules. And so if
he does that, okay, by the way, it's currently called
Schedule one. But that doesn't affect your ability in a
(35:37):
legalized state to buy it. It doesn't mean anybody is
arrested for possessing it or using it. All that stuff
is under the current situation, okay. But the cannabis industry
desperately wants them to reschedulize because it will be a
huge boost to their profits, okay. And that will mean
more pop as, it will mean more dispensaries, It will
(35:58):
mean more kids and young people and young adults smoking
a lot. This is what they want. And they don't
want it because it's gonna change public health or get it.
Or they don't want it because it's gonna get you know,
kids out of jail. Because it doesn't change any laws.
It just will make their lives. We do and you me,
Laura Ingram. We don't have money in this, Okay. We
(36:21):
are talking about this because we think it's important for
the health of kids and young adults. And I know
it's a tough choice, but the president should go with
his gut. I know that he's concerned about substance confused.
I know you know, he's seen its effects on people.
And he should keep cannabis as a schedule warm drug.
And he should listen to people who don't have.
Speaker 4 (36:42):
Money, alexperience and everybody Alex thanks for being here.
Speaker 2 (36:46):
Guys, Hour three coming up. Stick Around
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show News
Hosts And Creators
Clay Travis
Buck Sexton
Show Links
WebsiteNewsletterPopular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
New Heights with Jason & Travis Kelce
Football’s funniest family duo — Jason Kelce of the Philadelphia Eagles and Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs — team up to provide next-level access to life in the league as it unfolds. The two brothers and Super Bowl champions drop weekly insights about the weekly slate of games and share their INSIDE perspectives on trending NFL news and sports headlines. They also endlessly rag on each other as brothers do, chat the latest in pop culture and welcome some very popular and well-known friends to chat with them. Check out new episodes every Wednesday. Follow New Heights on the Wondery App, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to new episodes early and ad-free, and get exclusive content on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. And join our new membership for a unique fan experience by going to the New Heights YouTube channel now!
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.