Posted on 05/15/2019 6:15:32 PM PDT by Kaslin
Contrary to the image of potheads as peaceful stoners, "cannabis-dependent psychotic patients were four times as likely to be violent," Alex Berenson writes in his magnificent new book, Tell Your Children: The Truth About Marijuana, Mental Illness, and Violence. "No other factor was nearly as important. Alcohol use, which was common among the patients, made no difference."
So where are all the marijuana-induced murders?
As Berenson says, they're hiding in plain sight. But until you're told about the cannabis-psychosis link, you don't even notice. Crime reporters don't want to look uncool by asking about the perp's marijuana use, and, inasmuch as being high isn't a legal defense, neither prosecutors nor defense lawyers have an incentive to request that suspects be tested for pot.
At the end of his book, Berenson runs through a slew of depraved murders, inexplicably gruesome -- until you find out the perpetrators were high on marijuana. None of these were reported as cannabis-induced homicides.
In 2016, 35-year-old comic book artist and screenwriter Blake Leibel scalped his girlfriend, stripping her skull to the bone, drained her body of blood, then hid out in their West Hollywood condo with her desiccated corpse for more than a week. Only after the girlfriend's mother tricked the police into knocking down the door did they discover the grisly scene.
The girlfriend had complained to her mother that Blake smoked "huge" amounts of marijuana.
In 2017, Dean Lowe, a 32-year-old cannabis dealer in Cornwall, England, beat his girlfriend to death, chopped her body into tiny pieces and made a necklace of her teeth. Like Leibel, Lowe lived with her remains in their apartment for eight days, disposing of her body parts, bit by bit, by flushing them down the toilet and leaving the rest for the garbage collector.
The murder was discovered months later, after Lowe texted a cousin, saying, "Either I'm getting set up or I've murdered (my girlfriend). I had a blackout, hazy memory and woke up with a body on the floor. I am scared so I just got rid."
Lowe had long boasted that he was "the biggest stoner in the world."
In December 2017, William T. Jones Jr. walked up to a complete stranger, 21-year-old Jared Plesec, a Salvation Army volunteer in Cleveland, and shot him in the head. Jones then hysterically raged for a solid four minutes -- captured on Facebook Live by a passerby -- screaming "F*ck Trump!" and "They're going to kill us all!"
Over the next hour, he rampaged through Cleveland, shooting at people and committing several carjackings before finally being captured by the police.
Jones had never been diagnosed with any mental illness. Blood samples taken after his arrest showed the presence of only one drug: marijuana.
After reading Berenson's book, you'll suddenly start noticing pot-induced murders all over.
Just last week in Ventura County, California, a preliminary hearing was held in the case of Bryn Spejcher, an employed, well-educated 28-year-old with no criminal record or history of mental illness. She stands accused of stabbing her boyfriend to death -- after smoking pot for the first time.
On May 28, 2018, police arrived at Chad O'Melia's apartment around 1 a.m. to find Bryn kneeling over his lifeless body. As soon as Bryn saw the deputies, she took the 8-inch serrated knife she was holding and stabbed herself in the neck.
The coroner testified that Chad had been stabbed 108 times, from his head to his knees, cutting his trachea, jugular vein and carotid artery and perforating his heart twice. Bryn's Siberian husky had also been stabbed.
Bryn told police she'd never smoked pot before and wanted to try it, but when she felt nothing, Chad said he'd give her something more "intense." After one puff from the bong, she said she felt like she was dying, ran to the bathroom, then back to Chad and began frantically stabbing him because voices were telling her to keep fighting to stay alive.
A forensic scientist from the crime lab confirmed that no drug other than THC was present in Bryn's blood and no drug other than THC was found in the bong.
The Los Angeles Times has yet to mention this case.
Last Sunday's New York Times magazine featured a story by Wil Hylton about how his cousin tried to murder him for absolutely no reason a few years ago. Hylton blamed toxic masculinity: "the conventions of male identity were toxic ... Masculinity is a religion."
There was a rather more obvious explanation screaming out from his story:
-- Hylton's repeated mentions of his cousin's pot smoking, e.g.: "He always wanted to smoke a bowl";
-- The cousin was apparently thrown out of the military for selling hashish; and
-- The reason his cousin beat Hylton to a bloody pulp in the middle of a child's birthday party was that ... he was hearing voices no one else could hear.
Times readers filled the "Comments" page with indignation at toxic masculinity, but one, a Toronto psychiatrist, wrote: "The article doesn't mention that his cousin's regular marijuana use could be one possible cause of his paranoid hallucinations."
Finally, you may have seen the story about a quintuple-homicide near Baton Rouge, Louisiana, earlier this year. Around 8 a.m. on a Saturday in January, 21-year-old Dakota Theriot is accused of fatally shooting his girlfriend, his girlfriend's father and brother, then driving to his parents' house, where he killed them, too. (His father lived long enough to identify his son as the killer.)
Perhaps Theriot is just a run-of-the-mill schizophrenic. But I happened to notice that his only prior arrests were for: possession of drug paraphernalia and possession of marijuana.
Are “Varma and Sharma” just pen names for Cheech and Chong...?
So you're saying that, like The Pink Panther's Chief Inspector Dreyfus,
"Every day, in every way, you're getting better and better"...?
So the big revelation here is that marijuana is temporarily mind-altering? This is a no-sh**-Sherlock observation, and very different than the Reefer Madness hysteria on this thread.
It is when marijuana use increases as markedly as it has in many Western nations with no corresponding increase in psychosis, which said nations have been well equipped to measure.
An epidemiological study is a very academic and abstract method of looking for effects, full of complex confounding factors
So what confounding factor cancelled out the increase in psychosis due to increased marijuana use?
“So the big revelation here is that marijuana is temporarily mind-altering?”
In a manner consistent with the point of the article - that it can produce psychotic breaks (such as hallucinations or pathologically unrealistic beliefs), which can produce incoherent or criminal actions.
The full extent of those effects is not likely to be accurately measured, recorded or recognized.
“This is a no-sh**-Sherlock observation”
Marijuana is a mind altering drug - that can produce undesirable and criminal behaviors.
In most people, at typical doses, those risks are negligible, in high risk populations or at very high doses (like those made possible by extracts), increased undesirable outcomes are reliably predictable.
“So what confounding factor cancelled out the increase in psychosis due to increased marijuana use?”
Simply, people will not be diagnosed as psychotics, if the episode was a temporary, drug induced condition. A diagnosis of psychosis depends on it being an innate condition.
Marijuana does not cause permanent psychosis - but it can and does induce temporary psychosis, if the dose is high enough for the individual.
Anyone will hallucinate, given enough THC. We are not all therefore psychotics.
During a drug-induced psychotic incident, anyone is vulnerable to committing irrational actions - including violent criminal acts, such as those in the article.
What is a normal, harmless, recreational dose for most people, is enough to produce a psychotic episode in a borderline person. As you increase the dose, you increase the proportion of the population who will lose touch with reality. People handle drugs differently.
People also vary, in the content of their minds, and the nature of their personalities - some are happy drunks, some are mean drunks. Sado-masochists who lose touch with reality may drift toward different thoughts and actions from others, and so on...
I guess if you’re not willing to look at any of the evidence, you’ll come to that conclusion.
You've presented no evidence.
Not to hear some hysterical FReepers tell it.
some are happy drunks, some are mean drunks.
Yup - one should alter one's mind only with great care, if at all, and that's true regardless of the drug.
Heroin is more potent than opium. Crack has a higher content than chewing coca leaves. Which of these show greater harm to users?
Thanks for the reply.
I’m not against legalization; I’m just pointing out a serious downside that no one seems to be discussing. Legalization will lead to more people using and discovering that they are vulnerable.
One thing that might help—make dealers liable in civil courts.
I assume that the Feds will wade in at some point. When have they ever kept their fingers out of anything?
Bottom line: it’s money and taxes.
Look into CBD. It’s another chemical in marijuana that has been shown to be effective for back pain, as noted earlier, it’s thought to balance the effect of the THC when ingested together.
The claims seem exaggerated, and it is expensive, but CBD can be refined so that virtually no THC remains.
It can’t be worse than Tramadol, but you should really speak to a doctor familiar with the treatments. It’s still pretty new.
Quod erat demonstrandum.
Tried CBD. Didn’t do a thing for me. But thanks!
Liquor has a much higher level of the drug alcohol than does beer; what of it?
Heroin is more potent than opium. Crack has a higher content than chewing coca leaves. Which of these show greater harm to users?
Intrinsically, neither - greater harm done by users to themselves is because they sought a greater effect. Marijuana users seeking the same buzz they're accustomed to will have reduced their volume intakes as potency has increased.
I can harm myself as little with a shot of liquor as with a mug of beer.
Quod erat demonstrandum.
You've amply demonstrated that you're a lazy ignorant blowhard. Thanks for the info.
One thing that might help—make dealers liable in civil courts.
Sellers can and should be required to disclose accurate and relevant information about risks; such a requirement can only be effectively enforced in a legal market. Such disclosure erases any subsequent liability for users who elected to assume those risks.
This is a tall order for Washington.
You mean a tall order for the state that is regulating it, not Washington DC, right?
I assume that the Feds will wade in at some point. When have they ever kept their fingers out of anything?
I strongly doubt the feds will intervene to block states from requiring disclosure of health risks. Are there any existing examples of such federal intervention?
Say hi to your friends at Big Marijuana for me.
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