Washington State Teens Murder over Marijuana

State has teen violence problem, or is it just legalization of pot?

On December 7, in Everett, Washington, 5 teens killed a boy’s mother when she tried to defend her son.   The violent 16- and 17-year-olds who were trying to steal the son’s marijuana and meth. In Alaska, another state where pot is legal for adults, 5 teens murdered another teen over marijuana.  Allegedly, it was because the victim smoked his friend’s joint.

What other substance makes people so greedy and barbarous that they often kill for it?  Only meth can  inspire so much, but meth use has gone way down.  Marijuana, or cannabis, inspires a cult-like  following, with some advocates worshiping the plant as a god.  Several recent incidents back up the scholarly research on marijuana’s deleterious effects on the teen brain, promoting violent behavior and even murder.

Cesar Ortiz-Velasco, 16, was killed in a Safeway parking lot in Vancouver, Washington. From a GoFundMe page.

If the Dec. 7th murder was for meth, not the pot, the following incidents demonstrate when marijuana alone motivates murder. When it’s legal for adults, but not for teens, the violence is especially frequent.

On Novembers 26, also in Washington, a 17- year-old and an 18-year-old in Kent fatally shot a 20-year old over a marijuana deal.

On May 26, a 16-year old murdered another 16-year-old in a Safeway parking lot, located in Vancouver, Washington, a city on the other side Columbia River from Portland, OR.  The victim was going to give a dealer, Jaycob Trotter cash, but Trotter ran over Cesar Ortiz-Velasco.  A 15-year-old was in the car with him.   Trotter used his vehicle as a weapon of destruction, just like the Nice terrorist and Times Square driver Richard Rojas, also marijuana users.

Other under-aged pot users or sellers committed homicide

The King County Sheriff Urquhart falsely claims marijuana doesn’t cause an increase in crime, but these three homicides involved marijuana.   Not all crime victims die.  The two teens who shot and injured each other over a pot deal in Lynnwood, Washington on May 12, 2017, survived.

In September, 2016, a 20-year-old killed an 18-year-old and a 16-year-old over a bag of weed in Tukwila, Washington.   Why would anyone trust marijuana dealers?

Sean Kratz, 20, and Cosmo DiNardo, who lured four men to the marijuana farm, before murdering them, in Doylestown, PA

In February of 2016, a 14-year-old and a 16-year-old murdered another 16-year old over pot.  While we only mention these deaths that involve under-aged marijuana users and sellers, please note that these events represent 7 murders in 5 incidents.   Arcan Cetin, another under-aged Washington state pot user, who shot and killed 5 in Cascades Mall last year, used marijuana for his PTSD.

Other States Have Teen Marijuana Killings

Any legal market for marijuana energizes teen use and energizes those who want to make money in the black markets.   Recently, in Pennsylvania, two 20-year-olds allegedly murdered four young men, ages 18-22, who planned to buy marijuana from them.  They used marijuana to lure the men to the family’s farm.

PopPot previously wrote about the Pretty Little Killers case in West Virginia involving a murder by 16-year-old girls.

Marijuana kills more often when it becomes legal. While people blame “the war on drugs,” its appears that these 19 murderers and 16 victims have emerged from the war for marijuana.  If all are guilty, the incidents in Washington prove that the “war for drugs” kills.

Making home possession available to adults, as in Washington DC, increases the marijuana use in high schools and in middle schools.  States which legalize marijuana bring out the worst in people.