Reefer Madness Can Strike Suddenly: Cases in Illinois

One year ago — on August 14, 2023, Isaac Thurston stabbed his father at 6:30 a.m. in a quiet Glenview neighborhood. His mother was still in bed, but woke up to call emergency services.

Why did the 20-year-old barista, a recent New Trier High School graduate, murder his well-respected, 50-year-old father, Perron Thurston?

“I don’t know why I did it,” Isaac Thurston said, according to a bond proffer of the Cook County prosecutors. The son had never been arrested before. However, that morning the father objected to his son smoking weed before going to work at the coffee shop. An argument followed and Isaac took out the kitchen knife.

From his obituary and the comments on Legacy, Perron Thurston was a beloved teacher and community volunteer.

Reefer Madness or another drug?

Christian Soto, perpetrator of the Rockford stabbing spree in March, blamed his actions on ‘laced’ marijuana.

Four victims died: Jacob Schupbach, 23, Romona Schupbach, 62, Jay Larson, 49, and Jenna Newcomb, 15. The bloody rampage took place within 21 minutes, also in a quiet residential neighborhood. Besides those victims, Soto attacked and injured seven other people, mainly with knives.

Soto, 22, is charged with four counts of first-degree homicide, seven counts of attempted first-degree homicide and two counts of home invasion. Soto’s previous brushes with the law were minor, speeding over 20 mph and property damage in a forest preserve.

From the New York Times:

“While detectives say the motive is not clear, they said that Mr. Soto told them he believed that drugs given to him by his friend were ‘laced’ with ‘ ‘an unknown psychotic,’ Mr. Hanley said, adding that Mr. Soto ‘said he became paranoid after the drug usage.’” Soto went to Mr. Schupbach’s house to smoke marijuana.

If Soto went to Jacob’s house to smoke pot as he claimed, one presumes that he had smoked pot before. Cannabis can be unpredictable, with different people responding differently to the same strains of the cannabis drug. So was this a case of Reefer Madness caused by cannabis or caused by another drug? Was the cannabis purchased at one of Rockford’s three cannabis stores, or was it something else from one of the many smoke shops that sell hemp derivatives?

As we discussed previously, the marijuana did not need to be laced to provoke an extreme psychotic reaction.

(See Myth #2 of 10 Myths Marijuana Advocates want you to believe.) Countless stabbings have occurred in response to cannabis use, as cataloged by an author in Great Britain

Missing Man found by a river, much like the case from Oregon

Jelani Day, a 23-year-old graduate student from Illinois State University went missing on August 24, 2021. The last place he had been seen was a cannabis shop in Bloomington. His body was found on September 4th by a river 60 miles away. (Jelani’s Day’s disappearance reminds us of the Brandon Powell case, an Oregon teen who became psychotic after dabbing marijuana. He went missing and was found dead by a river, six weeks later.)

The only significant substance in Jelani Day’s toxicology report of October 2021 was high amounts of THC, plus caffeine and nicotine. When a headline claimed “No significant clues in newly released Jelani Day toxicology report,” the journalist displayed ignorance of THC. Even well-respected news sources such as NPR remain ignorant of academic studies linking marijuana to violence and suicide.

New clues emerged in April 2022, when Jelani’s cell phone and journal were found on the side of an Illinois road.

Even if he were the victim of violence, it’s possible that he had a psychotic reaction to the cannabis he purchased. Jelani Day’s mother, Carmen Day, may be entitled to sue the pot shop for negligence and lack of warning.

This is our 4th recent article on Reefer Madness. Read about cases in Florida.

Cases in Massachusetts and New York are also shocking.

These articles follow Ten Years After the Death of Levy Thamba and Kristine Kirk.