The city of Portland has been plagued with nightly violence, arson and attacks on police for three months. Last month Portland experienced the highest homicide rate in one month in the last 30 years.  In fact, in each month except March, the number of shootings exceeded the previous year’s rate for that month.

How does one explain extreme changes in the city over 5 years?   How much does the explosion of new marijuana stores fuel the current violence in Portland?  Oregon opened commercial “recreational” marijuana stores in July 2015, and now Portland boasts 304 licensed marijuana shops.

Obviously there’s much going on that does not concern Black Lives Matter in this city that is 6 % African American and 77 % white.  While COVID-19 frustrations and concern over the treatment of African Americans may have started the protests, a different force fuels nightly crimes.  Anti-police sentiment runs strong, but the current violence has nothing to do with the right to protest and free speech. 

Could the anti-police protests be associated with cannabis use among young adults in that city? Negative effects of marijuana include irrational fears (paranoia), impaired judgement, delusional thinking, and aggressive or violent behavior. Remember how San Francisco’s Summer of Love came to a very bad end back in 1967?  History often repeats itself.

Defunding the police

In June, Portland’s mayor announced the city would stop using its marijuana tax revenue to fund police. The cannabis industry association requested the defunding, objecting that $2 million in the city’s marijuana tax goes to the police.

The first unit to go was the gun violence reduction unit.  Portland’s fiscal year began July 1, so it’s easy to measure the outcome of disbanding the gun violence reduction unit. There were 99 shootings in July, resulting in 15 deaths. August looks to be much the same, now that people 8 people were shot in the last week. 

The mayor and city council decided to reduce the police budget specifically by defunding three specific units.  As schools begin, Portland’s high schools will no longer use the police department’s school resource officers.   Then in January, the police department will no longer patrol the transit system.  As city officials give into demands of the rioters, the more the rioters mock and take advantage of them.

Portland police union president Darryl Turner called getting rid of the gun violence reduction team “a big mistake” that would threaten the safety of residents.  Last week, rioters set the police union building in North Portland on fire. 

Portland residents Heather Heying and Bret Weinstein explain their views of what’s happening in a series of podcasts, the Dark Horse Podcast. Only a tiny proportion of Portlanders agree with the defunding policy, but the rioters win.  Seattle, another city full of pot shops, is also defunding its police, but a petition to refund the police gathered over 200,000 signatures

Marijuana stores busier and pot shop thefts explode

Cannabis sales have gone up 20% since March. Furthermore, 60 weed store thefts have occurred since May.  Really? Weed was supposed to make people mellow, or so they claim. 

From this article, Weed Robbery Spree Strikes Portland: Joe Russo, who co-owns a cannabis distribution company, says the sales increase makes sense. People are working less [coronavirus related job loss] and many are getting generous unemployment benefits.

“It makes sense that recreational vices are picking up,” Russo says.

Police officers speak up

Is it possible that Portland’s violent protestors deliberately loot the purveyors of their favorite drug? Are these nightly rages against the federal courthouse drug-fueled rampages? We submit the following evidence to the court of public opinion.

This below video is a press conference with some of the front lines police officers giving their perspective. The first to speak is Sargent Brent Maxey, who described a nightmarish attack on his Central Police Precinct building, and the civilian workers inside. Maxey says:

“It got to the point where they were throwing burning material into the lobby through the gaps in the windows, and blowing marijuana smoke, it was almost like a scene out of a horror movie. It was really unnerving…they had removed all the plywood, they had disabled all the exterior cameras, they started coming at the windows with hammers, they had removed some 2×4 lumber and were smashing at the windows of the precinct at what I believe was a sincere effort to get inside… by words and actions their intent was to harm us and essentially burn down the building…”.

–from Police on Portland Protests video, below

https://youtu.be/wMe2hou_sgE

Officer Rehanna Kerriage describes many of the calls received by the downtown Portland precinct:

“consist of livability issues: camping issues, mental health, drug issues, some shootings, stabbings, protest related issues and defending police property.”

–from Police on Portland Protests video, above

We know that many drug users end up homeless and living on the street (camping issues) with deteriorating mental health issues. 

Homelessness is up, too.

The homelessness population has completely changed since 2014.  Back then, it wasn’t even noticeable.  Are people moving to the city because of the weed and then becoming homeless?

A drug legalization lobby, spearheaded by Drug Policy Alliance, aggressively demonizes law enforcement with oft-used phrases such as, “war on drugs,” “mass incarceration,” “militarized police force,” “low level drug crimes.”  Their game is to make the public believe that possession of drugs, rather than crimes committed while on drugs, lands people in jail. This year, the Drug Policy Alliance donated nearly $ 2.5 million for a ballot to decriminalize all drugs in Oregon.  Drug Policy Alliance, a Soros-funded group, gave most of the $ 9.2 million used for Measure 91, the ballot to legalize pot, back in 2014.

Marijuana use is a frequent element of these mass protests the “Chaz/Chop zone” in Seattle, the Ferguson protests and the attack on the Central Portland Precinct.  While it may be scientifically difficult to associate marijuana use to the mob violence breaking out in several cities, it is still important to observe and pinpoint what role marijuana use plays as a root cause of the violence.

Cannabis’ negative effects can promote some of the behaviors we witness in the triggering incidents and the follow-on protests and riots. Among those are, resisting arrest, confusing fact with fiction, attractions to violent ideologies, mood disorders, paranoia and psychosis, violent outbursts.  Jeremy Christian, who committed the violent knife attack on a Portland train three years ago, was a cannabis fanatic.

For more information about cannabis related violence, see Think Ya Know? Is Marijuana a Risk Factor for Violence? Or, read Alex Berenson’s book, Tell Your Children the Truth about Marijuana, Mental Illness and Violence.

Sargent Brent Maxey gave a longer interview to a local Portland reporter. Check it out, I Want People to Know the Truth – A Police Officer’s Perspective on the Portland Protests.