Guns are a hot topic. This year a 21-year-old “isolated stoner “killed multiple people at the 4th of July Parade in his hometown. The most notable mass shooters in Illinois– the Highland Park Shooter and the Aurora factory shooter – were marijuana users, presumably heavy users. Both men were able to bypass FOID laws to buy or own guns.
Gary Martin, the disgruntled employee from the Henry Pratt factory in Aurora, IL, used a gun to kill five fellow employees in 2019. When police arrived at the scene, they shot and killed him.
After the shooting deaths of 10 people in Boulder yesterday and 8 people in Atlanta last week, we beg to know what drugs may have been used by the shooters.
The Boulder shooter’s brother described him as anti-social and paranoid, traits that often….but not necessarily… come with heavy pot use.
Americans Against Legalizing Marijuana, one of Poppot’s allies, is calling for a national law requiring that toxicology reports be made public. In a statement today, AALM said:
“With the dramatic increase in the potency and use of marijuana, senseless violent acts are and will become more common. Toxicology reports of recent mass murderers must be released to the public.”
In December, the Ventura County District Attorney released a report on the Thousand Oaks, CA, shooting and killing of 12 people. “Toxicological testing on Ian David Long detected marijuana, caffeine, and tobacco, but no other drugs, medications or psychoactive substances.” It’s yet another incident showing the relationship between cannabis and mass violence, a factor rarely discussed by the press. The incident occurred in November 2019, and the full report took two years to be made public. Continue reading Weed users who committed or attempted mass violence→
Belief in drug use seems to be common in those arrested
The FBI arrested Tim Gionet, also called “Baked Alaska,” for his involvement in the U.S. Capitol riot on January 6. Gionet is a far-right media personality. Gionet said he was given his nickname “because he is from Alaska and that he smoked marijuana at the time.”
Libertarian urges describe extremists on both sides, as they don’t care how drug use affects others. Looking into the background of some of the recent arrestees reveals the frequent involvement of marijuana or prior marijuana arrests. In fact, anecdotal stories of lighting joints in the Capitol appeared in the news.
One man flashed a big smile and posed for cameras while holding Nancy Pelosi’s lectern. Could that smile reflect a marijuana high? It turns out that he’s from Florida and his name is Adam Johnson. He had a prior criminal history which includes “possession of marijuana and violation of probation charges.”
Another bold insurrectionist, Cleveland Meredith, came from Colorado to Washington, armed with weapons and high potency edibles. “By his own admission, the defendant is a habitual user of marijuana and has a history of mental illness.” This statement comes from the government’s case for a pretrial hearing.
Aymann Ismail, a reporter who covered the incident for Slate said, “When I was there in the riot, I saw aggressive instigators but also young people who were getting high, celebrating, and seemed to have no idea of what they’d done.”
What common policies do protesters on the left and right have in common?
Clearly protesters on both sides have diverse reasons behind their activities. Those on the far left want to get rid of police, while those involved in the Capitol insurrection included paramilitary groups and police.
The left and right have some points in common, despite their differences. Superficially, they’re very different, but delving into the issue more deeply shows deep alienation, something relieved by drug use, only to come back with a vengeance.
Militant provocateurs with megaphones urging rally goers to “Breach the Capitol.”
the opposite end of the political spectrum, they stand for: police and prison reform, concern about the housing problem, end sex trafficking, stop the endless wars abroad, challenge the two-party system and end the drug war.
They don’t realize that the USA stopped using the term “war on drugs” more than 10 years ago. The Drug Policy Alliance turned the war on drugs into a negative, by convincing people that drug use is harmless. This ignorance causes so much damage, as drug use itself causes far more harm than government attempts to stop drug use.
Another misunderstanding of these activists and their views is that we cannot have solve housing, homelessness problems or address police and prison reform until drug use in America goes down. Drug use is going up, not down, which will lead to worse public health, and more rioting and restlessness.
Whatever initial spiritual connection comes from common drug use, it rapidly breaks down and disintegrates, as happened during the Summer of Love in 1967.
*Reader discretion is advised, content describes details of violent crimes.
October is Domestic Violence Awareness month. Despite the public perception of pot users being laid back and too lazy for anger, the evidence suggests otherwise. Most people perceive alcohol as the substance most often connected to domestic violence. But other drugs, like marijuana, contribute handily to the mix.
We’ve failed to stem domestic violence in the US, despite strong efforts to provide services and numerous shelters for women. Many advocates against domestic violence assert that unequal power and control are the only driving forces involved in violence. Actually, substance abusers perpetrate more than 80 percent of domestic violence, according to estimates. Some studies put the rate at 94% of domestic violence.
