Tag Archives: cannabis-induced psychosis

Finding A Higher Love: Heather Shares Her Son’s Story

A Higher Love, by Heather Bacchus, is the latest of a number of books by parents who write the story of losing a child because of cannabis.  Despite her intense grief and the unexpected loss of her son, Randy Michael Bacchus III, Heather provides a model for finding hope and love as she shares the story of her loss. The book’s subtitle is  “A Journey through Addiction, Cannabis-Induced Psychosis, Suicide and Redemption.”

Randy was born in November of 1999 and died in July of 2021.  He started using marijuana at age 15. As Heather recounts her story, the reader is tempted to look for clues.  What were the reasons to worry?  Although the parents, Randy and Heather, discovered their son’s pot use and did not shrug it off, they didn’t know how dangerously different today’s marijuana is.  Nor did they understand all the new forms of high-potency marijuana, including dabs and vapes. Continue reading Finding A Higher Love: Heather Shares Her Son’s Story

New book provides platform to warn other parents

We’re sick and tired of being ridiculed, ostracized and shamed by those who deny the way marijuana can ruin lives!  At last, many parents put their platform in print! When your child has a drug problem — and that drug is marijuana — they may not know it. But there is no limit to the entire family’s suffering. 

For Laura Stack, the outcome was the worst, the death of her son Johnny. Laura told that story in her book, The Dangerous Truth About Today’s Marijuana.  She also gave valuable insights into the science behind the harms of cannabis

Johnny’s Ambassador Publishing recently released its second book, The Impact of THC on Our Children: A Parent’s Worst Nightmare. In the new book, twenty-four other parents or families tell their story of the THC nightmare. Amazon.com sells the book in paperback, hardcover, Kindle and audible formats. The stories reveal the dangers of THC use and addiction on teens and young adults. The outcomes include severe mental illness, psychosis and suicide. Continue reading New book provides platform to warn other parents

Reefer Madness in Massachusetts and New York

Jared Ravizza’s knife attack on four girls, ages 9-17, in a Massachusetts movie theater shocked the nation last weekend.  Three of the girls were sisters and their mother spoke out in an interview.  Another attack occurred an hour later at McDonalds in Plymouth, MA, about 30 miles from the movie theater in Braintree.  (Fortunately, no one died, but these incidents are shocking and scary for the victims.)

As our social media watch dogs found out, Jared Ravizza filled his social media with photos related to smoking and drug paraphernalia. In April, he attacked his father, who claimed his son had a mental break.

Ravizza, 26, is also suspected of a murder in a small Connecticut town earlier that day. More details will emerge after a thorough investigation.  The Boston Globe reported on his colorful past and his more recent mental health episodes. 

Recent knife attacks suggest an increase in violence brought on legalizing pot in many states.  Maybe it’s time for an American to publish about suicides and violent assaults in our country, the same way Ross Grainger did it for Great Britain and Ireland.

Attacker Smoked Cannabis is available on Amazon


What is happening in New York?

A 70-year-old Australian woman was attacked last Thursday, May 30, at a New York subway station. A complete stranger whacked her in the head and yelled profanities. He made a gun gesture and allegedly said he would kill her. Fortunately, the cops came to her rescue and caught the attacker, Ryan Smalls, according to the New York Post.

“He was lighting up a joint in their face while they were arresting him,.” according to the woman’s daughter.  (See the photo in the Post)

Since New York legalized cannabis in 2020, violent incidents have occurred in the subways, some suggestive of cannabis-induced psychosis.  Below is a sampling of some of these incidences:

A man riding the subway with his daughter was threatened with a knife for asking a passenger to stop smoking pot. In fact others have been assaulted for merely asking the perpetrators to stop smoking pot.  A Brooklyn subway rider was assaulted by teen girls waved a boxcutter at a Brooklyn subway rider when he asked them to stop smoking marijuana on the train. There was another scuffle on November 14, 2023.

Government has the duty to protect its citizens, and states that legalize pot aren’t doing it. Cannabis is very idiosyncratic drug. Legalization states should post highly visible warning signs about psychosis. Stores sell high-potency THC products that didn’t exist before legalization.  Cannabis-induced psychosis may come on suddenly, or it may develop over time.   

We’ve written two recent articles on today’s reefer madness, because victims have not survived in Florida or Illinois.  (Read our article on why pot does not need be laced to cause extreme violence.)

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Is marijuana laced when it causes extreme psychotic reactions?

Christian Soto, smoked marijuana “laced” with something his friend gave him and went on a killing spree in Rockford, Illinois, on Wednesday afternoon. Soto stabbed his childhood friend Jacob Schupbach, ran over him and killed three others in a violent rampage.

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.

Marijuana need not be “laced” with anything to trigger an extreme psychotic reaction, a fact we’ve publicized since 2014.  (See Myth #2 of 10 Myths Marijuana Advocates want you to believe.)

This case echoes the Bryn Spejcher stabbing case, where the victim provided the marijuana that led to his death. Spejcher also stabbed herself, which Soto did not do. But he also killed Schupbach’s mother and two people unknown to him, a teen girl and a mail carrier.  News reports describe Soto and Schupbach as “childhood friends.”

The house where it began, at 2300 Holmes Street, stands about 3.5 miles from a pot shop, one of three “dispensaries” in Rockford.

Shortly after news broke of this mass murder, Governor Glenn Youngkin of Virginia vetoed a marijuana commercialization bill, noting that today’s high potency pot can cause immediate psychosis.  

Other Cases of Cannabis-Induced Psychosis

While the public may be horrified that a person in cannabis-induced psychosis can be acquitted, there’s precedence in other countries. Recently an Irish court suspended the trial of James Kilroy, who strangled his wife while in psychosis from THC. In Dublin, a jury found another man who suffered a cannabis-induced psychosis not guilty of his wife’s murder by reason of insanity.

One motive for keeping cannabis illegal acknowledges that, while somewhat infrequent, use of cannabis can trigger such unspeakable tragedies.  Few states with legalized marijuana require mental health warning labels or warning signs of psychosis on the walls in “dispensaries.”   Cannabis-induced psychosis can be acute, as in the Rockford stabbings, or chronic, as in the Kilroy case.

Different people react differently

If Soto was able to explain himself, his acute psychosis may have subsided by the time he told prosecutors his story. Was the marijuana purchased at one of Rockford’s three “dispensaries” or did it came from a drug dealer?  Such details may be revealed in the trial and after an investigation. Let’s hope the police release toxicology reports on Soto and Schupbach to the public.  Different people react to the same drugs differently.

Illinois legalized marijuana in 2020. Many incidents in the state suggest that opening state-regulated pot shops does not guarantee “safer” cannabis.  

Some people buy Delta-8 THC at smoke shops which also can cause extreme psychotic reactions. Illinois hasn’t banned these products, as about one-third of states have done.

Shame on the politicians who increased access to marijuana by legalizing it and made our lives less safe in the USA.

Other cases in the news

Sadly, these cases are not isolated events. We note a long and ongoing series of marijuana-fueled violent psychotic breaks. Take a look at a few examples:

  • Jake Notman stabbed his girlfriend more than 30 times and ran her over after eating a pot brownie. Like Spejcher, he was cleared of murder because he did not know “what was real and what was not”.   At the trial, Justice May said: “There is an obvious lesson…that cannabis can be very dangerous. It is an illegal drug for good reason.”
  • Lavrius Watson stabbed to death the mother of the children he was babysitting after eating a weed cookie and suffering an “adverse reaction”. He later pleaded “no contest” to murder.
  • Marquis Brown, a Duquesne University student, went to a friend’s apartment, smoked some weed, and then began acting erratically. When campus public safety officers arrived and tried to calm him down, Brown threw a chair through a window and leaped 16 stories to his death

The individual stories are framed by a larger narrative, as more and more research links the use of marijuana to increases in violence, self-harm,  and suicidality.   The  US ignored the warnings,  creating a more violent, drug-fueled society.  We could have prevented the Rockford tragedy, if the state hadn’t legalized marijuana.  Cannabis, not “laced” cannabis, triggers psychosis.