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.”
Last summer, a police captain described the “blowing of marijuana smoke” into a Portland police building under seige. Oregon has the most per capital pot shops of any state. Certainly, the idea of free, open drug use played into the motivations behind CHOP, a police-free zone in Seattle.
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.
A BLM organizer and Proud Boys chapter leader came together for a podcast. In the case of these two activists at the
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.