It’s Only Weed!
It’s Only Weed!
Studies show cannabis fuels violent psychosis
When Saturday Night Live was funny, the news segment commented on the suspension of Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps for testing positive for cannabis. “If someone has a weed problem, the last thing you do is give them time off with nothing to do.”
Comedian Ron White was arrested when his plane was searched, and they found one gram of marijuana. He asked, “Do you know how small that amount is? One gram means I’m out of weed!”
For decades, there has been a relatively lighthearted attitude toward cannabis, even within the law enforcement community. Its distinctive odor provided numerous investigative opportunities and some entertaining encounters.
The War on Drugs
Voices for decriminalizing drug use, possession, sale and delivery and trafficking claim the War on Drugs is a failed racist policy that caused the mass incarceration of political prisoners. How do you continue to say that as we have entered a period where the greatest risk factor of death for otherwise healthy people is drug overdoses? We are quickly approaching a grim total where the annual number of overdose deaths is double the American military death toll during the Vietnam era. Today, border policy is directly influencing the volume of drugs entering the country and the rising death rate of drug users. Our first deployments of Narcan were detectives and crime scene investigators who were accidently exposed to Fentanyl at overdose scenes.
Today, it is no secret that cannabis is linked to psychosis. Recent studies also state that until recently there has been very little interest in finding an association between cannabis use and violent behavior. A Swiss journal article states: “This lack of attention may be related to the fact that CU [cannabis use] was perceived as a means of enhancing positive emotions, or calming users, rather than stimulating them.”
The Daily Mail quotes a study finding that high potency cannabis is driving suicide in American young people: “ Figures show found the number of Americans who have marijuana in their system when they try to kill themselves is growing at an alarming 17 percent per year - and the trend is being fueled by a rise in young people.”
A study that includes Yale University and other New Haven, CT partners states:
“Acute exposure to both cannabis and synthetic cannabinoids (Spice/K2) can produce a full range of transient psychotomimetic symptoms, cognitive deficits, and psychophysiological abnormalities that bear a striking resemblance to symptoms of schizophrenia. In individuals with an established psychotic disorder, cannabinoids can exacerbate symptoms, trigger relapse, and have negative consequences on the course of the illness.”
All studies agree on one thing: if you already have some degree of psychosis or are diagnosed with schizophrenia, weed is not for you.
There are three recent fatalities receiving substantial media attention that have relevance to the established link between cannabis use and violent behavior.
NYC Subway
The first and most recent is Jordan Neely. Neely died on subway car after being subdued with a chokehold by a 24 year old Marine and two other passengers. He was prone to outbursts and violent behavior with 42 arrests and having battered two female strangers in the last two years. He was diagnosed with schizophrenia and PTSD. There is no information at this time whether Neely used cannabis.
Neely was wanted on an outstanding warrant and the day prior to his death attacked a subway user and tried to throw them on the tracks. On the train he threatened all the passengers with violence, demanded food and told everyone he had no fear of going to prison. I love New York but it has among the most restrictive self-defense weapons laws in the nation.
Few people know less about Marine training than myself, so I have no idea of whether their training includes the Lateral Vascular Neck Restraint, an effective method of safely subduing violent people for over 50 years. However, if there was an officer on the train, he or she would have to level up to lethal force as this technique is banned by most of law enforcement whose leaders bowed to the mob on Eight Can’t Wait.
To find brilliant perspective on this case, read this Substack article:
Paterson, NJ
The second case resulted in the takeover of the Paterson Police Department by the New Jersey Attorney General.
The Paterson (NJ) Police Department responded on March 3, 2023, to an armed person experiencing a mental health crisis with paranoid delusions who had barricaded himself in the bathroom of his brother’s apartment. The seven calls to 911 were made by Najee Seabrooks.
The person in crisis was the caller, Najee Seabrooks who “was wielding multiple knives, set a fire inside the apartment, broke water pipes, hit one officer with a porcelain toilet cover and sprayed a chemical-like substance in another cop’s face.” Seabrooks also intoned that he was armed with a gun. Police shot Seabrooks after hours of negotiations when he emerged from the bathroom with a knife and refused to drop it, according to the attorney general’s office.
Seabrooks was a community crisis intervention specialist with the Paterson Healing Collective, a hospital-based gun violence initiative where gun violence harming black and brown communities is declared a public health crisis.
Body camera footage from the initial response recorded family members speaking to officers stating … ‘he only smokes marijuana and it must have been laced with something.’
Maybe not.
Liza Chowdhury, director of the Paterson Healing Collective organization where Seabrooks worked, asserted that members of her group who were at the scene could have gotten their colleague out of the standoff safely if the police had allowed them to intervene.
The rest of the story is in my March Substack article:
Memphis, TN
The third case for your consideration is the case of Tyre Nichols who died following a traffic stop in January 2023 in Memphis, TN.
I’m not going to discuss the actions of the officers charged with 2nd Degree Murder. However, Nichols behavior resembled the actions where a degree of psychosis is present. This is compared with suspects bailing from a joyride and later claiming they were ‘scared’ of the police. In fact, his behavior out of the car is consistent with the [bodycam] officer’s description of his reckless driving.
I’ve been interested, for five months, to see the report of the medical examiner, and while it was teased and previewed by the prosecutor, it was published last week. Nichols had a decent Delta-9 THC number that was analyzed by Action News 5: “Toxicology results showing THC or marijuana at levels retired Arkansas medical examiner Dr. Frank Peretti says is similar to someone who smoked marijuana recently.” However, the next question was answered by [Attorney] Working who says, “unlike drugs like Methamphetamine, Marijuana also rarely makes people violent.” Again, maybe not.
It turns out it happens more than you think. A recent study in Denmark finds male cannabis abuse to have grown from 1:1000 to 1:40 and the United States is far worse. We don’t know how much worse as we have no means to accurately measure weed addiction and schizophrenia.
Three Takeaways
First: Pause after every high liability injury or death and compare them to the Fentanyl intoxication checklist and the cannabis induced psychosis checklist before we start teasing the media about the bodycam recorded actions of officers.
Second: Toss the Eight Can’t Wait agenda down a dark hole and re-equip officers with the non-lethal tools and techniques that prevent offender injury and death. The radicals who claim they want to abolish prisons will always keep one open for cops and citizens who practice reasonable self-defense.
Third: Let’s acknowledge and agree that the war on drugs is more important than ever and with every seizure and interdiction, American lives are being saved.
Please pray for our officers, especially the CBP on the border.
References:
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2022.746287/full
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2014.00054/full
https://www.police1.com/police-trainers/articles/why-the-lvnr-isnt-a-choke-hold-JLvOumilNP8HnlIA/
https://substack.com/notes/post/p-119484531
https://nypost.com/2023/05/06/nyc-failed-to-address-jordan-neelys-mental-health-issues-victim/
Well-written and intellectually honest reminder to those that think weed is a panacea. I’m pro legalization for adults though.
Great piece! There's concern that today's weed contains much more THC than in years past. Coupled with the fact that there are indeed studies demonstrating that THC can alter the development of young brains, marijuana use is not as innocuous as some would lead us to believe.