Marijuana Legalization Policy Prioritizes Profit over Human Life

Callous Disregard for Human Life in Pursuit of Profit and Getting Stoned

In California, a mother will soon go on trial for the drunk driving crash that killed her daughter and daughter’s friend.  The girls were skateboarding on a rural road in Humboldt County when a vehicle hit them.  Toxicology reports revealed that the 14-year-old girls had THC in their blood.  Marci Kitchen allegedly fled the scene of the accident on July 12, 2016 and tried to get rid of the pot in the car.  A judge has called for a jury to decide if she’s guilty of drunk driving and homicide.

In Washington, a man high on marijuana killed  policeman Jake Gutierrez. He was holding his 6-year-old daughter while in a standoff with multiple police that lasted 10 hours.  The perpetrator claimed  to be a sheriff named “Zeus.”   Bruce Randall Johnson, 38, had been unraveling for weeks before police fired the shots that killed him.   “A regular marijuana user, he’d been smoking more lately,” according to KIRO 7. The autopsy revealed:  “Johnson’s body weighed in at a spindly 104 pounds. He had no drugs in his system, apart from high concentrations of THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana.

Left to right–Marijuana Victims Brandon Powell (Oregon), Kiya Kitchen and Faith Tsarnas (California) and Jake Gutierrez (Washington)

In March, Brandon Powell, an 18-year-old, went psychotic after smoking marijuana “dabs ” in Estacada, Oregon.  He left home barefoot in pajama bottoms and went missing until found dead in a river earlier this month.  Also in Estacada last weekend, a man carried a severed head into a convenience store and stabbed a store clerk.  The incident happened after a woman was reported dead in her home.  She was the mother of 36-year-old Joshua Lee Webb who has been connected to the crime.   He allegedly killed his mother first.  Nothing in reports links the killing to marijuana.

West Coast Problem Becoming a National Problem

States that legalize pot promote a substance which can trigger or exacerbate mental health problems.  Most of these hideous, vicious stories occurred on the West Coast of Weed.

It might be easy to pass judgment on people like Marci Kitchen and Bruce Johnson, but what about state policy that normalizes marijuana use?  Kitchen grew pot beside her garage, but she lives in a county where everyone does it.

Marijuana madness is spreading throughout the country.  In Massachusetts, two teens smoked marijuana together before one murdered and decapitated his  classmate.  In Texas,  Davie Dauzat murdered his wife after they had smoked marijuana together last August.  He said it was in a “battle between good and evil.”

Murders under the influence of marijuana often happen because the perpetrators become psychotic and hallucinate.

In Wisconsin recently, a mother murdered her toddler after smoking pot.   In West Virginia, the “Pretty Little Killers” planned and killed a friend under the influence of marijuana.    It is easy to judge and condemn the perpetrators of violent crimes, but what of the culture that promotes marijuana?  What of the culture that tells 14-year-olds it’s ok to get stoned and go skateboarding?

Profit Before People Drives the Legalization Ballots

Marijuana-induced insanity is recognized in every part of the world except North America.  It appears that the United States and Canada prioritize profit over mental health, safety and human life.   Voters pass these ballots even though there is no definitive, reliable test to detect stoned drivers, as there is for drunk drivers.

Legislative analysis for California Proposition 64 was written to emphasize that the state could earn 1 billion dollars annually.

The California government obviously thinks the tax money the state can earn from intoxication and addiction is the highest priority.  The opening statement on the ballot to legalize marijuana used profit as motivating reason to legalize. That’s government motivated by preying on its own people. The press is guilty of the same mentality that emphasizes profits over human costs.

Press Ignored Child Abuse Deaths in Colorado; Will Cover-up Continue?

When marijuana stores opened in Colorado in January 2014,  a toddler died in a fire while his parents smoked pot in another room.  The mother was a medical marijuana cardholder, and the press should have covered the incident.  During the same month another mother  who smoked pot while her two sons died of carbon monoxide poisoning went on trial.  These stories were in the local Press, but did not make national news.

According to NBC News, the driver who rammed into crowds in Times Square yesterday admitted to smoking marijuana before driving.  He killed an 18-year-old girl and injured 22 others.  Condolences to the heart-broken family of Alyssa Elsman.  Other news services reported “he smoked something” or  “mind-altering drug” or “synthetic marijuana.”  Are they covering up behalf of the pot industry?   Like the New York Times, do they want to legalize marijuana and try to downplay the bad news about pot?

In Oregon last fall, a driver smoked pot, went psychotic and deliberately killed a construction worker.  

When stoners argue in favor of legalization, they use the deaths caused by alcohol to promote their cause.  The truth is that neither drunk driving nor stoned driving should be tolerated.  But marijuana has more of a propensity to cause madness and psychosis.  National policy which refuses to warn the public, along with states that promote a dangerous drug industry,  share the blame for deaths.

No state successfully regulates to keep potent marijuana extracts — as used by Brandon Powell — away from teens.  Those who value  profit and tax money over people claim legalization is  successful.    Sadly, profit over human life is becoming the American way.

Psychiatry at Crossroads: Learn from Addiction Medicine

Practicing psychiatry is very tricky.  Heavy-duty pills have serious side effects.  To some observers, psychiatric medications are prescribed only to make money and psychiatrists are seen as evil witches casting spells. The world is not so simple, as there are psychiatrists working to get patients off medications.

A number of websites such as Mad in America and Beyond Meds channel gripes against Psychiatry and its medications.  At the same time, there’s been a flood of people suffering from mental health and addiction problems in need of treatment.  Forbes Magazine recently reported that there’s a shortage of psychiatrists in the USA.

Politics of Mental Health Treatment

We suspect that veterans with PTSD* and marijuana use are promoting the increased demand for psychiatrists.  Back in 2005, SAMSHA and ONDCP tried to warn Americans that teen marijuana use can introduce mental health problems in those with no previous issues. The DSM manual, which is like a Bible for Psychiatry, gives guidelines for diagnosing and treating symptoms.

Parents Opposed to Pot recommends staying free from marijuana and other drug abuse as the best defense against having a psychiatric condition.  The turbo-charged marijuana of today puts a far greater number of people at risk than the weaker pot of the ‘70s.  In Colorado and Washington, dispensaries sell marijuana that averages 22 to 28% THC, compared to 1-4% back in hippy days.

Providence St. Peter’s Hospital in Olympia, Washington reports of 1-2 new psychotic patients every day because of “dabbing” mariju- ana extracts.  A standard treatment is to give an anti-psychotic medication, Risperdal, and then release the patients.  However, if there is underlying addiction, the brain needs to be off mind-altering drugs before a mental health assessment.

Changes in HIPAA Law could put more checks and balances on Psychiatry.  Because of HIPAA Law, families are not allowed to know enough.  An ideal system of mental health treatment would pull together families and psychiatrists and patients. When Representative Murphy introduced a mental health care reform bill two years ago, many people supported it because it promised to change HIPAA.   However, the ACLU and patients’ rights groups fought this provision and a bill passed the House without making this crucial change.

If the Affordable Health Care Act is revised, Congress should not  cut insurance coverage for mental health care or addiction treatment.

Psychiatric Practices and System Called into Question

Often insurance will not pay for optimal addiction treatment unless there is an underlying mental health diagnosis.  Even when there is a mental health diagnosis, treatment also fails if patients are released from hospitals prematurely.

The Washington Post reports of a Maryland mother who suffocated two children after she was released from a psychiatric hospital too soon.  This unfortunate woman, Sonya Spoon, had suffered from abandonment at four months age, lived in orphanages and suffered from a head injury at age 18.  Her adoptive mother had warned the doctors against releasing her from the hospital too early, before an antidepressant could take effect.

Despite complete failure in the mental health care system, the criminal justice system sentenced her to 45 years in prison.   It is tragedy on so many levels for both her and the two toddlers she killed.  Unfortunately, the prison system is filled with both addicts and those suffering from untreated mental health disorders.

Beginning in the Kennedy Administration, a movement to de-institutionalize mental health patients began.  Psychiatry hoped that medications could replace institutions.  Pharmaceutical companies jumped at the opportunity, produced new drugs and marketed them vigorously.  It would be nice if “magic pills” really did work all the time, but they often cause additional problems and outlive their usefulness.

Everyone admits there are failures in the mental health care system, and many of Psychiatry’s critics want to eliminate all pills and forced treatments. However, plenty of people believe psychiatric pills help them. (Please see comments below by Jane Thompson whose medications bring relief to Bipolar Disorder.)  To think all psychiatric medications are worthless is like thinking all mental illness develops because the parents are evil.   Amateurs should never tell others not to take their psychiatric meds.

Psychiatry Lags Behind Other Branches of Medicine

Some branches of medicine, such as those that treat cancer and heart disease, have made great strides in the past century. Unfortunately, Psychiatry has not.  Many doctors besides psychiatrists are known to .  Books by Robert Whitaker, Joanna Moncrieff, MD and others call into question the overuse of psychiatric drugs.   Whitaker’s Anatomy of an Epidemic, 2010, won the IRE award for investigative journalism.  Whitaker is not totally anti-psychiatry as some people maintain. He has stated: … “It (Psychiatry) has a duty to develop selective-use protocols, which seek to minimize long-term use of antipsychotics (and other psychiatric medications). I also believe that our society should provide the resources to enable this rethinking of the drugs.”

No doubt Bipolar Disorder has been overdiagnosed.  Some individuals and professionals have classified drug and alcohol abuse as “medicating an underlying bipolar disorder.”  This interpretation excuses and dismisses the serious consequences of substance abuse.  At the same time, it may be hooking some people into taking pills, without getting them off substances of abuse.

The “chemical imbalance” theory of mental illness has never been proven.  In fact, this theory was never accepted by Psychiatry.  Some people conclude that psychiatrists and pharmaceutical companies have pushed this notion in order to make money and sell pills.  Today the marijuana industry is pushing marijuana for most mental health conditions, including depression, bipolar autism and ADHD in children.  Unfortunately, many with schizophrenia use pot, although it makes their problems worse.

The brain isn’t understood as well as other organs, and many times mind-body solutions are called for, instead of “medications.”

In Saving Psychiatry, Addictions Psychiatry Can Help

If Psychiatry became better at distinguishing the underlying roots of mental health issues, our treatments could be better.  British journalist Patrick Cockburn writes eloquently as to why he believes his son, Henry, became schizophrenic.  The diagnosis was precipitated by heavy marijuana use between the ages of 14 and 19.  After years of trial and error, and Henry’s refusal to take medication, the son has been stabilized with Clozapine.

Perhaps, because of a focus on pills for insurance purposes, Psychiatry often falters, despite the DSM Manual.  There needs to be better discernment of root causes.  Which illnesses are a result of substance use,** or trauma, and/or a combination of both?***  Treating trauma and Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) before people resort to substance abuse would bring down the number of people needing psychiatrists. However, the most adverse cases of trauma or extreme psychosis may need to be medicated, including foster children whose parents suffered from drug abuse.   Even when psychiatric pills cause side effects, the alternative can be worse.

Addictions Psychiatry can help the psychiatric field when the “biological” model fails.  Addictions psychiatrists are trained to think more holistically, addressing the mind, body and spirit of a person.  If Psychiatry certifies more doctors in Addictions Treatment, it can make a difference and become a force for much good.

As for epidemic of Heroin, Fentanyl and opioid pill overdoses, policies focused on harm reduction have failed to stem the number of deaths by overdose.  Most states have passed making it easier for doctors and law enforcement to stop the overdoses.   Yet, this policy doesn’t treat the underlying addiction. Cost and insurance companies should not determine matters of mental health, or life and death.

Notes

*  PTSD is very real but only professionals should diagnose it.  At times, “bipolar disorder” and ADHD were also used too loosely and over-diagnosed.

**A NAMI (National Alliance for Mental Illness) Minnesota publication gives special attention to marijuana among the drugs that can cause psychosis, as well as legal drugs such as steroids and ADHD drugs. Epidemiological research of nearly 19,000 drug abusing Finnish subjects showed that marijuana most consistently led to a diagnosis of long term schizophrenia (Niemi-Pynttäri JA, Sund R, Putkonen H, Vorma H, Wahlbeck K, Pirkola SP. Substance-induced psychoses converting into schizophrenia: a register-based study of 18,478 Finnish inpatient cases. J Clin Psychiatry. 2013 74(1):e94-9).

*** Victims of PTSD who turned to marijuana with deadly results:  Cascade Mall shooter Arcan Cetin, an early marijuana user with PTSD killed five people at a Macy’s in Washington.  Stephen Bourgoin who recently killed five teens in a wrong way crash also suffered from childhood trauma, too.  Eddie Routh was a veteran with PTSD who smoked marijuana before killing Chris Kyle and Chad Littlefield.  NBC Nightly reported that Richard Rojas, the veteran who rammed into several people and killed a teen in Times Square, used marijuana before driving into the crowds.

Miley Cyrus quits pot, other celebrities renounce marijuana

Miley Cyrus is Latest Celebrity to Renounce Marijuana

About a week ago,  24-year-old Miley Cyrus announced that she hasn’t smoked marijuana for three weeks  The star stated that, “I like to surround myself with people that make me want to get better, more evolved, and open. And I was noticing, it’s not the people that are stoned.”

Cyrus began her career at a young age when she landed the role for Hannah Montana in 2004. Two years later she launched her singing career with the release of the Hannah Montana soundtrack which featured her father, Billy Ray Cyrus.  In 2012 in an attempt to distance herself from the Disney persona she decided to chop off her hair, thus creating the Miley with whom we are all now very familiar.  Some of her most “famous” antics were when she twerked on stage with Robin Thicke at the 2013 MTV awards, and also when she pulled out a marijuana cigarette on stage European Video Music Awards.  There were several weed references when she hosted the awards in 2015.

Recently the star is approaching life with a new attitude. Miley insists that the decision to stop smoking pot was entirely her call and also shared that, “I’m completely clean right now!” She is now excited to focus on some new music.  She also began talking to her ex-fiancé again, Liam Hemsworth, as well as working as well as working on her relationship with him. It’s rather amazing to see the change in a person after they stop using drugs.

Miley Cyrus-Marijuana

Woody Harrelson Says Pot Kept Him from being Emotionally Available

Another celebrity who recently renounced their love for marijuana is long-time activist Woody Harrleson, who held a position on the advisory board of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML).  After 30 years of partying and smoking marijuana he said, “The drug kept me from being emotionally available.” In 2016 the actor submitted an application to start open a medical marijuana dispensary on his island home of Hawaii. His request was denied in May and this might have been around the same time as he started to quit smoking pot. As of March 21st of this year Harrelson told the media that he had been clean from marijuana for the past year and he intends to stay clean in order fto live the life he wants.

Celebrities who quit smoking for their kids

Clifford Smith, also known by his stage name Method Man, is a famous rapper who is known for his role in marijuana advocacy. His role in the movie, How High, and lyrics in the song, Tical, are a few examples of how the celebrity promotes marijuana use to his audiences. Although Smith has not completely sworn off marijuana, he has definitely backed off the forefront of advocacy. In an interview he mentions that raising his kids is more important than being high all the time. And it has come as a major shock to fans and people who have seen and heard his work. Method Man is part of the rap group, “The Wu-Tang Clan” which consists of 10 different artists, two of them being nick named RZA and GZA. These two members decided to stop smoking before Method Man; their decision to quit may have rubbed off on their friends!

Mark Wahlberg’s Secret Unveiled in Surprising Way

Boston native, Mark Wahlberg, also recently quit using marijuana because of a conversation he had with his daughter. He said, “One day we were driving and you could smell it from somewhere. My daughter asked what the smell was so I told her it was a skunk. Then she said, ‘Sometimes Daddy smells like that!’ to me and my wife. So I knew I had to quit.”

These are just a few celebrities who have quit using marijuana. For a longer list, please click here.

In Days of Legalization, Pot-Impaired Babysitters Concern Parents

Impaired babysitters are a new problem, as the laws across the country continue to advance the cause of marijuana legalization.    About half the Americans now want to legalize the drug, because the marijuana lobbyists have invented the idea it is safer than alcohol.  Their propaganda comes with a cost in terms of driving deaths and child deaths from abuse or neglect.

Impaired babysitters

One such instance happened in Palm Bay, Florida when babysitter Jacqueline Bjorndal used marijuana, alcohol, and meth at a party the night before she was supposed to watch a little girl. The following day she showed up to work and was instructed to not let the child go near the pool because she could not swim.

During the course of the day the child asked if she could go outside near the pool to pet the family pig to which Bjorndal said she could.

Minutes went by and there was no sign of the child anywhere so Jacqueline called her roommate over and they continued searching for another 20 minutes or so. Eventually, the roommate looked in the bottom of the dirty pool and saw the outline of the child.

Police reports say that there was a bunch of debris and hoses loosely scattered around the pool. The babysitter has been charged with Aggravated Manslaughter by Neglect of a Child.  In the state of Florida if you are convicted of that charge you are likely to expect a: Minimum-mandatory 16 ¾ years in prison, you can receive up to Life in prison, Up to Life on probation & Up to $10,000 in fines.

Another babysitter Went Out to Smoke Pot

There was a case in San Diego where a teen-aged girl was hired to babysit a 16-month-old old toddler. While at the house, the baby was playing inside with his slightly over sister.  The girl got a call from her aunt, stepped outside, and the two females smoked pot out in the car. The baby come out of the house and walked into the behind the car as the visitor’s car pulled away. The baby was killed.   However, two California juries acquitted the babysitter.  The sitter’s first error in judgement was thinking that she could leave the toddler out of her sight.  We don’t know how much time she spent in the car, but smoking marijuana distorts time.

Both these horrendous deaths occurred because young people have been told marijuana is harmless.

Babysitter Ate Pot Cookies by Mistake

In another case in Palm Beach, Florida, the roles got reversed. The mother of the house had gone out and hired a babysitter for the evening and at some point she went into the refrigerator and ate one of the homemade cookies that were in there.

The cookies, unfortunately, had been laced with marijuana which caused the victim to start hallucinating.

The police report stated she felt like she was going to die and kept thinking that she had a brain tumor. The babysitter was taken to a hospital for treatment.

Police spoke to the mother and she said, of course, “that she had never seen the cookies before.” But, when police talked to the children they were aware to not eat the homemade ones but to only eat the store brand ones.

This is not just negligent because the babysitter got sick, it is also because the container was within the children’s reach. This was noted in the police report and relayed to the Department of Children and Families.  Hopefully somebody will follow up with the case.

Trusted Sitter Believed in “Harmless Herb” Message in Missouri

Another instance occurred in St. Louis Missouri after a 10-month child was found with a fractured skull after the child care provider had left for the day. Katie Hartwig, 31, was arrested after the girl’s mother found her, “sleeping face down on a couch.”

Hartwig was no stranger to the family as she had been taking care of the baby for most of the past year. The family thought this was completely out of character for her.

“Our sweet baby Quinn was abused by her babysitter who was also our family friend.  We are all so devastated and still in shock.  Her skull was shattered by a person we cared for and trusted.  She has a long recovery and between  medical bill and time off work we would be so grateful for any help.”

Katie was arrested and charged with first-degree felony child abuse and misdemeanor counts of child endangerment and possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia. The “reason” Katie gives for injuring the child is because she wouldn’t stop crying.

These are just a few examples of completely irresponsible behavior that cannot go on while raising or taking care of a child.  Marijuana should not be around at all in a household especially when others can mistakenly gain access to it.

Child Abuse Deaths Have Been Caused by Babysitters who Toked

 

Child death-Marijuana

As of January 1, 2017 Parents Opposed to Pot traced 80 deaths to child abuse and neglect by parents or caregivers under the influence of marijuana.  In three cases, the babysitters stopped paying attention when the children who died.  In Florida, babysitters were the responsible party in two of the deaths by drowning.   In California, a sitter left the toddler and went outside to smoke pot in the car of a visitor.  But the 16-month-old boy wandered outside and was hit by the car when the visitor back out and left.

Many of the marijuana-related deaths, about 15% of them, occurred because of the mothers’ irresponsible or abusive boyfriends.  It’s not clear how many of these were boyfriends who had been babysitters.  However, we are creating a sad society in which a mother puts her precious baby in the care of irresponsible drug users.  These deaths point to another reason we should caution people not to date marijuana users.

Children testing positive for THC

Recently in Nebraska a babysitter has been investigated after a child in her care tested positive for THC. The girl was taken to the emergency room where doctors determined that the 2-year-old was suffering from exposure to the psychoactive ingredient.

After the police investigated more into the matter it was discovered that the day care provider had baked marijuana brownies and used the same pan to make some cookies for the kids to eat throughout the day.

The babysitter was ticketed for suspicion of child abuse and the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services issued an emergency order to close the daycare.

Whom do you trust?

When it comes to your family, you always want the best for them and that means choosing the right person to watch them when you are not around.  We need to trust that teachers, babysitters and bus drivers would not put our kids in harm’s way.

Children’s minds are molded by what they experience in the household and if this type of behavior is displayed in front of them at an early age, they will begin to accept its normality.

While it is considered the norm to hire a neighbor or good friend you have known for awhile it is always important to really know a good amount about the person before letting them take care of somebody you love.

Today’s teens do not realize the consequences of smoking and then being around small children or infants.  Many parents also don’t realize the problem.

The notion that marijuana is considered harmless has caused a number of tragedies and it leads babysitters (and other professionals) to believe that they are not impaired.

Bursting the Bubble of Marijuana Hype