
THINK YA KNOW IS IT SAFE TO DRIVE ON MARIJUANA?
December is Drunk and Drugged Driving Prevention Month.
* Reader discretion is advised, content describes details of violent crimes.
Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) helped wake up the country to the dangers of drunk driving. They succeeded in getting laws changed, nationwide in the United States. Now that four more states have legalized marijuana, what about stoned or high driving? Driving under the influence of a drug (DUID), is this something to be concerned about or, is it, as many stoners believe, people drive better while impaired?

“According to a study released today by the largest federation of auto clubs, the AAA, nearly 70% of Americans think it’s “unlikely” a motorist will be busted for driving while high on marijuana. The study also found that in the last 30 days almost 15 million drivers have gotten behind the wheel of a car within an hour of smoking, ingesting or covering themselves with a marijuana product. That can be as bad – or even worse – than driving while intoxicated or texting on a cellphone, because the drug’s effects usually last up to four hours.”
More drivers are driving under the influence of pot than ever before, and the reason is that most drivers assume they won’t get caught, according to this new study by the American Automobile Association. |
Unlike with alcohol, a blood test does not determine marijuana impairment. It can only prove there is THC is in the bloodstream. There is a high correlation between blood alcohol content (BAC) and levels of alcohol-impairment, but THC is unlike alcohol chemically, biologically and metabolically. |
Use the Right Terms
Driving under the influence of marijuana is driving impaired, not driving “high”. There is nothing positive about an impaired driver who causes fatal injury to others.
Traffic incidents caused by impaired driving should be referred to as crashes, rather than “accidents.” Driving under the influence of a substance, and without your full mental capacity, is a choice. During the sentencing of the driver who killed 9-year-old Carter Vo, Cook County Circuit Judge Lauren Gottainer Edidin said Carter’s death wasn’t accidental because the driver, Hanin Goma, smoked marijuana on the day the boy was killed.
“These are the most tragic cases we get as judges,” Edidin said. “I don’t see it as an accident. I see it as a traffic crash.”
Marijuana DUID in the News
Today, the press often reports of “driving under the influence” as if it must mean alcohol, not mentioning when an impaired driver was under the influence of marijuana, another drug or both alcohol and marijuana. The false reporting minimizes to readers the fact that there is a danger to driving after using marijuana. Combined with the pot users who brag of driving better while stoned, it’s clear why teens, who assume that stoned driving is safe, have been given the wrong impression.
Parents Opposed to Pot has tracked news reports of at least 140 fatal crashes in which only marijuana, and not other drugs, contributed to the impairment causing the crash. These cases are particularly notable for the many teens who died this way, making the mistake of riding in a car with friends who recently used marijuana.
Driver Education Needs to Teach about Drugged Driving
A recent survey of students found that they were much more aware that drinking alcohol and driving was hazardous than driving under the influence of marijuana. Although 88% of the students knew alcohol impaired driving to a dangerous degree, only 68% thought cannabis could do the same. This excellent government website, Just Think Twice has great information to educate young people. See Getting High and Driving.

Read article about University of Michigan Medical School Survey.
PopPot wrote an article in 2018 warning about mixing alcohol and cannabis and getting behind the wheel.The effects of using both drugs multiplies the mind-altering effects. Alcohol and Marijuana together Magnifies Driving Difficulties.

The Governors Highway Safety Administration offers some good educational graphs and other training materials. Although their aim is educating state policy makers, parents and teachers we need to do the grassroots education of our children and teens. We also need to make sure our state representatives see this valuable information. |
Pilots Grounded for 28 Days After Marijuana Use
Canadian pilots are warned that because of the length of time it takes for cannabis (including CBD) to leave your system, they must not fly for 28 days if they consume the drug. See Transport Canada. |
What the Science Reveals

A study authored by researchers from New York Medical College and Harvard University, found marijuana commercialization to be associated with an increase of 2.1 traffic fatalities per billion vehicle miles traveled (BVMT). Furthermore, the study finds that were marijuana to be legalized nationwide, it would be associated with 6,800 excess roadway deaths each year. See the study in JAMA, Change in Traffic Fatality Rates in the First 4 States to Legalize Recreational Marijuana by Russell S. Kamer, MD; Stephen Warshafsky, MD; Gordon C. Kamer.
Harvard researchers found that recreational cannabis use decreases driving performance, even when the person is no longer high. See this article in the Insurance Journal. The lead paragraph in CNN reporting on the same study said, “Running red lights. Driving at high speeds. Crossing center lines into the opposite lanes. Getting into accidents – even hitting pedestrians. A new study found these were some of the dangerous driving behaviors of regular, heavy users of recreational weed who began using before the age of 16.” See Weed Impairs Driving Long After the High is Gone.

In this radio interview, Dr. Marilyn Heustis and Tom Marcotte discuss the fact that drivers high on marijuana are more impaired for longer periods that we realize.
DUID Crash is a Violent Crime
A Mother’s Story
Many people think that violence involves only guns, knives, fists and other such things. But think for a minute about this, isn’t killing someone with your car a violent crime? I think the person being hit would say it’s very violent.
Everyday, innocent people are walking and riding bikes on and around the streets, as well as other people in cars going to work, and some containing families; and all containing people that are loved by others. People out and about partially depend on others, as well as themselves, to be sure they are safe, sober and alert as they go about their lives.
These are senseless tragedies involving cars that take precious lives each day. Statistics show that 29 people die each day from impaired driving, but in many cases the use of marijuana goes undetected. Once law enforcement finds alcohol and charges the perpetrator, they stop looking for other intoxicants and no drug testing is administered.
We need to be aware of the great numbers of people driving impaired. The sad news is, it’s estimated that an impaired driver has driven impaired up to 80 times before they are ever caught. I fear that was the case when my most beautiful daughter was killed in a violent crash on July 24, 2012. The 26 year old man was driving high on medical marijuana, sanctioned via a medical marijuana card, granted to him by the State of Michigan. He said in a mumbling low voice when asked, “why were you driving so fast (82mph) and why did you go through the red light in the intersection”? “Gee, I don’t know”, he responded. Well, here’s another question, if he didn’t know, then who did? THC impairs the brain, causes tunnel vision, distorts the sense of movement and space perception. It delays the response time as the brain function is slowed. This is why I say that this is a violent crime.
My daughter’s car took the full impact of that man’s Camero. He hit her broadside, careening her car across the intersection through the front of a Lube Stop building, taking out the building’s center beam. Now that’s a violent crime and there is no disputing it. Granted, he didn’t know he would kill my daughter, but he had to know from all the warnings he received from previous DUIs, that what he was doing would lead to someone’s death in a violent way. So again, marijuana is a drug that leads to violence and you can’t say “unintended” as all drivers know, they shouldn’t be driving while impaired.
—Corinne Gasper, Ohio


The Other DUID Victims Featured in our Video
Click on each name below photo to read their stories.
ACTIONS
You can take 4 very important easy steps to help increase awareness and education about marijuana-impaired driving.
1. Support Jennifer’s Messengers by buying a car care kit, jenniferscarkit .
2. Write a letter to your Senators to educate them on the dangers of the MORE Act.
Find your Senator Here
Dear Senator ,
It’s important to oppose the MORE Act HR 3884 S.2227 for the following reasons:
- It gives tax breaks to businesses for promoting the use of drugs during an addiction crisis.
- It fully legalizes every marijuana product available on the market, including high potency concentrates (up to 99% pure THC), edibles, and vapes.
- It rewards companies who have been marketing THC vapes to TEENS over social media.
- It allows the advertising of marijuana products on social media and television.
- It allows members of the military and those with security clearances to be CURRENT marijuana users which can cause impairment, and the removal of marijuana from the list of substances that must be tested for in safety-sensitive jobs like truck drivers, airline pilots, and train engineers.
- It gives cover to cartels and illicit market exporters.
- It ignores the science that marijuana is addictive, a gateway drug, and can cause psychosis and schizophrenia. Out of all the drugs that induce psychosis, it has the highest conversation rate for schizophrenia thus increasing America’s addiction and mental health crisis.
Thank you for your time and service on this very important issue, Your name
3. Please Visit JennifersMessengers.org to stay abreast of our efforts to fight DUID on our streets, roads and highways.
4. December is an awareness month for drugged and drunk driving prevention. Watch for PopPot’s daily Facebook memes about DUID and traffic fatalities related to marijuana. Please share them on Facebook and Twitter to help us increase awareness of this important problem.
P.S. – For your educational efforts, Project SAM has an excellent downloadable fact sheet on marijuana-impaired driving, called Driving and Marijuana a Dangerous Mix.
Please familiarize yourself with the data presented in this excellent video by Phillip Drum, a pharmacist whose sister was killed by a marijuana-impaired driver. He is now a leading expert on marijuana DUID.

TRIGGER WARNING ON SUICIDE AND SOCIAL PRESSURE TO DO POT
I can say that marijuana can make you very suicidal and sad!
My first time and only time I’ve smoked dabs and marijuana was the time I was pure pressured by my mother and brother.
Back story – I’m really against marijuana due to the fact of this product making people very lazy and not being able to hold a conversation with someone who is high. My mother and brother thought it would’ve been a good thing for me to do so I’m not so judging on someone getting high.
When I smoked marijuana for the first time I did it from a pipe and my mom was like you have to do it a couple times….. hmm?…. how can something be so “healthy” if it burns? Then my brother made me do a dab pen. I could not breathe, I kept coughing, it burned my lungs so bad and they thought it was funny.
My husband was extremely mad at my family once this stuff kicked in. I was so suicidal if someone told me to jump off the roof I would’ve done it in minutes. I could not hear people talking to me due to things zooming up on me.
First I don’t understand how someone can drive or do this every single day.
Second my mom told me that I didn’t feel that way because weed makes you happy.
My brother did the same thing to my 15-year-old sister locked her into the room with him when my parents were sleeping and made her smoke weed. She got really sick and couldn’t go to work the next day and got fired.
My mother gave her guilt trip saying it wasn’t my brothers fault but hers because she didn’t scream.
Pot instigated violence, coercion and broader community harms
The MORE Act will cause more problems: Addiction for Profit Big POT want \’more\’. Not just decriminalization, but full weaponizing of this toxic substance through commercialization! #childrenandyouthfirst
SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY, Calif. – A San Luis Obispo County Superior Court judge ruled on Friday that billboards advertising marijuana will no longer be allowed along California highways.
Judge Ginger Garrett ruled against the California Bureau of Cannabis Control striking down a 2019 regulation it had adopted that allowed for the advertising of cannabis on billboards on virtually all portions of California’s highways that cross its border.
The final ruling is the end of a public interest lawsuit filed in 2019 by San Luis Obispo resident Matthew Farmer, a father of two, who argued that the billboards were illegal under California Proposition 64 and wrongfully exposed his children and millions of others to cannabis advertising.
Business and Professions Code section 26152(d), enacted under Proposition 64, states that a licensee shall not advertise or market on a billboard or similar advertising device located on an Interstate Highway or on a State Highway which crosses the California border.
“This ruling is a major triumph on several fronts,” said one of Farmer\’s attorneys Saro Rizzo. “First, it’s a victory for all Californians over the desires of unelected Sacramento bureaucrats who illegally tried to put corporate profits ahead of children’s health. Second, it’s a vindication of the doctrine of separation of powers in that an agency under the control of the Governor’s Office was basically told that it cannot subvert the voters will by adopting a regulation that clearly conflicted with a statute.”
Farmer\’s second attorney Stew Jenkins added, “Besides endangering public health, the unlawful regulation issued by the Bureau of Cannabis Control put California in danger of losing 10% of its desperately needed Federal Highway Funding under the Lady Bird Johnson Highway Beautification Act. This ruling will prevent that loss.”
On Friday, Nov. 20, the Bureau of Cannabis Control announced that its Chief, Lori Ajax, is resigning effective Dec. 2, 2020.
For more go to https://keyt.com/news/2020/11/22/slo-county-judge-rules-to-ban-billboards-advertising-marijuana-along-ca-highways/
Can\’t Cope In Life Without Drug Use?? Self-Medication to Cope is the Latest \’Progress\’?
And this is the very best pro-drug sector can offer a struggling culture. \”Feeling better, but ONLY getting worse!\”
RESPONSE TO NEW YORK TIMES ARTICLE
A New York Times article by Jonah Engel Bromwich last weekend reveled in 21st century American escapism, the notion that we can magically will away the vicissitudes of life by using drugs.
A few days later, the New York Times did it again, suggesting people simply can’t live without a crutch. The election’s over but not the stress. Any edibles left? Drug enthusiasts in the media hype anxiety, as if all of us must be neurotics. It’s not only COVID anxiety they’re pushing. The pot industry and its proponents want local politicians to see marijuana as the solution to lost revenue revenue from restaurant closings, no matter what the medical costs. The clever public relations approach covers many bases, creating a mystique, but forgets to mention that the tax revenues from marijuana fall far below expectations.
Opponents to marijuana legalization, other than Kevin Sabet, have not left the scene, something Style section author Bromwich gets wrong. Parents Opposed to Pot, as well as Americans Against Legalizing Marijuana and MomsStrong in California, make up a strong bipartisan opposition. Bromwich interviewed author Emily Dufton, who told another journalist that it’s possible a new parent movement will arise. Dufton was correct – Parent Movement 2.0 began this year in California. Johnny’s Ambassadors, a new group formed by Laura Stack and her family in Colorado, sounds the alarm about “dabbing,” and the tragic loss of her son, a victim of marijuana-induced psychosis.
While apparently in awe of the ballots passed by numerous states, the author deliberately avoids the fact that vast infusions of money bought those ballot votes. Billionaires fund New Approach PAC, which, in turn, gives the money for marijuana ballot campaigns. Just since the election, Alexandra Cohen, wife of a New York hedge fund manager, gave $750,000 to New Approach PAC. Money and clever messaging buy the votes for this anti-science drug policy. Rather than grassroots efforts, it’s the clearest example in politics today that money can buy an outcome.
Stakes are high as we lose kids to drug addiction
The new generation of opposition thinks differently from “Just Say No” or the DARE approach of the nineties. We believe children or teens deserve an explanation why it’s preferable not to use or need drugs to get through life. We emphasize that there are healthy ways to embrace life, and find joy, without anxiety or the need for drugs.
The stakes are high; currently we lose too many young people to deaths or permanent mental health problems, from drug use. Some overcome it, but many others do not. No one can predict who will survive after they start using drugs, and who will not.
Smart Colorado, which throws daggers when the Colorado pot industry markets to children, plans to go national with its new initiative, One Chance to Grow Up. Dr. Robert DuPont wishes to build on youth sobriety and make that choice part of a new movement. One Choice emphasizes that 31 percent of youth below age 21 do not drink, smoke or use drugs.
Drug Policy Alliance, the major organization behind changing drug policy, pushes the mentality that clings to drug use.
Who benefits from more drug use?
We strongly believe — with good evidence — that the harms of drug use alone outweigh the harm of anything the current legal system does to punish someone who is only using drugs and committing no other crimes. Mr Bromwich ignores the huge percentage of people committing crimes related to theft, murder, domestic violence and rape, while on drugs. Like it or not, there’s a high correlation between drug use and criminal behavior. Empirical evidence would show a very low rate of crimes committed by those who don’t use drugs or alcohol.
Mr. Bromwich correctly states that the effort to reframe marijuana as something medical — even without evidence — brought public acceptance. This clever marketing strategy helped teens to see marijuana as less harmful than it really is. A large subset of the population can become paranoid from marijuana use and the paranoia can easily convert into psychosis. This view is backed up strongly by science, and science was ignored in discussions of marijuana legalization in the states.
Our emphasis is on preventing start of drug use. People are forgetting that selling drugs is not a victimless crime. Indeed some people die from using a drug for the very first time, and this fact goes against the projection of drug use as harmless. The Drug Policy Alliance pushes to protect from prosecution those who give or sell drugs to another, even when a person dies. (Such cases are never so clear cut; they need to be investigated.)
For the New York Times to encourage drug use when we’re in the midst of an overdose epidemic – 70,000 killed directly from drugs in each of the last three years – is reckless. We call on the New York Times to be more honest, and to explain the downsides of marijuana legalization.
Democratic governors warned not to do it
Democratic governors of Colorado and California, John Hickenlooper and Jerry Brown, warned other states that legalization is fraught with problems:
- You can’t legalize marijuana for the TAX MONEY. A Los Angeles Times article explained possible reasons why all states that legalize lag behind the tax projections.
- The illegal marijuana market grows stronger under legalization. Governor Gavin Newsom called on the National Guard and actually asked President Trump to curb the illegal growers in California. Many international groups buy up real estate in the suburbs and convert the basements into grow houses.
- There’s no good way to stop stoned driving. We still lack a test that works well for judging marijuana impairment in drivers. Traffic deaths, vaping illnesses and new cases of psychosis increase the load on our health system. In Washington, the number of traffic deaths involving driving under the influence of THC doubled the first year of legal marijuana.
As a newspaper, the Los Angeles Times gives a more honest view, exposing the dark side of both legal and illegal marijuana grows. The New York Times reveals its biases, suggesting that Finally New Jersey may be cooler than New York.
From Parents Opposed to Pot
MEDICAL SOCIETIES OF FIVE STATES SPEAK OUT AGAINST MARIJUANA LEGALIZATION
Recently the medical societies of Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania joined together to express mutually shared concerns about efforts to legalize marijuana by state governments. Also in late October, the family of a California woman brought a wrongful death lawsuit against the maker of an edible product bought at a San Diego pot shop.
Legalization continues to present serious public health concerns. The societies issuing the warning represent tens of thousands of physicians. Their statement echoes our view that marijuana legalization is an anti-science policy. Here is a copy of the press release that the state of New York’s society released:
These doctors state that:
“We appreciate the enormous challenges state policymakers face to address burgeoning budget deficits, but we strongly believe that further detailed research must be undertaken and assessed regarding the effects legalization of cannabis will have on important public health markers, such as emergency department visits and hospitalizations, impaired driving arrests, and the prevalence of psychiatric and addiction disorders. We are very concerned that the long-term public health costs associated with hospitalizations and treatment for psychiatric/addictive disorders could significantly outweigh any revenues that these states anticipate would be received from the legalization of cannabis.
Youth use higher in states with legalization
“Data shows that despite best efforts of states to limit the purchase of legal marijuana to adults, it has also led to a troubling increase in youth use. Overall use by youth aged 12-17 is up in “legal” states while declining in non-legal states, according to a uniform survey of marijuana use conducted by the federal government. The percentage of youth aged 12-17 using marijuana in states where marijuana is “legal” was 7.7%, versus 6.2% in non-legal states (NSDUH State Reports 2016-2017). The University of Michigan’s Monitoring the Future Survey of American Youth reported that between 2017 and 2018 the percentage of 8th and 10th graders who report “vaping” marijuana increased 63%. And according to a 2019 report by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment’s toxicology reports, the percentage of adolescent suicide victims testing positive for marijuana continues to increase.
Marijuana and Suicide Concerns
“Between 2011 and 2013, 20.7% of suicide victims between the ages of 10 and 19 tested positive for marijuana (compared with 12.7% who tested positive for alcohol). Between 2014-2016, 22.4% tested positive for marijuana (compared with 9.3% for alcohol) And, in Colorado, the annual rate of marijuana-related emergency department visits increased by 62% from 2012 to 2017 and marijuana-related poisoning hospitalization rates in Colorado rose by 143% from 2012 to 2017 (Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, 2019).
Marijuana and COVID Concerns
“We are in the midst of a world-wide pandemic and we already know that smoking or vaping marijuana can increase patient risk for more severe complications from COVID-19. Additionally, there are concerns about the secondary effects on adults and young people from COVID-19 regarding the increased rates of addiction due to the stress of isolation, boredom and decreased access to recovery resources.
“We further note that the American Medical Association has a recently updated position (H95.924) that continues to assert that ‘cannabis is a dangerous drug and as such is a serious public health concern,’ that the sale of cannabis for recreational use should not be legalized and discourages its use–especially by persons vulnerable to the drug’s effects and in high-risk populations such as youth, pregnant women, and women who are breastfeeding.
“The cost to the public health system from cannabis use will likely far outweigh any revenues that states secure by legalizing marijuana. We must proceed cautiously and pay close attention to the public health impacts in states where legalization has occurred.”
We agree with everything the doctors, medical societies have to say but add the fact that tax income from marijuana always fall far behind projections. To sell this program to state legislators as a way close the budget gap is dishonest.
For more got to Parents Opposed to Pot
The True Cost of Marijuana: A Colorado Town That Went All-In
October 2020
PUEBLO, Colo.–It’s a common story across America: A city loses its main employer, usually a manufacturing company with well-paying, blue-collar jobs (that often go to China). The city’s economy crumbles, and those who can move out, do.
Decades later, and looking peeling-paint tired, the city hasn’t managed to recover, but drugs have found a permanent home.
In Pueblo, Colorado, the manufacturer was a steel plant beleaguered by a market crash in the 1980s and worker strikes in the 1990s. And one drug was given a red-carpet welcome.
For years, Pueblo has been looking for industries to revive its economy, and when recreational marijuana was legalized for retail sale in Colorado in 2014, many saw it as the answer. More people would be employed and the tax money would go to schools and infrastructure.
The county commissioner at the time, Sal Pace, went all-in on the industry, promoting Pueblo as the “Napa Valley of cannabis.” Pueblo is situated 100 miles south of Denver, with a population of around 160,000 people.
Marijuana grow operations and dispensaries sprung up quickly and now employ around 2,000 people, Pace told Colorado Politics in September. According to employment website Indeed.com, the majority of dispensary jobs in Colorado pay $12 to $15 per hour.
Pace said about half of the commercial construction in Pueblo County since 2014 has been related to cannabis.
“The cannabis boom in Pueblo is real and sustainable, and we’re well positioned to be a national cultivation hub after federal legalization,” Pace told the publication.
So far, 11 states have legalized retail marijuana and four others–New Jersey, Arizona, Montana, and South Dakota–are considering it. Marijuana is still an illegal, Class 1 drug according to federal law.
An emergency department sign in Pueblo West, Colo., on Sept. 29, 2020. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times)
View From the ER
Two emergency room doctors in Pueblo see a different side of the equation and say the deleterious effects of cannabis legalization far outstrip any benefits.
Dr. Karen Randall, who trained in pediatrics and emergency medicine, spent years as an ER doctor in Detroit, but Pueblo turned out to be a whole other level.
“It’s like a horror movie,” she told The Epoch Times. Every shift in the ER brings in a patient with cannabinoid hyperemesis. In layman’s terms, that means someone is screaming and vomiting uncontrollably. The sound is wretched and apocalyptic. It’s caused by chronic cannabis use, usually high-potency products, and it stops when the person stops using cannabis.
“I was in Detroit for 18 years and the cannabis psychosis here is worse than anything I saw in Detroit,” Randall said. “They’re very violent. The combination of this high potency THC and meth just creates this incredibly violent person.”
THC (tetrahydrocannabinol), the main psychoactive ingredient in today’s marijuana products, is now being extracted to reach a potency of more than 80 percent. In the 1990s, the average potency of a joint was around 4 percent THC.
For complete story go to The True Cost of Marijuana — The Colorado Town That Went All In!
I’m not sure I’ve ever been more proud to be part of this team. This vision. This work.
You don’t want to miss this NPR radio segment that featured the heads of the nation’s largest organizations on either side of drug legalization – Kevin, of SAM, and Kassandra, of the billionaire-funded Drug Policy Alliance (DPA). The debate begins in earnest around the twenty minute mark.
Kevin laid out a vision of hope, of recovery, of freedom, and of living your life to the best of your ability.
When Kevin used science and data to eviscerate legalizer arguments supporting Oregon’s decriminalization of all drugs (which guts drug courts and does not fund treatment) and allowing Big Marijuana to run roughshod over public health, there was no coherent reply.
Instead, the Drug Policy Alliance made it clear what their true purpose is: to create a society that enables and maintains drug addiction.
Kevin rejected this at the end of the segment, calling for a world where a culture of treatment and recovery thrives, addiction-for-profit interests are rejected, and a union between public health and criminal justice is made better, such as with drug courts and innovative probation strategies.
The fact is, we know America does not want this vision for our future. We know humanity is capable of greater things than suffering endless addiction.
We need your support now, more than ever, to continue this fight. Can you chip in?
Luke Niforatos, Executive Vice President
Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM)
\”We may not be able to \’arrest\’ our way out of the drug problem, but be rest assured, you will never \’treat\’ your way out of this family, community and society unraveling and diminishing substance use issue.\”
Don\’t Legalize Drugs
IS MARIJUANA A RISK FACTOR FOR DOMESTIC VIOLENCE?
*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.
In the past, we’ve run many articles on the role of marijuana in domestic violence. Among the most notable blogs was the tragic story of two families named Kirk. Both men shot their wives — in front of the children. Both men used marijuana for medical conditions, one for pain and one for PTSD, although there’s scant evidence that marijuana is a solution to either condition.
A supporter of ours wrote her testimony of domestic violence that corresponded with years of pot use, between ages 17 and 31. Living in northern California, marijuana was part of the daily routine for her, her boyfriends and husband. Thankfully our writer is more than 30 years sober today. Here is part one of her three-part testimony. To quote our friend, “There was so much abuse that it is a miracle I am alive.”
How and why marijuana leads to violence
All substance abuse — marijuana as well as alcohol, cocaine and other drugs — can lead to addiction. Drug addiction causes drastic mood changes. Marijuana, classified as a hallucinogen, can cause fear, anxiety, panic or paranoia. Experiencing any of these symptoms can lead to violent behavior, endangering family, other people and property. Science proves marijuana is a causal factor that triggers psychosis, a condition that distorts reality which increase the risk for violence by 20X. When people mix pot with alcohol and other drugs, the problems intensify.
Render Stetson-Shanahan, 26, murdered his roommate and fellow Bard College graduate, Carolyn Bush, an aspiring poet, in Queens, NY. The court found that he “suffered a psychotic break due to his marijuana use on the night of the killing.” Render was an artist suffering from depression, but he didn’t seem realize that marijuana may have been fueling his depression.
On Memorial Day of 2018, Bryn Sprejcher, 27, a doctor of audiology, smoked marijuana with her boyfriend and had hallucinations. She felt extreme effects from the second hit of the bong and ended up stabbing Chad O’Melia to death in her California apartment.
John Lewis, 49, of Michigan, shot and killed his wife in his marijuana grow room. The jury found that him guilty of premeditated murder, which probably rules out psychosis.
However, marijuana is also the drug most likely to lead to permanent psychosis (schizophrenia) even after a person stops using it, as two large scale studies from Finland and Denmark reveal. The academic studies support a focus on reducing marijuana use to curb domestic violence.
Advocacy groups against gender-based violence will continue to stumble, unless they also target the substance abuse which triggers the domestic violence.
Stop Violence Against Women
“Marijuana use should be considered as a target of early intimate partner violence intervention and treatment programming.” Researchers from the University of Florida came to this conclusion, and a number of recent studies back up their findings .
What the Science Tells Us
The Relationship Between Marijuana Use and Intimate Partner Violence in a Nationally Representative, Longitudinal Sample,” by Jennifer M. Reingle, Stephanie A.S. Staras, Wesley G. Jennings, Jennifer Branchini, Mildred M. Maldonado-Molina, Journal of Interpersonal Violence, May, 2012. (Consistent use of marijuana during adolescence was predictive of committing intimate partner violence in early adulthood and being a victim, 2 x more likely. Sample of 9,400). Prior studies found marijuana use was predictive of physical assault by their intimate partners (Moore et al., 2008; Nabors, 2010; Railford , 2007).
Effects of marijuana use on impulsivity and hostility in daily life, by Emily B. Ansell, Holly B. Laws, Michael J. Roche, Rajita Sinha, Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 148 (2015) 136-142. January 6, 2015. (A Study of 43 subjects found marijuana, but not alcohol, use increased interpersonal hostility and impulsivity in daily life. The events occurred on day of use and the next day. )
Violent Behavior as Related to Marijuana and Other Drugs, by Albert Friedman, Kimberly Glassman, Arlene Terras, Journal of Addictive Diseases, Vol 20(1), 2001,pp. 49-72. (Marijuana users are nearly as likely to engage in violent behaviors as crack users)
Marijuana use is associated with intimate partner violence perpetration among men arrested for domestic violence. Ryan C. Shorey, Ellen Haynes, Meagan Brem, Autumn Rae Florimbio, Hannah Grigorian, and Gregory L. Stuart, Translational Issues in Psychological Science 4, no. 1, 2018, 108—118. Findings demonstrated marijuana use is associated with psychological, physical, and sexual violence, a link is separate from other known factors. The conclusion stated, “Treatment of men arrested for domestic violence should consider reducing marijuana.”
Listen to this video to hear how one woman entered into a relationship unaware that marijuana would soon change the man she chose to be with. In the end, he even employs his own children to help stalk her.
Marijuana is a risk factor in VIOLENCE against whole families
Interesting Facts from News Reports
Last year several incidences of adult children turning on their families, killing both mother and father, hit the news. Camden Nicholson, age 27, allegedly killed his parents and their housekeeper in a gated community of Newport Beach, California, on February 13-14, 2019. According to investigators, Nicholson smoked excessive amounts of marijuana, and had caused great fear in his family.
Just a month earlier, Dakota Theriot, 22, killed his family in Louisiana, his girlfriend and his girlfriend’s parents in a murder spree. He had been a marijuana smoker since middle school.
Also in January, 2019, Mark Gregory Gago of Oregon bludgeoned four family members to death with an axe, including his 9-month old daughter. Two people were able to escape from Gago, his wife’s daughter, 8, and another roommate. Like Kevin Janson Neal of California, who killed his wife and buried her body under the floor, Gregory Gago was a pot farmer.
Kevin Janson Neal’s family admitted to the public of his long-time pot use and mental health problems. As for Neal, he went on a shooting spree, killing five people , injuring others and attempting to harm students as he shot bullets at an elementary school.
Orion Krause, 22, Maine, murdered his parents, grandmother and grandmother’s caretaker. It was completely out of character for the gentle musician who graduated from Oberlin College.
Teens and Young Men
Acts of violence against parents, siblings exemplify what pot can do to families.
Ashton Sacks, a 19-year-old who lived in Washington allegedly drove 1200 miles to southern California to shoot his parents and other family members. Before that time, Ashton was wasting away his days, continually smoking marijuana and playing a particular video game..
Malik Murphy, 20, Colorado Springs, murdered his brother, Noah, 7 and his sister, Sophia, 5, as the family was sleeping, and tried to kill the parents, too. His troubles began at age 16, when he was found to be smoking marijuana from a “pen” in his backpack.
Davie Dauzat, 24, Texas, killed his wife in front of the children, after they smoked pot together. He told police he had used drugs earlier that day, and the only drug was found to be marijuana.
John Granat, 17, of Palos Hills, IL , along with his friends, murdered his parents. The anger and revenge began when his father grounded him for finding marijuana.
Kamil Dantes, 29, Great Britain- murdered his parents with a knife in 2015. At the sentencing, Justice Charles Haddon-Cave said: “Your deteriorating mental health had much to do with your history of drug use and in particular your cannabis habit. This is another example of the danger of cannabis use and its ability to induce psychotic behaviour in young men.”
Our previous blogs
In 2017, our blog was, “Let’s tackle substances abuse during domestic violence awareness month.”
In 2016, we wrote about pot’s downside in domestic violence, and our 2015 article describes in detail three domestic violence cases involving marijuana that ended in tragedy that year.
As a nation, we are turning a blind eye to the damage marijuana users may present to women and children. For the most part, the marijuana defense does not come out in criminal trials, even though marijuana’s triggering effects on psychosis are known to the psychiatric community. “I don’t think any serious researcher or psychiatrist would now dispute that cannabis consumption is a component cause of psychosis,” said renown psychiatrist Sir Dr. Robin Murray, King’s College, London.
We need to stop underestimating the poor judgment, the violence and warped sense of time common to many marijuana users, including women. Women who have been long-time users accept men who are violent in their lives, because they disassociate and use pot to numb the pain.
Widespread mental health issues will also continue to grow in America, as long as we fail to acknowledge the cannabis connection. When substance abusers lose control over their lives, lashing out is their futile way of trying to regain the power they lost because of drugs and/or alcohol in their lives. If advocates against domestic violence submit to the theory that only unequal power is the cause of domestic violence, we won’t make progress.
ACTIONS
If you or someone you know may be involved in a domestic violence situation:
- The site TheHotline.org provides hotline numbers, confidential help and safety plans, help in recognizing what abuse looks like as well as what a relationship should look like, instructions to clear web browsers and “quick escape” when on their site.
- National Hotline: 1(800)799-SAFE (7233), Twitter (@ndvh), and Facebook (National Domestic Violence Hotline)
- Check out Robin McGraw and Dr. Phil’s site, When Georgia Smiled
- Share this Think Ya Know? and these actions with anyone you know who may work at shelters, food banks, or other services that domestic abuse victims may frequent.
INTERNATIONAL DRUG DEALERS MOVE IN, HIDING BEHIND LEGAL POT
This week’s front page article about mass murder of seven in the Los Angeles Times demonstrates how much international marijuana growers have infiltrated the United States.
If seven Americans had been shot in a similar fashion, it would be the main topic of nightly news. But the victims were middle-aged men and women from Laos. It happened on a marijuana farm in Riverside County in California, on September 7, 2020.
This crime doesn’t fit the narrative that the US government’s “War on Drugs” is responsible for killings involving drug operations. The Drug Policy Alliance turned the “War on Drugs” into a negative term, asserting that drug dealers are innocent victims.
“So far this year, the sheriff’s office has responded to eight incidents in Riverside County with a total of 14 murder victims ‘dealing strictly with marijuana’,” according to another article. Riverside County stands at crossroads where Laotians, Chinese groups and Mexicans compete in the drug trade. Promoters of legalizing marijuana told the public that legalization would allow law enforcement to concentrate on more serious crimes. They forgot to mention that murder would be more frequent, too.
The American Press is reluctant to tell the truth of what is really going on because of marijuana legalization. The status of the murdered farm workers is unclear; they may be indentured servants, slaves or victims of human trafficking.
This is the first of a two-part series on international drug dealers who have come to the US since marijuana was legalized. We summarize recent stories in the news, some quoted directly from the newspapers, without editing.
Ukrainians gain foothold in Sacramento marijuana market
The Sacramento Bee reported on October 15, 2020: “Andrey Kukushkin, the Ukrainian-born businessman who was arrested in the campaign-finance scandal tied to President Donald Trump’s attorney, has established a significant foothold in Sacramento’s legal cannabis industry, new records reviewed by The Sacramento Bee show.
“Now Kukushkin’s involvement – along with a looming FBI investigation into potential corruption and The Bee’s reporting on consolidation of the industry – is causing turmoil in the Sacramento pot industry.
“On Tuesday Mayor Darrell Steinberg called for top city staffers to ‘urgently’ examine the city’s permitting process that allowed one investor, Garib Karapetyan, to gain control of nearly one third of the city’s 30 coveted retail pot permits. The mayor also said he wants the City Council to consider an ordinance to ‘at a minimum temporarily prohibit ownership transfers of our cannabis dispensaries while we audit and examine our processes.’”
Kukushkin owns or has ties to a marijuana storefront, a marijuana delivery business, a cultivation facility and two consulting firms.
The Chinese used 100 growing houses near Sacramento
Two and a half years ago, on April 6, 2018, ABC News reported that federal agents seized marijuana from 100 pot-growing houses in Sacramento tied to China-based criminals,

“Hundreds of federal and local law enforcement agents have seized roughly 100 Northern California houses purchased with money wired to the United States by a Chinese-based crime organization and used to grow massive amounts of marijuana illegally, authorities said Wednesday.
“The raids culminated a months-long investigation focusing on dozens of Chinese nationals who bought homes in seven counties. Most of the buyers were in the country legally and were not arrested as authorities investigate if they were indebted to the gang and forced into the work, U.S. Attorney McGregor Scott said.
‘Black-market pot-growing houses have proliferated in the inland California region where authorities carried out the raids, and many of them were traced to Chinese criminal organizations from the San Francisco Bay Area in the mid-2000s,’ Scott said.”
“Authorities tracked at least 124 wire transfers totally $6.3 million from Fujian Province in China, all just below the $50,000 limit imposed by the by the Chinese government.” The article stated that the people in the houses may be “indentured servants,” brought to the US to buy and tend grow houses. Most don’t speak English.
Expanding into new territory, western Massachusetts
Other Chinese groups or syndicates went to Colorado and to obscure outposts in western Massachusetts. Two such groups were arrested on July 31, 2020. Massachusetts Live reported of the arrests at growing operations in western Massachusetts.
In one case, huge monthly electric bills of $10,000 a month alerted an electric company to suspicious activity in Savoy. Electrical workers went to check on the home in rural Berkshire County. After Chinese occupants threw money at them and shut the door, the utility company informed police. Law enforcement set up a clever means to find the homeowner and obtain a search warrant.
“They obtained a search warrant two days later and eventually found nearly 3,600 marijuana plants inside with an estimated street value of $3 million.
“Mai, of Staten Island, New York, and the owner of the home, Bin Huang, 32, of Brooklyn, New York, were arrested Wednesday and charged with marijuana trafficking when they attempted to return to the secluded home set on 14 acres of land.”
On the same day, Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents raided large growing houses in Monson and Palmer, Massachusetts. They arrested two Chinese nationals after finding 1,100 marijuana plants in a Monson warehouse– plus 3,000 more at four residential properties in Monson and neighboring Palmer.
The men had moved from Chicago to western Massachusetts in February, for the express purpose of growing marijuana. Although Illinois began to allow marijuana sales this year, home growing would not have been allowed there.
Mexican traffickers continue to use banned pesticides
(Mexican cartels grew marijuana in our national forests before legalization. Some people voted for legalization because they thought that “regulation” could stop the environmental damage caused by marijuana growers. Others thought the illicit market would magically disappear.)
Last year the Los Angeles Times reported that Mexican growers continue to poison forests of the Sierra Nevada with carbofuran.
“California law enforcement has learned that Mexican drug traffickers are using a dangerous pesticide banned in the United States to grow marijuana in remote areas of California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains, and are going after their operations.
“The pesticide, carbofuran, is toxic to wildlife and humans and can cause permanent reproductive damage. Law enforcement took reporters on a tour of one of the illegal grow sites on Tuesday, where a bottle of carbofuran could be seen.
“These are federal lands, and they are being systematically destroyed through clear-cutting, stream diversion, chemicals and pesticides,” said U.S. Atty. McGregor Scott at a news conference, where he was joined by federal, state and local officials who were part of the investigation. “It’s a vitally important issue.”
Summary: Pandora’s box
We cannot blame the poor migrants brought into this country thinking they will have a better life. We can blame the federal government which stood on the sidelines while states legalized marijuana and legitimized its sale.
So many foreign traders, from all over the world, have come to our country to grow marijuana. It’s not surprising that foreigners see our policy of complacency as an opportunity to get rich. Their illegal activities dwarf the “legal” market set up by states. The “indentured servants,” whom they bring here, don’t find a good life in America. They often become victims of human trafficking as well, and Americans need to wise up to their mistreatment.
By legalizing marijuana and legitimizing this drug, as many states have done, the US has opened Pandora’s Box. Subscribe to our blog, in order to read Part 2 on international drug dealers.