Marijuana: Tucson Massacre Suspect Jared Loughner Was 'Habitual' Pot User

Renowned surveys over the past sixteen years–for example, those sponsored by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University–find that the more often children have dinner with their parents, ... frequent family dinners (five to seven per week), those who have infrequent dinners (fewer than three per week) are twice as likely to use tobacco, nearly twice as likely to use alcohol, and one and a half times likelier to use marijuana.

 Forget about all kind of lost and win stuff and just think for cannabis and marijuana highs and buy drugs for that from given below site name please go on legal-highs !!!!          

Forget about all kind of lost and win stuff and just think for cannabis and marijuana highs and buy drugs for that from given below site name please go on legal-highs !!!!   

I feel sorry for all you pot heads who are trying to convince yourselves and everyone else that a weed with over 4000 known chemicals, when ingested into the body, is not going to have any detrimental effects on the brain, mental health and rational thinking. MORONS! 

It is his fault people get away with everyday shit except something like this there could have been something very mentally wrong with this man. Smoking pott does not mean he made the choices he made!! An illness very much sucks on whoever is diagnosed with it no one is perfect and no one ever will be you have to look at the brighter side of life before you lose your life, familys life, or friends.. it is sad someone can take someones life and not feel anything wrong with it.. if he wasnt ill and something just triggered him to do this just shows that there are messed up people in not just the U.S but the whole world...

This article is so reaching its pathetic. Its sad what an uniformed person will write when presented with an expert with an agenda and an ability to make connections that arent there. Lets ignore all the evidence to the contrary, marijuana mist be evil.  Do some REAL research Dennis.

Why Americans defend pot so much? I go it, pot makes you feel good, so what? heroin, cocaine, all drugs have been design to make you feel good when you are high. Just you can't see the harm in your body, life, mind and to the our environment because it blinds you. And it makes you "believe" pot is amazing and not harmful. In the mean while, lives are killed by cartels everyday and our national parks are getting toxic to support your "healthy" habit.

So if it is soo good and healthy, go and give it to your grandparents, children, animals, and all youth and drivers on the freeway, and teachers and police and everybody, and you will see the stupid world we would be living in. More car accidents, and slower progress. Good luck with your "healthy" habit.

??

The "link" seems pretty bogus to me. The rate of schizophrenia in the US stands at about 1% of the population. Marijuana use increased dramatically in the last 50 years. But 50 years ago the rate for schizophrenia was 1%. So, while marijuana use increased dramatically there has been no similar increase in schizophrenia. If the link were valid, the rise in marijuana use would increase the schizophrenia rate. The lack of such an increase is fairly conclusive proof that the link is imaginary.

So much wishful thinking... The scientific evidence confirms marijuana as a factor, indeed a strong factor, in schizophrenia for some people. Here is just one abstract from one of the many papers on his topic in PubMed:

Int Rev Psychiatry. 2009 Apr;21(2):152-62.Cannabinoids and psychosis.Sewell RA, Ranganathan M, D'Souza DC.

Psychiatry Service, VA Connecticut Healthcare System, West Haven, Connecticut 06516, USA.AbstractRecent advances in knowledge about cannabinoid receptor function have renewed interest in the association between cannabis and psychosis. Case series, autobiographical accounts, and surveys of cannabis users in the general population suggest an association between cannabis and psychosis. Cross-sectional studies document an association between cannabis use and psychotic symptoms, and longitudinal studies suggest that early exposure to cannabis confers a close to two-fold increase in the risk of developing schizophrenia. Pharmacological studies show that cannabinoids can induce a full range of transient positive, negative, and cognitive symptoms in healthy individuals that are similar to those seen in schizophrenia. There is considerable evidence that in individuals with an established psychotic disorder such as schizophrenia, exposure to cannabis can exacerbate symptoms, trigger relapse, and worsen the course of the illness. Only a very small proportion of the general population exposed to cannabis develop a psychotic illness. It is likely that cannabis exposure is a 'component cause' that interacts with other factors to 'cause' schizophrenia or other psychotic disorder, but is neither necessary nor sufficient to do so alone. Further work is necessary to identify the factors that underlie individual vulnerability to cannabinoid-related psychosis and to elucidate the biological mechanisms underlying this risk.

PMID: 19367509 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

So many of the comments I see and the postings I’ve read on the internet want to place blame for the horrible shooting that took place on that fateful January morning in Tucson. Political rhetoric, pundits, guns and drugs are blamed. In my opinion if anyone is to blame, it would be everyone. Everywhere I read, people want an explanation for how this could have possibly occurred, why didn’t someone know about the state of the shooter, why wasn’t something done. Oh and of course, let’s take advantage of this crisis to forward our own political agenda. When the latter is added to any discussion of the tragedy, the discussion is lost.

One thing that is abundantly clear, and I see this opinion stated in many comments I’ve seen posted on blogs all over the web, the state of mental health care in this country (and many others) is severely lacking. The ‘system’ is broken. If I may be so bold, and possibly subject myself to dismissal for ‘harsh’ language, the system is totally Effed up.

The question is why, and further for most who, can we ‘blame’ for this and these repeating tragedies? It has to be the evil ‘right wing’ or the toothless, knuckle-dragging, bigots of the Tea Party, how about Drugs, Drugs did it. Or blame Sarah Palin, yeah, she’s a good ‘target’. I have to laugh or I will cry, and NOT because I’m a fan of Sarah Palin, but simply because the accusation is without merit. None of these arguments hold any water.

I am not a psychiatrist, or even a doctor. I do however teach my fellow family members a great deal about mental illness. I work with the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), and have taught what we call family-to-family education for over six years. I’ve seen and heard hundreds, possibly a thousand people who have stories about their loved ones with Mental Illness. I teach about the function of the brain, the diagnoses, the treatment, the medications used for treatment, and how to deal with both the illnesses themselves and the people who are (or aren’t) diagnosed by the medical profession.

Mental Illness in its many forms; depression, bipolar, schizophrenia (the three 'major' mental illnesses) is simply not understood by many people. Psychiatrists pass out medication as if it were candy believing it to be the answer. "…Here, take some of these; I'll see you in a month for another 45 minute session. Let me know how it goes..." They ask people who have poor judgment to judge themselves. To make matters more complicated, treatment of any kind only happens when the person in question requests treatment. I doubt Mr. Loughner even knew he needed any help; it is part of the diagnosis of someone who has Schizophrenia and it is called Anosognosia; an inability to realize that you have a problem or are ill.

The answer is not medication; even though medication is a powerful and important tool in the treatment toolkit. Some think medication, OK, lets call them Drugs, make these situations and mental states worse. The answer is education and understanding, the former being fairly easy to come by, the latter not so much.

This missive is by NO means an excuse for someone who is so delusional as to become psychopathic and kill other people. Loughner is a criminal killer and should be (and most likely will be) treated as such. Could he have received treatment and would it have helped, possibly.

Average people, especially the media pundits, do not understand the difference between psychopathy and psychosis. It is far beyond the purpose of this message to explain it and rather than explain it here, I urge you to investigate on your own.

Someone experiencing psychosis, which is a break from what the rest of us perceive as 'reality' is, as far as I can tell from first hand reports, similar to a dream state. It’s hard to understand. The person experiencing psychosis sees things and especially hears things, sometimes very vividly, loudly and clearly, that those around him or her do not see and hear. On extremely rare occasions, what a psychotic person sees and hears makes him or her commit terrible acts; usually suicide, sometimes, but rarely, homicide. Was Loughner psychotic? I don’t know, it seems something was wrong and it’s a possible explanation. But please, PLEASE realize when I say these things occur rarely, I mean RARELY. NIMH has the stats if you like statistics, another investigation I will leave up to your own curiosity.

Causes of psychosis are deep secrets that even the medicos, psych techs and psychiatrists don't really understand. They believe that brain chemicals have run amok. I'm not sure what that means, so I explain the illness as a brain 'disorder.' It seems to be very, very hereditary, family histories and statistics prove this. But is it really a disorder, perhaps not. People suffering from delusions and psychosis were at one time and in one society and culture called Prophets. Mental Illness ought to be treated as any other disorder, but it rarely is because it exhibits itself behaviorally. I can only add if you had diabetes or heart disease and your doctor treated you the way the 'system' treats mental illness, you would be appalled, and probably be calling an attorney about a malpractice suit.

Having dealt with mental illness, diagnosed as Paranoid Schizophrenia to be exact, for almost ten years in a loved one, the more I learn the more it frustrates me. Other comments I’ve read posed that the treatment system that we have began in the sixties, which is true. Some would have you believe it began with the Reagan administration, but it began in the early sixties with the Kennedy administration.

‘Enlightened’ thought believed that mental illness should only be a concern when someone is a danger to self, to others, or is gravely disabled. People should not be locked up and have their rights taken away unless it is serious (er, um, what does serious mean?). And truly, there are huge number of people who have a diagnosis and are totally functional, working and contributing folks.

This same enlightened thought also caused the major institutions for treatment to be shut down in favor of more local and more humane treatment at the county level. Unfortunately, due to unfunded promises, the current treatment facilities are mostly jails and prisons. This is due to the fact that people with mental illness sometimes make bad decisions and end up in jail, sometimes for trivial or less than serious offenses. These people behave badly and fall under the category of criminals. Indeed their behavior is often criminal. The lack of funding is a result of the fact that mental illness leaves people mostly disenfranchised, and in a lot of cases, wards of the criminal justice system. If you’re ill, you’re not going to have much source of income and you probably don’t vote, especially if you’re in jail.

So how does one determine the criteria of harm to self or others? Currently it's only done after someone has caused harm or is lying in a gutter somewhere or has committed suicide, the ultimate self harm. It is a slippery slope when you try to determine someone's intent. Signs abound, though many disregard those signs, don't recognize the signs (which is usually the case) or the signs are not extreme and severe or ‘serious’ enough.

So the question remains of what to do. I can inform the ‘authorities’ my loved one is very, very sick. He can even be gravely disabled, and yet the authorities are very reluctant to do anything. No crime has been committed. About all I can do is warn them; give them a heads up, I can't forcibly put another adult on time out. Sometimes the authorities, the police and mental health services community, put him on a 72 hour hold, fill him full of medication either orally or if he refuses by injection and release him in four or five days when he becomes 'lucid'. My son once spent 28 days at the UCLA medical center after an emergency room admission. If you have ever known someone who spent 28 days in the hospital for ANY reason, you’d be pretty convinced that person was very, very, gravely ill.

The sequence of events where someone is finally hospitalized, treated for a few days, and then released serves little purpose and really results in the revolving door of catch/release. It’s very expensive triage repeated over and over. What is really needed by my son cannot be delivered to him, and he will be back in a month or two, sometimes three to repeat the cycle again. He doesn’t take medication prescribed, he doesn’t believe he needs it and the side effects of anti-psychotic medications are terrible. Who could blame him? And there’s no way to force him; I’ve tried. Being the med cop sucks. But if he were to have 6 months to a year of intensive treatment from doctors, therapists, spiritual counselors, nutritionists, social workers, vocational counselors and a personal trainer it is my hope he might, and I emphasize might, do better in the long run.

Such treatment does not exist and could not exist because of the resources involved. But I keep advocating for it, it's the only recourse I have to the stress and frustration I experience on a daily basis, unless of course I had a million dollars. So advocacy and posting comments on blogs have become my recourse...

The final upshot of this is that it is an extremely difficult conundrum that we, as citizens, need to understand more fully and somehow come to grips with instead of wringing our hands and saying “someone should do something, someone must have known something, who can we blame?”

We live in a free country where we are very careful (most of the time) to not interfere with a person’s civil and human rights. Because of this, these 'random acts of violence' are not going to go away. Neither does it make any sense to blame anyone; we are all in this together, so it's really our collective 'fault' if fault can be placed.

But wait, it becomes even stickier. On top of this conundrum, the privacy policies in place prevent anyone from knowing anything about the medical condition of someone else. This makes sense in some ways, not in others. It certainly has never helped my son, even I cannot get information about him unless he approves. In the case of Jared Loughner, it is really irrelevant. No one knew anything because there was nothing to know. I expect there will be no treatment records, no diagnosis, no medical attention whatsoever. And yet, all the evidence points to the fact that he is one criminally insane individual. How else can you explain someone walking into a grocery store strip mall and attempting to execute as many people as he had ammunition to do? And if he had no handgun, would it not have been driving a vehicle at top speed into the crowd? That could have had an even worse result. Or maybe he could have just strapped a bomb to himself. How about wielding an axe or a sword? Doesn’t really matter much does it? There was NO WAY TO STOP HIM, no one knew anything, and the only talk radio he was listening to was the set of voices inside his head. He was neither right wing nor left, he simply is insane, criminally so.

I personally believe, after having observed and taught other family members about mental illness over the past six years that we are ALL on the scale somewhere. We all have our depression, anxiety, psychosis (dreams are an example...), mania, denial, neuroses and delusions. Have you ever had a song stuck in your head you couldn’t get rid of, an earworm? There is a theory (and it's just a theory...) that those on the extreme ends of the spectrum got there because it has been naturally selected for and has brought us language, higher math, music and art.

The only difference between someone who is 'crazy' and someone who is eccentric is their personal financial position. All I can say is I will keep fighting the stigma, misconceptions and the lack of understanding and do my best to educate others. That's the best I can do. And I will not stand for, for whatever reason, someone killing others. It can't be excused away by psychosis or psychopathy. I would, I think, feel the same way if it was my son in Loughner 's shoes, but I'm not sure.

I just don't think my son would be allowed to arrive at the extreme point Mr. Loughner found himself at without some kind of intervention on my part. Mr. Loughner received no intervention. We don't know much about him except there were some signs he exhibited behaviorally before he executed 6 people and wounded 14 others.

What signs do we need before we step in? That’s a really, really good question for which I do not have an answer. I do know that blaming people or actions which had no obvious connection with the situation gets us nowhere.

Please see www.NAMI.org for help if you have a situation you find troubling. NAMI has affiliates all over the country, and you can find someone locally who will help you. NAMI is where I found my advocacy.

Jared Lee Laughner was no unbalanced psycopath. This was the typical mind control slaughter. We can see how this goes on and on in history, cruel unexplained assassinations that are later justified by mental illness arguments. All this has to do with the so called gang stalking "synchronicities". Why does Laughner appears with a grimy smile in the sheriff's picture shown to the whole world? Because we are talking about mind control. Who or What is behind this mind control on going terrorism? Some american researchers talk about a non-human origin, a non-human intelligence that always uses deception to divert the blame on us humans (the Tea Party, the CIA, etc)

I have shared these words earlier and I'd like to share them with you now.

"....The tragic shooting of people in Tucson, Arizona in the company of Representative Gabrielle Giffords is a sad event. Our thoughts go out to those who struggle to heal and those who grieve for the lives which were lost.

Cannabis does not cause violence in the millions of people who are daily, habitual users of marijuana. In fact, quite the opposite. You may read sensationalized editorial pieces about the dangers of marijuana use by paranoid schizophrenics. Is there such a danger? Since I’m not a paranoid schizophrenic, and since nobody I have ever known or heard about using cannabis has ever been violent, I’m certain that I have nothing to worry about regarding my own habitual cannabis use and either violence or schizophrenia, paranoid or otherwise. Notice that you see only a few stories, thin on fact, fat with speculation, innuendo and wild assumptions.

Is marijuana for everyone? Absolutely not. Is that any reason to stop my habitual use of marijuana? I enjoy using marijuana habitually and have never been moved to violence. Cannabis relaxes me and enhances my life. We at Green Hit Shirts are sorry about the shooting, but our cannabis use is not to blame. We stand with you in seeking help for Jared Loughner and anyone who suffers from mental illness who may be a danger to themselves or others. We recommend that doctors monitor cannabis use by those with mental illness, offering alternative therapies which will help the user achieve similar desired results without suffering from any known dangers.

I’m not a doctor, but I know that marijuana has never ever once caused me to have a violent thought. Trust the science, and encourage the science to take place...."

Marijuana is a painkiller. It hasn't been analysed and tested enough to see if it has curative properties.

Does marijuana affect someone's personality? My bf says that, in his observation, marijuana ramps up a person's mood. If you're happy, it makes you happier. If you're sad, it makes you sadder. If you're angry, it makes you angrier. So it's very likely that Jared Loughmer's schizophrenia was amplified by his pot use.

Wow. You continually come up with the wildest and most sensational stories. Maybe he shot all those people because he's a habitual car driver. Or maybe it was grand theft auto. Or maybe political unhappiness. Either way this is an unfair parallel to draw and certainly seems to have a hidden agenda....like your other articles.

If MotherJones article isn't enough, I urge you to view today's issue of The Wall Street Journal and read the headline article: "The postings of a troubled mind". The article is about Loughner's postings on an online forum. It includes posts made directly by Loughner, and the investigation was conducted directly by The Wall Street Journal.

The ninth to last paragraph reads as follows:

"On May 9 at 2:00 a.m., he asked: "Does anyone have aggression 24/7?" By noon, when others suggested he try smoking marijuana, he said: "No Weed. No Drugs. It's not like I can't see my brain." The last sentence drew puzzled responses from others."

Hmm, who to trust here? This article, or arguably the most reputable and unbiased newspaper in the country. You decide.

(PS: I also think the fact that Dr. Drew is the "specialist" here should speak for itself.)

I love reading all of the stupid ass comments by these unemployed geniuses advocating pot use. Toke up man!!!

Friend: _After_ Loughner quit pot, "his theories got worse [emphasis added]." http://m.motherjones.com/polit...Loughner, according to Tierney, said, "I'm going to lead a more healthy lifestyle, not smoke cigarettes or pot anymore, and I'm going to start working out." Tierney was happy for his friend: "I said, 'Dude, that's awesome.' And the next time I saw him he was 10 pounds lighter." Tierney never saw Loughner smoke marijuana again, and he was surprised at media reports that Loughner had been rejected from the military in 2009 for failing a drug test: "He was clean, clean. I saw him after that continuously. He would not do it."After Loughner apparently gave up drugs and booze, "his theories got worse," Tierney says. "After he quit, he was just off the wall." And Loughner started to drift away from his group of friends about a year ago.

la weekly deleted/censored my first comment for some reason... i guess because i was insinuating that perhaps one of the writers at the la weekly gets money behind the scenes from mexican drug cartels? follow the money. i'm sorry, but until we legalize marijuana that is where we are sending our money... straight into murdering mexican drug lords' pockets. these drug lords are killing reporters in mexico! but i guess you think that's okay?

i really hate how scientific data is just thrown out the window in this article. what was the control in the marijuana experiments? how many people were part of the study? romero, smoke a joint and maybe it could help you calm down and think about the facts in your articles. maybe you could concentrate on what you are reporting. the news? or biased propaganda. marijuana did not kill a 9 year old girl that day... a man who never felt accepted in this society did. please think before you write, romero.

the mexican drug cartels must be pulling some strings at la weekly. sending money to murdering drug lords on we go. a lot of people with anxiety, depression, and other mental disorders self-medicate with marijuana. therefore, more people are depressed, anxious, etc who use marijuana... what was the control in dr. drew pinsky's study? or in the national institute of drug abuse? follow the money... straight to the mexican drug lords.

interesting that this was posted today. yesterday a friend of his came out and said jared had been clean since 2008 and had recently refused to touch the stuff. if anything, it was the lack of weed that pushed him over the edge.

http://motherjones.com/politic...

Wow Mr Romero. I am rather curious to your blatant bias in your writing. Do you think you are being funny? Are you trying to be hip? I see you post this garbage on a regular basis.

Writer...Go smoke some pot. once you actually know what it does, you will come back and beg for this post to be brought down....because you made a fool of yourself. Pot is used by all classes and cultures. Millionaires to normal middle class corporate America....including me. Not just by low income criminals. Seriously, please tell me.....what fuels your hatred toward a substance proven to be safe...? It No Make Sense.

As usual, Dennis Romero plays fast and loose with the facts: cannabis IS NOT legal in California. After reading his slop regularly, it's pretty obvious he's a sufferer of meth delusions. JS is just a mean drunk.

Mr. Romero, if you want to start acting like an actual journalist you should dig a bit deeper and find out what prescription drugs Jared Loughner was using. It is a well known fact that some of the prescription drugs on the market cause psychotic outbursts, yet you've taken the easy route and are attempting to link marijuana use to this tragic event.

I'm a psychiatric nurse practitioner in NM with several hundred active patients in our medical cannabis program, for treatment of PTSD. In my experience, cannabis is the most effective, safest, and best tolerated medication available for reducing irritability, anger, and suicidal/homicidal ideation. It's likely that Loughner was not using cannabis at the time he went on his rampage. I hope they release the results of his toxicolgy reports. If he had access to a consistent supply of this medication, he may not have killed anyone. Prohibition likely played a more significant role in these murders than did cannabis.

Since you ask . . . No. I don't think marijuana had anything to do with the suspect's state of mind. I think a LACK of marijuana may have been the more likely culprit.

Hope BBQ was being sarcastic, otherwise he's not overly bright. BBQ pork is worse for you than pot anyway.

Heavy use of pure indicas without any sativas can lead to compounding depression and lack of responsiveness to cannabis. This is why I like to mix in some good Trainwreck or Jack Herer and not just smoke Kush all the time. Folks, weed is a drug just like tobacco alcohol and pharmeceuticals. It can be addictive and can have side effects. That said its far safer than tobacco and alcohol, and should therefore be legal. Linking the plant to this story is most likely the work of a hater.

Now if it was booze, would you hear a call for the return of Prohibition? Stop being ridiculous. Booze causes more injuries, deaths, etc. than ganja ever has or will.

Lol drew pinski? You mean the guy who drags a bunch addicts infront of a camera with the lure of fame and money- who are all trying to outdo each other in their mania? Yea that is a great idea- lets trust his opinion.

Studies that link marijuana to schizophrenia are a joke, here I'll write a study that implies the crud under my toenails is preventing the 3rd world war, but take away confounding factors and there is nothing left to those arguments.

Funny how it looks like he aged 10 years since his mugshot and those other goofy photos up on the web considering he is what 22- gee maybe he was doing something like meth which IS a shizophrenic antagonist, or cocaine (a brain scan of someone high on coke is almost indistinguishable with a bad case of schizo. But coke does not age you like that it merely destroys muscle tissue (including the heart)

If anything cannibinoids act as a anandamide agonist which is the antagonist of dopamine and floods the hippocampus with activity (also restores it) shorting attention span- that does not make people violent, meth, pcp, coke, alcohol THOSE make crazies crazier. It certainly can raise anxiety as the amygdala reacts but compounded with the effects on the hippocampus that would leave mentally ill people more confused then angry about their anxiety.

In the 1940s when hardly anyone but jazz musicians smoked pot, the rate of schizophrenia was about 1% of the US population.

In 1979, the peak of marijuana use in America, the rate of schizophrenia was about 1% of the US population.

In 2011 when we have fifteen states that recognize the medical use of marijuana, the rate of schizophrenia is about 1% of the US population.

Also, we have a mentally ill man saying he was a regular marijuana user but a MEPS urinalysis, which could detect marijuana use in a regular marijuana user for anywhere from seven to ninety days, came up clean. Perhaps he was lying to the recruiter. Maybe it's a "let's waste the government's time" ruse to go all the way through to that point and then force them to reject him for something as innocuous as pot use.

This article was produced to make pot heads angry. That's all.

What a load of HOGWASH! Marijuana DOES NOT make people violent, it makes them more calm and cautious!

Virtually all the problems attributed to marijuana are actually problems directly and completely caused by marijuana PROHIBITION!

No one, of any age, in all of recorded history, anywhere on planet earth, has ever died from the ingredients in marijuana and they never will, marijuana is nontoxic.

Irvin Rosenfeld states the case for legalizing marijuana very well in this video! Watch him destroy all the lies about marijuana consumers being lazy and unproductive. Watch him destroy all the lies about long term heavy marijuana use being harmful. Learn the truth about marijuana!: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...

Why is the most useful plant known, a plant that has never killed anyone, illegal? It’s illegal because corporations that buy politicians fear competition from superior, safer and more environmentally friendly hemp products and because the Government loves to oppress jail and steal from the people! Alcohol, tobacco, petroleum, cotton, timber, chemical and pharmaceutical companies, just to name a few all see marijuana as unwanted competition. Guess who “contributes” to politicians that promote marijuana prohibition!

Want your freedom back? Legalize marijuana! That will take away Uncle ”Sham’s” most common excuse to trash the Constitution and pretend like the Government is protecting you from yourself! The Constitutional right to freedom of religion, free speech, a free press, to keep and bear arms, to be secure in your person, house, papers and effects against unreasonable search and seizure, to life, liberty and property, to be protected from having your property taken by the government without due process of law and without just compensation, to confront the witnesses against you, to be protected from excessive bail, excessive fines, cruel and unusual punishment, to vote and others have been unjustly denied to tens of millions of Americans in the name of marijuana prohibition. Someone is arrested every 38 seconds in the USA on a marijuana charge. What good is that doing? Is society better off because of marijuana prohibition? NO, not at all! The only ones that benefit from this unjust, unconstitutional prohibition are crooked corporations that profit from selling inferior lower quality more environmentally harmful often toxic products that hemp will replace once we legalize it. The only other benefactors of marijuana prohibition are illegal drug dealers.

All major authorities agree that the vast majority of so called “drug-related” violent crime is caused by the prohibition of drugs, rather than the drugs themselves. It was the same during alcohol prohibition. Alcohol prohibition created violent criminal organizations just like every other drug prohibition has. These violent crimes should be labeled PROHIBITION RELATED, not drug related. Ending alcohol prohibition is exactly why you don’t see shootouts over that drug trade any more. Stop funding criminals, gangsters, illegal aliens and terrorists with hundreds of billions of tax free $ every year! THE YEAR ALCOHOL PROHIBITION ENDED VIOLENT CRIME FELL BY 65%! Marijuana accounts for roughly half of the entire illegal drug trade. Legalizing this one nontoxic plant that it is impossible to overdose on will take away HALF of all the illegal tax free money that is funding all the illegal drug dealers. “When you fund something you get more of it”: Ron Paul. Does anyone really think we need more criminals, gangsters, illegal aliens and terrorists?

“What about the kids?”. Marijuana prohibition does not keep kids from using marijuana! Illegal dealers don’t ask for ID! Would you rather have your kid locked up with killers and child molesters, or would you prefer to do your own parenting? Do you really believe an arrest record on a drug charge that will follow them for life and possibly a criminal conviction record on a drug charge that will follow them for life is going to help little Mary and little Johnny be stellar successful citizens?

“What about car accidents?” Marijuana and driving: http://peaceandloveism.com/for... Google MARIJUANA DRIVING STUDY. You'll see 2 common findings:1. Drivers under the influence of marijuana are VERY SLIGHTLY impaired.2. Unlike those under the influence of alcohol, marijuana consumers are aware they are SLIGHTLY impaired and they CONSISTENTLY ADEQUATELY COMPENSATE by slowing down a little and being a little more cautious. That doesn’t mean they get in the fast lane on the interstate and drive 15 miles per hour. Marijuana makes you cautious, not crazy! Those Cheech and Chong movies are comedies not documentaries!

http://www.jackherer.com/thebo... "In the 1920s and 30s, Hearst's newspapers DELIBERATELY MANUFACTURED a new threat to America and a new yellow journalism campaign to have hemp outlawed. For example, a story of a car accident in which a marijuana cigarette was found would dominate the headlines for weeks, while alcohol-related car accidents (which outnumbered marijuana-connected accidents by more than 10,000 to 1) made only the back pages. This same theme of marijuana leading to car accidents was burned into the minds of Americans over and over again..."

The laws prohibiting marijuana are NOT a result of any harm from marijuana. They are the result of lies, greed and racism. Read the well documented proof of that and a lot more marijuana TRUTH in these two articles: “MARIJUANA AND HEMP THE UNTOLD STORY, Thomas J. Bouril” and “WHY IS MARIJUANA ILLEGAL, Pete Guither”, click the links to those articles on this webpage:Internet Explorer web browser: http://jsknow.angelfire.com/ho... All Other Browsers: http://jsknow.angelfire.com/in...

No matter which side of this issue you’re on PLEASE read the two articles linked above. It’s almost certain you’ll learn things about marijuana and marijuana prohibition that you never knew before.

If anything, cannabis prohibition caused this. If the US were not so hell bent on following the policies of the racist megalomaniac Richard M Nixon, we would be exploring how best to use cannabis to treat people & this man may well have not been trying to treat his own illness with it. Idiots.

if he was smoking pot..was he also using SSRI antidepressants like zoloft? these are known to induce homicidical ideation

I think that Dennis Romero has an anti-cannabis agenda, based on this article and other articles he has written on the subject in the past. I am surprised that a publication such as the LA Weekly has such a person writing for them.

Let's make a list of all things that Jared Loughner likes and/or uses or consumes, and outlaw every one of them. You can't be "too sure", you know...

While I'm thinking about it, can anyone imagine Willie Nelson doing this kind of thing? After all, he's been smoking pot for about as long as I've been alive! On top of that, considering there are millions of tokers out there, this world would be a violent free for all if marijuana made people violent. Loughner is just a total loser - nothing more to it!

That is the stupidest sh*t I've ever heard! I've smoked weed at least three times a day for the last 6 years and it hasn't done that to me. Fu* k you dr. Drew! I'll kill you!!..... man I'm depressed!

I know we shouldn't judge a book by it's cover by I can easily tell just by looking at him that Loughner is a weird dangerous freak!

What this article FAILS to point out is that this young man was the son of a government official, mentioned forced MIND-CONTROL several times, and obviously displayed plenty of signs of mental (and possibly physical) abuse and instability long before this incident (Can you say MK!). Also, look at the target...NO, not the fact that she's a congresswoman, but the fact that she's the wife to an Active Duty Navy Astronaut, and they're trying to keep his trap shut. Here's ANOTHER example of the wife to a "key" white house player getting whacked...this happened yesterday. http://www.washingtonpost.com/...SURE her car just blew up inside the garage with "her" in it, because she bumped into something while in park.All of this coming on the heels of Wheeler's untimely demise, ANOTHER white house aid with pentagon connections: http://www.onenewspage.com/new...These are called political assassinations, and they are NOT uncommon, especially under a facist regime. They are all related, and it's all about Disclosure.

wow what a stupid article

Clinical evidence indicating that marijuana use may be casually linked to incidences of schizophrenia or other psychological harms is not compelling, according to a scientific review published online by the journal Addiction. http://bit.ly/gTVpf9

In October 2008 Loughner told his closest friend, Bryce Tierney, with whom he had gone to high school and college with, that he had in fact quite smoking marijuana. Tierney never saw Loughner smoke marijuana again, and he was surprised at media reports that Loughner had been rejected from the military in 2009. It was only after Loughner apparently gave up marijuana, "his theories got worse," Tierney says. "After he quit, he was just off the wall." And Loughner started to drift away from his group of friends about a year ago. By early 2010, dreaming had become Loughner's "waking life, his reality," Tierney says. "He sort of drifted off, didn't really care about hanging out with friends. http://bit.ly/gCeUbI

I am opposed to marijuana because I watched it ruin 3 otherwise healthy young mens' lives. They became lackadaisical, disinterested in life, one got fired for drug use, the 2nd never had a real job till he was 40, at which time he discovered that he was so far behind everyone of his own age that he couldn't ever catch up. The third died in his 20's of alcohol poisoning (he frequently mixed pot and hard liquor).

Sorry, mood altering substances are not healthy, be it alcohol or drugs. It's just not good for people. And to legalize marijuana just pumps more unhealthy choices into the lives of our young people.