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Boy on skunk cannabis butchered a grandmother »
Posted by: Varadinum 2 years, 7 months agoA teenager who was crazed by high-strength cannabis butchered a grandmother after 'voices in his head' told him to stab a woman.Ezekiel Maxwell, a paranoid schizophrenic, launched the horrific attack after years of smoking super-strength 'skunk weed'.
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Comments: 287
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picvegita
April 3, 2007, 10:35 a.m.Is this story real?
And if it is, then I think the fact that the kid involved was an unmedicated schizophrenic had alot more to do with him losing his grip on reality. Instead of blaming weed, why not spend more money on mental health?
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audacious
April 3, 2007, 10:44 a.m.Alarmist headlines about cannabis are ignorant and a product of "Reefer Madness' mentality .. ANYTHING can be a trigger for mental illness.... where's the headlines about the massive psychological and physical damage linked to alcohol...
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jc4969
April 3, 2007, 12:13 p.m.that title should read "paranoid schizophrenic stabs grandmother"
having known schizophrenics and potheads, its extremely obvious which one of those is the contributing factor.
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JohnQPublicComment has been removed: User banned.
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toddfuller
April 3, 2007, 1:09 p.m.as society is on the cusp of decriminalization, i am sure we are going to see a flury of stories of horrific nature, blaming weed, and assigning it responsible for the break down in morals and values in our society.
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pacificmist
April 3, 2007, 1:11 p.m.Give me a break. The pot didn't make the kid crazy, he had that going for him in the first place. I have yet to see anyone go nuts from pot no matter how strong they think it is. That strong of pot would just make him go to sleep, or sit in a cornor and veg for hours not go on a killing rampage. I live on the coast of Californis where pot has it's place. Now you take the "meth heads" that is a different story that I would believe. But pot noway. They need to do some checking. That is like placing the blame on all pit bulls for every dog bit that happens.
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LovelyHoney
April 3, 2007, 1:17 p.m.OK--I'm a square. What exactly is cannabis? Is it similar to what we call "blunts" here in the U.S.? Pure marijuana doesn't make you crazy--hungry and sleepy maybe--but not crazy. But marijuana "laced" with a chemical I feel can make you loco.
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pacificmist
April 3, 2007, 1:28 p.m.Like I said they need to do some checking, when I was young they used to lace joints with PCP or angel dust. Now that will do it for you. Make you crazy as a pet werewolf. SO do they still lace joints with stuff. I am older, wiser, and out of the loop, and yes cannabis is still pot, marijuana, skunk what ever you want to call it and here is the U.S. we call it everything from cronic to smoke. Call it what you will, hungry and sleepy are the major side effects.
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ecotour
April 3, 2007, 7:32 p.m.And, did you ever wonder why there is no "Mothers Against Pot Smokers?" (MAPS)
Drugs, Alcohol and violent toys ought to be looked at with a little more scrutiny. (MADD)
I think we should all be growing our own to keep cannabis pure and all governments out!
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nateweb
April 3, 2007, 2:08 p.m.The important questions that need to be asked are:
Where the hell were this kid's parents/guardians?
Why wasn't someone making sure he was taking his meds?
Why was he allowed so much time alone that he would be able to smoke all this "killer" pot?
The boy's potsmoking didn't cause these crimes to happen. His untreated paranoid schizophrenia did. Whoever was supposed to be looking out for this kid is responsible for this. Not only is his victim's family's life ruined, so is his. Because no one was there to look out for him, he turned to self-medication. Of course, he's not totally free of responsibilty in this. But this could have turned out differently if SOMEONE cared.
At least this story can make a scapegoat out of pot.
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raza9
April 3, 2007, 2:44 p.m.ROFL......OMG ....Seriously? Can we say Reefer Madness...This slam against the "evil plant God gave us called Cannibis" wouldn't have anything to do with the bill introduced into congress last week promoting the growth of hemp for bio-fuel production...would it? Let's scare everyone into thinking that pot toking kids and adult will be running around in a muderous rampage and trying to get high off of hemp....so the bill can be squashed and we can continue to invade and occupy oil rich countries. Also, I've played Grand Theft Auto and have never felt the urge to steal cars or kill people. This story is exactly that a "story"....such sorry journalism.
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UBCONFUSE
April 3, 2007, 3:19 p.m.Also note this is in the UK where free medical care and free medications are everywhere, especially for the poor, poor people forced by circumstance beyond their control to live in public housing and have to endure endless ques to get anything from those stingy British baaaastards.
So let's see here, free health care, free medicine, public dole as person is mentally challenged, but he simply could not take his medicine. However, he could mug (the English say you were "turned over" for the term mugging)and commit other crimes of theft. Also, he had access to super potent cannabis.
Sounds like society has failed again.
His punishment will be to reside in a garden like setting with all of needs fulfilled, yes it will be cloudy and wet, but it is free after all. Cherrio chap.
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Dharma
April 3, 2007, 3:26 p.m.At least we can see through this charade and come to our own conclusions about what caused this. Remember, when reefer madness first came out, alot of people bought into the hype. Apparently some still do (or at least someone hopes they do!)...... And the funny thing is in high school we called the smelly "headache weed" skunk. It was the bad stuff, NOT the good stuff......
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BananaSlug
April 3, 2007, 4:29 p.m.It'd be a much nicer world if people had better critical thinking skills. There's too much of the "Well X was present when Y happened, so X is what caused Y," thinking. Way too simplistic.
News has become just another form of advertising, and has become less about giving relevant information, and more about tweaking people's emotions. Throw out some of those, and people jump around like trained animals, doing whatever is wanted of them based on the words used. Want them to stop paying attention to money laundering? "Gay marriage would cost taxpayers millions"! Want to get people to pay less attention to the rights of the homeless? "Lazy drug addicts given free housing"! Want people to ignore the high rates of abuse against poor women? "Careless mothers kill unborn babies!"
The article wouldn't have gotten any attention if it'd been titled, "Old woman killed by mentally disturbed boy."
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BananaSlug
April 3, 2007, 4:31 p.m.Oh, and the "Throw out some of those" was in reference to a sentence I had to delete because, for some reason, it will only allow me to write a post with fewer than 900 words, rather than the limit of 1,000. Stupid. The term cut out was, "Emotion-tagged words."
Oi.
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1basque1
April 3, 2007, 4:52 p.m.This sounds more like something a crack-head or Meth smoker would do...I just don't believe for one minute that this piece of sheet was smoking cannabis,skunk, rag weed,blunts, what ever...
Had not taken what medication? For his paranoid schizo...There is your answere!
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ConquerorWyrm
April 3, 2007, 5:03 p.m.This is a stupid scare tactic article.
There was a case in the late 20's or early 30's when Anslinger & Hearst were trying to quash hemp production. It involved a mentally psychotic young man who murdered member(s) of his family with an axe. The kid MIGHT have smoked marijuana and might not have. It didn't matter. Even though cocaine use was just as or even more rampant then as it is now, even though you could still order heroin via mail-order in Sears & Montgomery Ward catalogs (or if not, find it easily) and even though alchohol was, despite prohibition, rampant, Hearst focused his papers for weeks on end describing this event and placing all the blame on marijuana. The technique worked regardless.
I guess it's time for a reprise...but in protest to such cartoonish BS and the continuance of such stories, I'm sinking this one.
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ConquerorWyrm
April 3, 2007, 5:11 p.m.As for this article, 2 of the 3 'experts' interviewed were in some intimate way connected to supposed 'mental health charities'. The third was a toxicologist who makes, what I see, as a rather stupid, unfounded, and unscientific statement "People are beginning to realise that cannabis is not the puff and relax substance that people used to use." But hey, at least the article doesn't have him back up his claim or offer any explaination, right?
As for the two 'experts' who make their living off of lying about cannabis, well, that's the first problem with their statements. They have a vested self-interest to promote which is to ensure they have clients they can 'treat' and the more things they can claim false cures for, the more clients and thus the more money for their 'charity' and, more importantly, their pockets.
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ConquerorWyrm
April 3, 2007, 5:19 p.m.One of the two 'experts', Mr. Jenkins states: "While there can be several triggers for mental illness, we know that if used by people under 18, cannabis doubles the risk of psychosis."
In this statement, he presents a workable, and thus should be provable, statistic...'cannabis DOUBLES the risk'...
Doubles? What is the baseline from which the doubling occurs? 18 is a magic age? Is there any reason that one under that age by, oh, say a week is in twice the danger of someone over that age by, oh say a week?
Also, there has never been a valid nor substantiated study linking cannabis with psychosis.
This first 'expert' is a fraud.
The second concerned profiteer, Marjorie Wallace, puts forth an assertation that the chances of schizophrenia boosts by a factor of 10. Again, from what base? They quote 'studies'...but WHAT studies? No basis...not fact...nothing but scare and fear for there ARE no studies suggesting such.
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ConquerorWyrm
April 3, 2007, 5:32 p.m.Further, the use of the word 'skunk' is used throughout the article with clear attempts to seperate it in the minds of the reader from cannabis. Again, this is demonization at work.
Then, just a wee bit into the article, we learn that the kid had also been familiar with cocaine, a drug which can incite aggressive behavior. Note how further discussion over whether or not cocaine contributed in any way doesn't even exist. Why? Cocaine is not the target here...cannabis is.
Even further into the article we discover the kid has had psychotic tendencies in the past and was placed on anti-psychotics. Even further, we learn that the extremely powerful mind-altering anti-psychotics which the kid had been on weren't being taken at the time. Looking at other incidents where tragedy occured, in almost every case (speaking of all those school shootings) the kid had just gone on or off similar medications.
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cleare
April 3, 2007, 5:43 p.m.the so-called "experts" want us all off our hash and onto their prescription meds. why?? 'cause they aren't reaping the profit.
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