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Anyway, expecting the inevitable claim that marijuana is a peaceful drug, I drew up a list of the major crimes, some political, some not, whose perpetrators or alleged perpetrators have been found, either through police records or the testimony of their acquaintances, to be cannabis users.
I thought I'd reproduce it here. The order is random. The usual caveat applies. All I am saying here is that ultra-violent crime is a subset of crime as a whole, which is distinguished by being thoroughly covered by the media. This information is available about the criminals which is not available about most criminals.
I would like to see the police and courts compelled by law to investigate and record the drug use of all persons convicted of violent crime, and for the results of this recording to be the subject of an inquiry into an apparent correlation. That is all. Anyone who says I have said anything else is making it up. They will. Please disregard it.
All the following are known cannabis users:
- The mass killer on the beach in Sousse, Tunisia, Seifeddine Rezgui.
- Jared Loughner, culprit of the 2008 Tucson massacre in which six died and Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was terribly wounded.
- Deyan Deyanov, killer (by beheading) of Jennifer Mills-Westley in Tenerife,
- Nicholas Salavador, killer, by decapitation, of Mrs Palmira Silva in London,
- Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale killers of Lee Rigby,
- Cherif and Said Kouachi, and Ahmedy Coulibaly, culprits of the Charlie Hebdo Killings.
- Ibrahim and Saleh Abdeslam, and Omar Ismail Mostefai, culprits of the Bataclan killings in Paris last November,
- Martin Rouleau, killer of an unnamed Canadian soldier (unnamed by the choice of his family) in St Jean-sur-Richelieu in October 2014,
- Michael Zehaf Bibeau, killer of another Canadian soldier,
- Nathan Cirillo in Ottawa, also in October 2014,
- Jonathan Bowling and Ashley Foster, killers of the Sheffield church organist Alan Greaves, beaten to death for no reason,
- Ayoub el-Khazzani who attempted a terrorist outrage on the Thalys train between Amsterdam and Paris.
Who is next?????
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What was going through Salman Abedi’s mind when he made that journey to Manchester Arena on Monday night? How does someone do something so unspeakably evil as to slaughter and grievously injure innocent young children in this way?
Was he a psychopath? Was he evil? I do not know the answer but I do know, as the Mail reports today, that according to his friends Abedi was a frequent and heavy cannabis smoker.
Studies into the personality type of would-be jihadi terrorists have found some recurring themes that make an individual ‘ripe’ for radicalisation. They tend to feel angry, alienated or disenfranchised.
There is also a strong sense of victimhood and that they are fighting for a social injustice.
They have a poor sense of identity and tend to be ‘adolescent’ and petulant. This kind of personality type, combined with cannabis use, surely produces an individual more receptive to the kind of hate-filled rhetoric peddled by radical Islamists.
For too long, we have ignored the terrible toll of this drug. Too many people have dismissed cannabis as harmless — something to help you relax and chill — and that an individual should be free to buy and use as they choose.
Now, more than ever, we need to wake up to a pernicious substance that ruins not just the lives of those that take it, but countless others around them in ways we might never have imagined.
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On February 2, 2017, Psychiatrist.com published the case of a 20-year old man who went into psychosis from first time marijuana use. The paper reveals: “Several first-time, non-chronic cannabis users have presented to our clinic with psychosis or thought disorders lasting months after first- or second-time cannabis use.” The authors work at Columbia University Department of Psychiatry and the New York State Psychiatric Institute.
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“It is beyond epidemic proportions. There truly is a tidal wave of Alzheimers disease", says, Dr. Fortanasce. An estimated 200,000 people in the United States un rage 65 are living with younger onset Alzheimers disease. And hundreds of thousands more are coping with mild cognitive impairment, a precursor to Alzheimers and other dementia. Through his research, Dr. Vincent Fortanasce, a clinical professor of neurology in Southern California, believes that there may be a link between chronic use of marijuana, especially when started at a young age - and Alzheimers.
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Anandamide regulates how active neurons are, and how much neurotransmitter they release. This acts as a sort of ‘dimmer’ switch, slowing down communication between cells and keeping all the circulating chemicals on an even keel and in balance (homeostasis). Levels of the neurotransmitters, dopamine, serotonin, endorphins etc for pleasure, mood, appetite, motivation, body movement, cognition, concentration. memory, brain development etc are all kept in balance by anandamide.
But THC is much stronger and persistent. Being foreign to the body it has no enzymes to break it down, it is fat-soluble so remains in the fatty brain cells, around 50% for a week, 10% for a month, with traces for weeks afterwards, all the time giving out signals and interfering with total brain functioning.
Even one joint/month will ensure a permanent presence of THC, and as Professor Sir Robin Murray says, ‘users will be in a state of low grade intoxication most of the time’.
Anandamide is overwhelmed - the whole brain chemical signalling system is thrown into chaos. And the general excitability of the brain’s neural networks is greatly reduced.
See also How does marijuana produce its effects? How does marijuana produce its effects?