The Fiffords shooter was obviously a pothead. He was rejected for the military because he tested positive for marijuana, and his drug use is well established.
That leads to these two questions: Did marijuana use lead to mental instability? Or did marijuana use cause an already disturbed mind to go completely off of the beam? There is also the queston of whether marijuana use led the shooter into trying drugs with even more of a mind altering qullity--resulting in the shooting.
Q.E.D. There is evidence that those who encourage marijana use are moraly responsible for this shooting--certainly more evidence than that Sarah Palin or Rush Limbaugh is responsible.
The shooter was described by one former classmate as a "leftist". As stated in my previous article, that is debatable, because at this extreme of a deranged mind, "left" and "right" have little meaning. What matters is the derangement. However, there is no doubt that the shooter waws NOT a conservative, or influenced by any conservative figures. There is also no doubt he wass a heavy marijuana user.
Thus, the question is whether advocates of marijuana use adequately considered the effect that marijuana may have on a mentally disturbed individual--to the extent the marijuana itself does not cause mental instability. Using the standards of the left, and the mainstream media (see previous article), this clearly places moral guilt on those who have encouraged marijuana use, inclluding pushing for its legalization. No, we can't be SURE that marijuana use caused the shooting, but a link could certainly be inferred. Furtehr, this shooting makes clear that marijuana users are dangerous individuals. The shooter was NOT a Tea Party member. He WAS a heavy marijuana user (as well as anti-religious, and therefore subject to being triggered by the hate statements of Bill Maher and other anti-religious bigots and atheists, as described in the previous article).
Even if the shooting was not directly related to the marijuana use, does not the shooting provide an opportunity to explore the DANGERS of marijuana use--especially with regard to mentally disturbed individuals--and suggest that pro-marijuana groups should "damp down" their rhetoric? By the standards of the mainstream media (CNN, MSNBC, The New York Times, and the rest), this conclusion absolutely follows.
You can make the following flat statements about marijuana, all of which are objectively true:
1. Marijuana is a mind altering drug that adversly affects both the mind and the body--the only question being the degree of the adverse effect. This shoooting would suggest that the degree of the danger is understated.
2. Marijuana is definitely more dangerous to a mentally disturbed individual with a mental disease, as is true of any drug (or alcohol). Again, the only questioin is the degree of the danger. Again, this shooting would idicate the danger is underestimated. Is there such a thing as "Reefer Madness"? That, of course, is the title of the "camp" old movie looked upon as ridiculous becaue of its hystericxal overstatement? of the dangers/effects of marijuana use. Whether "Reefer Madnes" was ridiculous (and it was) as to the normal effect of a single marijuana cigarette, it seems clear (at least likely) that marijana use by a person with a severe (and maybe not so severe) mental disease is a disaster waiting to happen, even assuming (why?) that marijuana is not capable of triggering a mental disease itself (or by leading a prson to experiment with LSD and other, even more dangerous, mind altering drugs).
3. Marijuana is a DISASTER for children--including adolescents. That is true not only of children exposed to the drug (second hand smoke, even?), but of children whose primary care givers are heavy marijuana smokers.
4. "Medical use" of marijuana is a sham and a fraud. That is not because there may not be some (minor) benefits--on some pain and related problems--from the use of marijuana. It is because that is just an EXCUSE to try to get around the law, and to use a spurious argument for the legalization of marijuana.
5. It is a myth--a totally false myth, as this shooting shows--that people who smokew marijuana are automatically non-violent and non-dangerous. That is simply not true. In fact, as this shooting illustrates, the opposite may be true--especially as marijuana interacts with a disturbed mind.
6. To say that marijuana is not as bad as alcohol is to DAMN marijuana with faint praise. Alcohol is a truly danagerous drug. I say that as a person who drinks (moderately). If alcohol were not so well established in our society, you would have to be insane to make it legal. As far as public health and safety is concerned, there is probably NO measure that would do so much good as the EFFECTIVE prohibition of alcohol. Yes, I a saying there is a strong case that the people behind Prohibition were RIGHT, except in their assessment of human nature (and perhaps their concept of frredom--as if modern leftists believe in "freedom", which is completely disproven by the anti-smoking Nazis and the "fatty foods" police).
P.S. See my previous article. Yes, again it is ABSURD to "blame" marijuana, or those who promote its use, for the shooting of Babrielle Giffords. That is, it is absurd unless you use the standards being used by leftists, the mainstream media, and Democrats (that unholy trinity who are One) to assing moral blame to conservatives. There is MORE evidence to connect marijuana use to this tragedy than there is to connect Rush Limbaugh--a LOT more. Yes, I am seriious about the 6 items above about marijuana (as I was serious about the hate sppech of people who are militantly anti-religious). Marijuana is NOT a "harmless" drug. But you simply can't use one incident to say that marijuana makes peopole into mad killers, or converts people with an already existing mental disease into maad killers. That is a stretch you simply can't make, bu--again--there is MORE evidence for that stretch in this shooting than for blaming the Tea Party or "extreme" political discourse. I repat: It is an EVIL thing to try to USE this kind of tragedy to push your political agenda, or to push ridiculous ideas that yoyu have to "choose" yor words in political discourse carefully so as to avoid triggering a MADMAN. There is MORE evidence that this particular madman was "triggered" by marijuana than that he was triggered by Rush Limbaugh. But say he left a note saying that Rush Limbaugh caused him to do it It would still be an EVIL thing to say that the disturbed mind of a MADMAN is the "fault" of Rush Limbaugh. Yet, can you imagine the media reaction to such an event? These (the media--in additioin to this shooter) are SICK people pushing sick ideas trying to USE a tragedy to push their own agenda. They should be ashamed, but they have no shame.
P.P.S. Note, again, that the above is not either proofread or spell checked, unless this note is deleted, because of my poor eyesight. :ove wotj ot/
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