Opinion: Drug Test All Mass Shooters and Make Results Public
An Open Letter to the NRA From LifeTime Members and Drug Prevention Activists
CARMICHAEL, CA, USA, March 30, 2021 /EINPresswire.com/ -- There is a clear and well-researched connection between drug use and violent crimes1 including mass shootings. The role of marijuana-induced psychosis (which is becoming more common) in violence is also well documented.
If we expect to maintain gun rights in this country, the National Rifle Association (NRA) must recognize and begin speaking from this truth.
--NRA needs to call attention to marijuana-induced psychosis as a cause of mass shootings.
--The NRA needs to fight for toxicology discovery and reporting in all gun violence incidents.
The auto-response to every mass shooting seems to be more gun control. Yet, as the NRA and its members are always quick to point out, it is the shooter who is out of control.
The National Rifle Association is powerful enough to help our politicians focus on the root cause of mass shootings. It also has the ability to educate the public, media, and elected officials about the probable culprit in these mass killings.
The NRA needs a defensible position against mass shootings and gun violence that will protect gun rights, guns and gun owners.
We ask the NRA to promote a national bill that would be turned into law to drug test all mass murder suspects and make results open to the public to see within a reasonable time frame. The results will be eye opening for many. As members of the NRA and drug prevention organizations, we see that marijuana psychosis2, and polysubstance abuse are playing a substantial role in mass shooting incidents around the U.S.A.
Getting the toxicology on mass shooting events is ESSENTIAL to forming public policies that can actually address this national crisis. In our experience, even when positive test results of such perpetrators are found, there is precious little publicity. So, we believe it is critical that there is public release of the test results.
We also plead with the media, editors and crime reporters to make the substance use history of the shooter a standard follow up story to any mass shooting incident.
As early as the 1960’s experts noted a connection between heavy cannabis use and paranoia. Often these people imagine they were being followed. Of course, they were hallucinating; they were not being followed. This was back in the decades when cannabis was far lower in THC potency (the cannabinoid in marijuana that causes mental disorientation). Most pot was 2% - 3% THC. Present levels of THC in marijuana plant and product form far exceed that. Some reach THC levels nearing 100% and cause greater mental problems, including psychotic breaks, psychosis and schizophrenia.
News reports about the most recent shooter in Boulder, Colorado clearly reveal that he was paranoid and experiencing hallucinations about being followed. We need authorities to follow this evidence to the facts. What substance or substances were in his system which influenced his disordered thinking and unspeakable acts of violence?
The people promoting drug legalization are happy to let the NRA and their second amendment advocacy become the fall guy for every mass shooting. It is time to place the blame where it actually belongs. We need to address all causes of violence and mass murder3.
Mass murder is on the rise. We have to ask what has changed in society to increase the numbers of mass murders? Two of the things that have changed are the increase of marijuana use and its potency.
Signed:
Scott Chipman, Vice President Americans Against Legalizing Marijuana, Lifetime Member
Dave G. Evans, Esq., Senior Counsel, Cannabis Industry Victims Educating Litigators, Lifetime Member, NRA
Robert DuPont, President, Institute for Behavior and Health
Phillip Drum, Pharm D
Cris Dosev, Lifetime Member, NRA
Jeff & Stephanie Haynes, Lifetime Member, NRA
Harold Patin, Global Drug Consultants
Roger Morgan, Take Back America Campaign
DeForest Rathbone, Chairman, National Institute of Citizen Anti-Drug Policy
Dr. Carol Fox, co-author of textbook, Creating Drug-Free Schools and Communities.
Dr. Shirley E. Forbing, co-author of textbook, Creating Drug-Free Schools and Communities.
Paul Chabot, Texas Conservatives Against Legalizing Marijuana & Coalition for a Drug Free Texas
Merilee Fowler, Executive Director, Matforce
Sally Schindel, Marijuana Harmless? Think Again
Brook and Carla Lowe, 44 years volunteer
Kimberly Hartke
Hartke Communications
+1 703-675-5557
email us here
1 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7084484/
2 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4352721/
3 https://mailchi.mp/b9f03a00052d/marijuana-and-mass-murder-go-hand-in-hand-1672213
