After a school shooter took 21 lives at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, Americans on the Left and Right posed theories on the attacker’s motivations. While the Left blames so-called “assault weapons” and pushes for more gun control, the Right contends that the decline in religiosity and rise in fatherlessness are motivating factors.
But both sides appear to be missing what could be a significant, yet underreported factor — the shooter’s marijuana use.
According to Fox News anchor Laura Ingraham, The New York Times quoted a friend of the Uvalde shooter who claimed that the 18-year-old smoked marijuana. However, the Times later removed the quote from online editions and when Ingraham asked why, the outlet reportedly did not respond.
During her program, Ingraham dove into a litany of studies showing an apparent connection between frequent marajuana use and incidences of psychotic disorder. Progressive mouthpieces like Vice and Media Matters mocked Ingraham for daring to examine the science. But despite left-wing skepticism, Ingraham may be onto something.
An article published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health by Norman Miller — who Ingraham interviewed on her show — and two other authors discussed 14 violent incidents in which marijuana use appeared to be a common thread. Beyond marijuana inducing “paranoia” and “psychosis,” the authors said that “when individuals suffering from pre-existing medical conditions use marijuana in an attempt to alleviate their symptoms, ultimately this worsens their conditions over time.”
According to the article, the shooter who killed 17 students and staff in 2018 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, started “consuming marijuana heavily” from a young age — a habit he confessed in an interview after the shooting.
Likewise, toxicology tests on the 2017 shooter who killed 27 people and injured 20 others at a church service in Sutherland Springs, Texas, “detected marijuana and anti-anxiety drugs” in his system. He began consuming the substance frequently after his expulsion from high school and had a prior arrest for possession of marijuana.
The man who killed nine African-Americans in 2015 at a church in Charleston, South Carolina, started abusing drugs at the age of 12 — a habit that included smoking marijuana three times per day. He began suffering panic attacks at the age of 16 and told others that his “daily marijuana usage caused him to be paranoid and hear voices.”
Miller and his fellow authors clarified that their article was not intended as a research study, but mainly existed to “inform the general public about the relationships between marijuana and violence in the general population and in individuals with mental illnesses.” Studies do, however, appear to support their conclusions.
Earlier this year, The Daily Wire’s Ben Johnson detailed the extensive physical, mental, and emotional problems associated with marijuana use. Beyond summarizing the progressive push toward legalized weed — which, by the way, George Soros and other donors bankrolled with an estimated $71.3 million between 1996 and 2016 — Johnson drew from numerous reviews and studies and presented information that should challenge Americans’ widespread perceptions of marijuana use.
One systematic review of existing research published in the peer-reviewed Cureus Journal of Medical Science explained that “cannabis use, primarily THC in cannabis, in genetically predisposed or at-risk populations” leads to earlier diagnosis of “psychosis” and “schizophrenia.”
“Although CBD shows therapeutic potential, there is still more harm from cannabis than benefits, and adolescent cannabis usage should be discouraged at all costs,” the authors cautioned. “We still need more extensive studies for more detailed data about cannabis and its effects.”
Many medical and psychological research leaders and organizations have been striving to refute the idea that marijuana use helps those experiencing mental health issues. In 2019, the American Psychiatric Association said in a statement that there is “no current scientific evidence that cannabis is in any way beneficial for the treatment of any psychiatric disorder” and pointed to a “strong association of cannabis use with the onset of psychiatric disorders.” The American Society of Addiction Medicine added that cannabis can be associated with “cognitive decline, impaired educational or occupational attainment, risk of other substance use disorders, and poor quality of life.”
Millions of progressives and conservatives alike want to see an end to violence in schools. Yet power brokers and journalists on the Left clearly do not want to burn — no pun intended — one of their sacred cows.
Only two months ago, Democrats in Washington passed a bill banning the word “marijuana” from state laws and documents over concerns regarding its supposed racist implications. Washington State Representative Melanie Morgan, a Democrat, said that the term is “pejorative” because it was once “negatively associated with Mexican immigrants.” The lawmaker has previously alleged that the lack of diversity in the marijuana industry is due to “white supremacist culture.”
There are many Democratic diehards who are currently hand-wringing and pearl-clutching over Laura Ingraham and others opening up scientific journals in an attempt to address the school shooting problem. Yet the people who routinely bash conservatives for denying the science are — as usual — merely projecting their own tendencies onto their political rivals.
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.