David Frum Blames Ariz. Shooting on Reefer Madness

Posted on Jan 12, 2011

Jared Loughner is accused of shooting 20 people in Tucson, Ariz.

The former Bush speechwriter who coined the term “axis of evil” claims a link between Jared Loughner, schizophrenia and pot smoking. Forget guns, “The Tucson shooting should remind us why we regulate marijuana.”

Much of our culture’s historic intolerance of marijuana grew out of racism and the quack science used to justify it. Frum acknowledges in his blog post that the “connection between marijuana and schizophrenia is both controversial and complicated.” But, he writes, “The raw association is strong.” That’s like saying “I can’t prove anything conclusively, but I’ve got a gut feeling.”

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, 42.6 percent of Americans have consumed marijuana by the time they graduate from high school. If Frum is correct, we’re going to have a lot more dangerous schizophrenics to deal with. Perhaps we should get on top of the situation by drastically increasing funding for mental health services and amending the Constitution to ban guns.

Whether pot makes you crazy, lazy or fat, you can’t shoot someone without a gun.  —PZS

David Frum / Frum Forum:

After horrific shootings, we hear calls for stricter regulation of guns. The Tucson shooting should remind us why we regulate marijuana.

Jared Lee Loughner, the man held as the Tucson shooter, has been described by those who know as a “pot smoking loner.”

He had two encounters with the law, one for possession of drug paraphanalia.

We are also learning that Loughner exhibited signs of severe mental illness, very likely schizophrenia.

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