David Frum On Tucson Tragedy: Let’s Blame Pot Rather Than Easy Access To Guns

[butterfly77]

http://thinkprogress.org/2011/01/10/frum-az-shooting-pot/



Following Saturday’s tragic shooting of several people, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ), by 22-year old assassin Jared Loughner, many have asked how someone who displayed so many obvious characteristics of mental instability was able to easily obtain access to a semi-automatic firearm. As Time Magazine’s Nathan Thornburgh points out, Arizona has particularly weak detection and reporting of mental health. (It is technically illegal to sell firearms to the mentally ill.) In a post on FrumForum, conservative pundit David Frum dismisses renewed calls for gun control and instead says that the incident should “remind us why we regulate marijuana,” noting that Loughner is suspected of being a marijuana user. He writes that there may be “renewed pressure to control the weapons that committed the crime,” but instead chooses to place blame on the “trend these days toward a more casual attitude and easier access to…drugs”:

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.” <...>

After the Tucson shooting, there may be renewed pressure to control the weapons that committed the crime. But what about the drugs that may have aggravated the killer’s mental disease? The trend these days seems toward a more casual attitude and easier access to those drugs. Among the things we should be discussing in the aftermath of this horror is the accumulating evidence of those drugs’ potential contribution to making some dangerous people even more dangerous than they might otherwise have been.

[Duer 157099]

1. Sure, but let's blame his QUITTING pot then

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=439&topic_id=164372&mesg_id=164372

[sabrina 1]

4. Better send that to Frum. I was about to

post it also.

I guess he failed to make whatever point he was trying to make.

[Blue_In_AK]

2. This is idiotic,

but not surprising, since I keep reading about all the pot-smoking that this kid did. More hippie-punching, I guess, like all of us who enjoy a toke now and then are suddenly going to run out and start shooting people. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

[butterfly77]

9. Booze and oxy..

has to be the cause for sooooo much rightwing violence.

[sabrina 1]

10. Except he had quit drugs and one of his friends stated that

he became worse after quitting. What that says to me is the guy was self-medicating and when he stopped, his mental illness was out of control. He needed medication but never sought help apparently. So, if Frum wants to inject the use of drugs into this tragedy, he would do better to talk about how much this guy needed medication and the poor state of our health care system especially regarding the mentally ill, thanks to Reagan.

A complete failure to defend whatever he was trying to defend. And sloppy journalism since he apparently wrote the article and then did not check the news to watch has been a continuously developing story. So caught up in his agenda, he just threw it up assuming himself to be some sort of oracle.

I don't know how these people get the jobs they have. Nearly everyone here on DU who is NOT being paid to be a journalism already knew by early this morning, that the killer had quit drugs. Had he still been on pot, the tragedy might not have happened.

[Blue_In_AK]

12. I saw that after I had posted,

and it does indeed make sense. My own daughter has social anxiety disorder and self-medicated with pot for quite a while before she finally went to the doctor and got some meds which make her feel much better without the lethargy. She's also going to counseling in hopes that she can phase off the meds later.

[sabrina 1]

17. I am very happy that your daughter received proper treatment.

I think many people do self-medicate who have not been treated. I wish there was more understanding of mental health issues, and more available treatment. I wish your daughter all the best and am really happy she is doing so well.

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. This is a classic from the 1922 war on pot

yes it is that old.

Pot does not make people violent...

JAYZUS.

[Duer 157099]

5. But quitting pot just might

It looks like he was self medicating and then, probably due to pressure from somewhere, stopped "taking his meds." And this is what happens when some people stop taking their meds.

[nadinbrzezinski]

13. Yeah but he was and is mentally ill

no, I am going into the propaganda... pot makes people violent. No it does not. They are just being damned predictable. Next they will tell me that pot makes Mexicans crazee for sex and rape... (1922 vintage)

[devilgrrl]

6. That's got to be some of the stupidest shit I've ever read.

Then again, David Frum wrote it, so I shouldn't be surprised.

[seabeyond]

7. what was the pot story? i havent read anything about his pot smoking but

comments here and there he was a pot smoker

[sabrina 1]

11. Early reports said he smoked pot. But apparently he had quit

smoking and according to a friend, he became much worse after quitting. So Frum's article is based on false information. He must have a lot of egg on his face by now, as I'm sure he's received the updates on the 'drug' part of the story from many readers.

[seabeyond]

16. oh no, on getting worse. and ok, thanks. nt

[flakey_foont]

8. how many people has Willie Nelson killed?

or the members of the Grateful Dead?

pot is not a violent drug

[SteveM]

14. "Pot-smoking loner?!" Sheesh. When I'm holding, I got plenty of friends. nt

[mmonk]

15. Never smoked, eh David?