Friday, March 18, 2011

Murder and Marijuana

Our entire county was shocked by a vicious crime earlier this week. In the beginning, very little was known. We heard that two people had been murdered and that two more had arrived at a local store badly injured. This took place in a little town two and a half hours from the county seat and ended with a police car chase down highway 101 that left the suspect dead.

In our area it's hard not to instantly think of drugs when you hear this sort of thing. In the past twelve months we've heard about fires and kidnappings and it always comes back to the same cause: Marijuana production.

We've spent the last couple of days waiting to hear more information. Tonight the local news was shocking. Here's the story as it was told on the news:

A 911 call came in on Sunday night from a town two and a half hours from the county seat. A law enforcement officer (on the news they said a CHP officer, in other reports they've said sheriff's deputy) called a couple who live out in the rural area and asked them to go over and check on their neighbors. When they arrived they found their neighbors dead, with their throats slit and the killer, who was still in the house attacked the two rescuers with a tazer (to the face) and then slit both of their throats as well. The two who had been sent as rescuers somehow made it to the local store separately, where 911 was called again.

The man was able to give a description of the attacker and his car and later that night law enforcement officers spotted the car and attempted to pull it over. The suspect fled and after a very long chase down highway 101 (which is very curvy and cliffy up here) crashed into a tree and was killed.

Both rescuers have survived. The woman was sent to a University with a slit windpipe and the man was later released from the local hospital.

If you're from our area, there's still a good chance you'd be wondering, after reading about all of this, about the motive (and how drugs, very likely fit into the picture). I lived in Humboldt county when I was growing up (actually in Garberville, the town that the two victims were taken to the hospital in) and I can't view marijuana production and use through rose colored glasses as other bloggers can.

And then the reporter announces the next sentence and it all makes sense:

The suspect was linked to the scene by evidence found in his car, which included marijuana packaged the same way as marijuana found at the scene of the crime.

Of course growers can twist this and say that legalization would have prevented this (because stealing marijuana that was legalized just wouldn't make sense, right? People never steal things that are legally produced just because they don't want to pay for them?) or that it quite simply can't have anything to do with it because marijuana doesn't make people act differently (I'm trying to come up with a more articulate response but "whatever.... keep living in that fantasy world..." is all that really comes to mind). And of course there are the many friends of the suspected murderer on other blogs (that I don't want to link to because they are all about marijuana production) who say he was a gentle giant and never could have done something like this (again not fathoming that drugs can cause major personality changes...).

In other local pot news, we drove by our old apartment the other day and this apartment (which had four small children living in it and people and people who smoked pot outside) had crime scene tape all around it. I'm sure that had "nothing to do with marijuana" either... I just pray those four little kids are okay...

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