Right now the media is just beginning to break the latest news on the Piketon OH massacre and we are all deeply saddened by this act of violence. Eight members of a Pike county Ohio family (the Rhodans) were found dead in three of the family’s properties that were used to grow pot and run illegal cock fights (Article here). The local media has been working this story for several days and the police are slowly building the story they want the public to accept; headline: family slaughter pot related. I will not be sharing any gory details because that only serves those that want to use acts like this to spread fear. Nothing excuses or justifies this and we all support the perpetrators meeting swift justice. There is however no justification for this crime to be used as a tool to push back on the loosening of cannabis regulation. This is not a drug related crime.
The media is already reporting the police spin, that this is a drug related crime. When an Oxy addict car jacks you; that is a drug related crime. When gangs go to war over who deals on whatever block, that is a prohibition related crime. Steroid user beats girlfriend, drug related crime; illegal smuggling operations that fund terrorists, prohibition related crime.
A drug related crime is when a drug user commits a criminal act in order to obtain, or because they were impaired by, drugs.
A prohibition related crime is when the prohibition of a drug encourages the organization of criminal enterprise to produce and sell that drug.
A grow house/cock fighting pit bathed in blood is to this reporter nothing less than the clearest sign we need to end the prohibition so that we can cut off this dangerous criminal element from its funding.
I haven’t met a lot of murderers or cock fighting fans but I have met plenty of stoners so I’ll tell you what I know about them. Most of us are calm, go figure. Some of us have tempers (me) but in most cases pot helps curb those tempers not incite them. Most of us like animals (I am more fond of reptiles due to allergies but each to their own) and the idea of abusive sports like cock or dog fighting sickens us, as do the monsters who promote it. All the things that make this crime a horror to the modern American mind tells me this was not the work of some Mansonite pothead cult but likely a major criminal organization that is immersed in both black market marijuana and illegal gambling events.
Pot inspires music, good movies, weird food choices, and wild adventures; these crimes of murder and animal abuse were most likely inspired by greed.
This was a random act of easily preventable violence. If we as a society choose to stop persecuting adults for what they enjoy we can remove the funds that drive these crimes. When the cartels and other gangs can’t rely on pot to fund their other ventures they will collapse from in fighting. Yes that will mean brief uptick in instances of criminal on criminal violence; but that will be the darkness before the dawn. We deserve an America that does not wake up to these crimes anymore. We need to call out the media that promotes easy fear over hard facts. We need to elect politicians that want to keep Americans safe rather than make cops into soldiers and criminals into tycoons.
Don’t give in to the fear.
