There are literally 30 years worth of study results that prove that chronic or heavy use of marijuana can produce cannabis induced psychotic disorder. Cannabis has been shown to exacerbate the effects of pre-existing psychiatric disorders and large quantities of marijuana produces symptoms in users that mimic schizophrenia. Here’s a handy .pdf that gives the abbreviated findings of all this research. The Nemesis Study from 2002 (found on page four) should be of particular interest.

I mention this because many a pot smoker has shown up in the comments of older Victimless Crime File posts claiming pot has NO ill effects. When I mention that the only reason to smoke pot is to alter your mind, which can have severe consequences, these pot smokers display addict-like anger and start railing against cigarettes and alcohol. Neither of which I partake in myself.

The point is that people smoke pot to change their mood and behavior, to alter their perceptions. To do this pot changes the way your brain functions, and because it is believed that the brain continues to develop well into your twenties, constant pot smoking can re-wire your brain permanently. This is why pot users often display “suspicious thinking” and paranoia, and believe in bizarre and illogical ideas. In some cases users may seem to live in a fantasy world of their own making.

Which brings me to Christopher Mundell. Mundell was both drunk and stoned when he was left in charge of a 2 1/2-year-old girl while the child’s mother went on a late night/early morning snack run. We can safely assume that means she too was imbibing. When the mother and her friends returned, they found Mundell covered in blood.

He was asleep on the couch as if nothing was wrong.

The mother went to check on her daughter and found the girl had been stabbed in the thigh. She called police and during the investigation they found the child had been raped by Mundel, and her blanket set on fire.

After raping and stabbing the girl and perhaps trying to set her on fire he simply laid down on the mother’s couch and went to sleep.

From WCVB:

BOSTON — An Athol man who was babysitting his girlfriend’s 2-and-a-half-year-old daughter has been accused of raping the toddler and lighting her blanket on fire.

Police said a friend of the child’s mother called police early Monday morning. When officials arrived at the home, they found the victim’s mother holding the child, who had a slash on her leg. Christopher Mundell, 22, was taken into custody after police saw blood on his face and a knife in his shoe.

“The mom came back and that’s when they discovered Mr. Mundell covered with blood. They went in and checked on the child, and that is when they found that the child had an injury on her leg,” Athol Police Department Chief Timothy Anderson said. “The child was found to have a small knife wound on her upper thigh. Later that morning, we brought the child to the emergency room for treatment of the injury. At that point in time, it was found out that she was sexually assaulted, as well.”

[…]

At the time of his arrest, police said Mundell was intoxicated and was in possession of marijuana. He was arraigned in Orange District Court and held on $250,000 bail.

People get high to lower their inhibitions. But pot lowers inhibitions by mimicking mental illness in the brain. I know some pot smoker will come here and claim getting high had nothing to do with this crime, that it was just as likely Mundell would have done this sober. I don’t buy that frankly, but even if I were inclined to believe that drunk and high people never do things they wouldn’t normally do how many sober people rape and stab a baby, set a fire and then take a nap at the scene of the crime?

h/t Reader Jessica