Denver Student Killed by Cannabis… and the Ground. Mostly the Ground.

The headline that came out of Denver following the death of a young man caused me no small amount of puzzlement. “Pot cookies blamed for death,” reads the journalistic hook. Yet, as is often the case, the headline alone really only tells a small (often biased) perspective of the issue.

This case echoes that of Gemma Moss, the young mother from England who (supposedly) died from smoking a joint. Empirically, yes, Ms. Moss’s autopsy did register the presence of cannabis. In similar fashion, this young man in Denver, 19 year old exchange student Levi Pongi, technically had cannabis in his system; but I think once you read the details of this death, you will understand why my BS spidey sense is going crazy.

Here’s how the night unfolded, according to CNN.

Levi was celebrating spring break with some friends on the fourth floor of a Denver hotel. He then (apparently) ate a pot cookie before “growing hostile, pulling items off the walls, and speaking erratically.” After this supposed fit, Levi calmed down and relaxed. Later in the night (it’s unclear how much later) he went to the balcony and jumped to his death.

That’s the whole journey. Yet the coroner who performed the autopsy felt that sufficient evidence to report that “marijuana was a significant contributing factor to death.” Anyone out there in Weedist land ever hear/see a person grow hostile, speak erratically and destroy property after getting high? Anyone ever heard/seen a person get so out of their mind on pot that they jumped from a balcony? I certainly haven’t.

If this story had been about people partying and accidentally falling off the balcony, I would believe it more readily (although I would guess that those instances almost invariably involve alcohol).

Also, I have to wonder, if Levi had just been drinking and then jumped, would we be hearing from the coroner that alcohol was a “significant” factor in the death?

You know what killed Levi? Hitting the ground from 50 feet in the air. Having pot in your system at the time of death doesn’t mean that pot killed you. If I died with rice in my stomach, would you automatically report that Devilmonk was killed by rice? No. Of course not.

Dr. Scott Bentz who works in the Emergency room said he found it surprising that the autopsy blamed cannabis for this death. He says that emergency room visits involving cannabis are extremely rare (just a few per year) while alcohol related visits happen daily. Dr. Bentz said that though there is a slight difference in how edibles affect you versus smoked cannabis, it doesn’t affect your impulse control (which is what Levi did not use before jumping).

It is, of course, a tragedy that a young man died. I, in no way, mean to denigrate his memory or cheapen this incident. But I do feel that misleading headlines are not helping anyone except prohibitionists. The fact of the matter is (even in the fantasy world where pot really did kill Levi Pongi and Gemma Moss) alcohol kills literally thousands of people per year (that’s not from accidents either, that’s just pure alcohol toxicity) yet is perfectly legal.

So I guess I’m just wondering about the validity of trying to use cases like these rare and suspicious cannabis deaths as a means of edifying all of us sinners about the evils of our herb. I think Project SAM may need a new pair of shorts after reading about Levi. They will load their bullshit cannon full of “truthy” statements and scare the snakes in the bushes.

Again, I feel I need to point out that I am not unwilling to change my belief that cannabis is safe if some solid, convincing evidence ever crops up to give me reason to do so. But it seems that every time the “pot killed person X” stories come up, they are always clouded in questions and uncertainty. When alcohol, meth, or cocaine (all of which have a lesser governmental danger rating than cannabis) is a cause of death, you know damn sure that said substance is the culprit. These cases involving cannabis always have a giant fucking asterisk with them.

For the time being, I will continue smoking cannabis to my pleasure. Guess it’s a good thing that I live on the first floor of my building though, right?