Florida Face Eater
 

So, a lot of people were betting on that guy in Florida who ate the homeless man's face was chock full of weird and dangerous psychoactive drugs. Turns out he was only high on pot.

That was a vicious case of the munchies.

Tox screen positive only for pot doesn't mean that was the only thing he was high on. LSD doesn't show on a drug screen ... I suspect mdpv doesn't either, but I can't find any information on my favorite go-to for drug information.

What I do know is that people can get and stay shit-crazy for a week or more on bath salts.

He may just be bat-shit crazy all the time but that day he happened upon a hooter.

Tox screen positive for pot doesn't mean he was high on it when doing the deed. It means he was probably high on it some time in the last few weeks.

It will turn out that he was bat-shit crazy all the time and what was not found in his blood were the anti-psychotic drugs he should have been taking or stopped taking.

(no more entries please footer has won the thread)

Dewey Finn: Ok, here's the deal. I have a hangover. Who knows what that means?
Frankie: Doesn't that mean you're drunk?
Dewey Finn: No. It means I was drunk yesterday.

--School of Rock

I remember a friend of mine going bathit crazy on ketomin and ghb. Thought the Bradford muslims were armed and preparing to launch a jihad against white people.

He got himself some guns and survival basics and locked himself in his house, wrapped in an old army blanket.

I was reading an article on Yahoo!News about this.

One of the commentors said "On marijuana, you might get the munchies, but not that bad."

Either the bathsalts shit was just not showing up in his system (if, as Wolf says, it can keep someone derailed for a week or more this seems a possibility) or he had an underlying psychiatric condition. The fact that he had pot in his system doesn't mean it was pot that made him eat a man's face.

I hate that street name. Because dumbass middle-aged people, who get all their information about the new hip drugs from places like USA Today, are not aware that the drug is not actually bath salts. And then they overhear you talking about epsom salt baths, and they start to lecture you on how it's not safe to have that stuff around the house when you have a teenage stepdaughter...

hahahahah shit.

A HA! Kismet! I found out why! I just watched this short Australian film and at exactly 2:00 she explains the reason! The whole film is only 3:53 and pretty funny in a dark way.

No, he was just really off his face.

That video is great!

Nah, pot in itself probably isn't what did it, but I wouldn't rule out the pot being a factor. Pot can lower inhibitions in some people. And there's been word this guy wasn't entirely right in the head well before all this, but he didn't want to get help for it. Given that, his head probably wasn't right to have those kinds of chemicals in it at all. And if he had smoked pot, I somehow doubt it was his first time.

I guess what I'm saying is, based on what's publicly available about him and the situation, I don't think all the behavior he exhibited from the first reports of him swinging around naked on lampposts up until he was finally shot dead would have happened if he hadn't had psychoactive chemicals in his brain, whether it was the first hit or a slow build-up over time. I kinda wonder what he'd have been like if he had gone on a booze bender.

Maybe he was insane, and the pot was an attempt to self medicate. Maybe the insanity caused him to steal the face right off that dude's head. Maybe the pot had nothing to do with it.

Excellent tubing Classic.

It never does...

Oh, come on, people, when was the last time you saw a straight-up pothead do anything more violent than make a macrame wall hanging? Or develop elaborate plans for bettering the world that never get acted upon?

Crackheads, yeah. Junkies, rather less so. Meth-heads, absolutely. Bath salts, for sure. And don't forget our old friend, PCP.

Plain old weed, that's a de-initiator, not an initiator.

It's too bad you have to be born in the U.S. to be President. He could have beat out Romney in the Republican primary.

Pardon me, but WTF is "bath salts" slang for? Speed?

its synthetic, legal, designer speed basically, yeah.

I have, but no one would (want to) believe me.

I believe you, but I also believe it wasn't because of the pot.

I would believe that someone smoked and got violent. What I wouldn't believe was that the weed was the catalyst, as opposed to that person's personality, disordered or not, and their capacity to become violent in the first place.

Which is kind of the lesson learned in the face eating case. Our narrative is to say "some drug made him do that", partly because we don't want to believe that naturally-occurring mental illness can make someone do that. We want to believe that all people act according to their choices, and that bad choices lead to bad behavior, as opposed to the other way around.


eta: ok that was what xob sed in 13 words

but on the other hand, ut, shit like meth and bath salts can induce actual psychotic episodes. sure, someone who's just plain old gentle and meek, going psychotic, will probably not be extremely violent, but they can be. I'd say a guy who'd eat somebody's face would have to be pretty fucking messed up without drugs, but i would certainly think they'd be a fairly possible, if not outright likely, factor.

Yabbut on the list of 100 bad things weed can do to you, sudden violence is... not on the list.

I knew a pre-med guy who did meth in an attempt to get a 4.0 in college. He put in twice the study of his fellow students, and got close to his 4.0. But he got zero recommendations from professors - and thus, did not get into med school. Instead he went to rehab. He was otherwise a pretty good guy! I guess my point is, even with meth, which turns many people psychotic, personality makes a difference.

oh yeah, WEED, totally not ever possibly no way dont believe it for a second. i was responding to

But Tony, every expert knows meth turns you into a psychotic knife wielding father raper... within minutes. How could that dude concentrate on studies and complete college? Do you think maybe the experts only see the people doing meth that were psychotic before they did it?

Not to mention some drugs are fine in isolation but mix badly with other drugs.

Hmm... no, I'm pretty sure the psychotic meth people are psychotic due to their long term addictive use. And using really potent versions, and smoking it to get it right into the bloodstream, over time their pleasure centers are just plain burnt out and paranoia sets in.

My friend was a careful user, very smart, studying bio, and still wound up addicted. But he may have been grounded enough and focused enough not to take so much he went over the line to that level.

The History section on Wikipedia is very interesting. For a long long time they didn't even know its adverse effects and it was available over-the-counter.

Did your friend put his life back in order?

I lost touch with him by the time I would have gotten news.

I've done crank a handful of times, and I've always misbehaved while on it. Never illegal misbehavior, just being a dick misbehaving. I doubt if it was psychotic.

I don't think the pot helped the situation. Even if this guy was already wrong in the head without it, having that extra hallucinogen (possibly mixed with something else as yet undetected) would not have made things better. They clearly didn't here. I know some people can go right off the rails with nothing more than their own brain chemistry and a bad day, and those are the people who shouldn't have anything else of that kind in the system mucking things up.

The problem is, you don't know who those people are until it happens, in the same way you may not know you're allergic to shellfish until you're in the ER with swollen everything and EpiPens sticking out of your thighs.

Well shit, that doesn't sell newspapers... or help get drug war funding.

1-Pot shows up in drug tests weeks after it's had any effect.
2-Pot is not a hallucinogen.

It can be.

Four years ago I had some brownies that were so potent I thought I had an acid trip.

That was just a sugar rush. :haha:

It sure is. It's classified as such. It may be a mild one, but it is one. It's not as powerful as acid or LSD, sure. But it is chemically a hallucinogen. Users' experiences will vary, just like with any drug. Compare with pain killers. Just because aspirin may not relieve pain from an individual's ouchie doesn't mean it's not an analgesic. Some people (for whatever reason) need Schedule II before the pain goes away.

Balderdash, only by people with a buck to be made or job security in mind, not by people that know what the fuck they're talking about.

There is still too much we don't know to make black and white classifications. The effects of weed change tremendously depending on strain and the person and seems to fall under multiple different categories.

I am not aware of any explanation for the effects me and two of my friends felt (we came to the conclusion pretty much independently BTW) while the other three people taking it felt no such thing besides being very high. Also, there are anecdotal reports of weed users experiencing HPPD (Hallucinogen Persisting Perception Disorder), which only occurs from use of hallucinogenic drugs. I wouldn't classify weed as a pure hallucinogenic but it can have hallucinogenic properties.

Well since I'm not looking to make a buck and it has nothing to do with my job or its security...

Quote:

High doses of cannabis can cause hallucinations and sensory distortions that can be very scary. Those who use the drug when anxious or depressed may find these conditions made worse. Panic and paranoia could then result.

Drugs that can ease pain are call pain killers. Drugs that can stimulate the nervous system are called stimulants. Drugs that can cause hallucinations are called hallucinogens.

Weed can do all three.

Like all inebriants YMMV, depending of the phase of the Moon, weight of the jockey, and square of the date.

New face-eating sitch in China.
It's the beginning of the end I tell you. They're coming to get you Barbara.

Send me money for airfare, pronto!
Wolf, stock up on ammo and PG Tips and I'll be with you as soon as I can.

http://www.rt.com/news/cannibal-china-chewing-face-311/

There must be something about the face that makes it prime selection for the cannibalistically-inclined head cases. ...the recent ones, at least.

Dr Drew points out that it could be bath salts after all: there's no good blood/urine test for them, and headline writers don't understand that not detecting something doesn't mean it wasn't there.