Amongst a huge supply of marijuana in Arizona, recent incident in Phoenix illustrates the damage done to judgment, perception and memory by smoking weed.
At one o’clock last Saturday morning in a quiet Phoenix, Arizona neighborhood, a nineteen-year-old mother put her six-week-old baby in a car seat and got ready to go home. She had been visiting a friend and smoking weed to calm down after the arrest of her boyfriend on aggravated DUI charges. As the young mom drove off, she left the baby in its car seat on the roof of her car. At the intersection of West Chollo and North Forty-Fifth Avenue, the car seat slipped off into the road.
The baby wasn’t injured in the fall but the young mother continued to drive down the road, unaware that she had just left her baby girl in the street.
The young mother’s name is Catalina Clouser. Her boyfriend, jailed for aggravated DUI charges, is the father of the child. Earlier that night, Catalina, her boyfriend, and another friend gathered in a park while they smoked grass. Then Catalina and her boyfriend headed to the store to buy beer with the baby in the car. The young man was pulled over by police and because of the infant in the car, was given the increased charge on the DUI. Angry over the arrest, Catalina went to the friend’s house for more weed.
Her marijuana abuse provides an explanation as to how she was able to forget her baby. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, marijuana abuse can result in short-term memory loss plus impairment of attention and judgment. The boyfriend’s DUI was consistent with the loss of coordination and slowed reaction time that occurs with marijuana abuse.
Will America’s Youth Follow in Her Footsteps?
According to a recent report from the Partnership at Drugfree.org, four million American youth may be following the same pattern of behavior each month. In a 2012 report on marijuana use by American teens, the Partnership at Drugfree.org stated this as the number of teens who abuse marijuana each month. What’s more, one and a half million are heavy users, smoking week twenty times a month or more.
“Marijuana usage is socially accepted in many peer groups, especially younger peer groups,” stated Derry Hallmark, Director of Admissions at Narconon Arrowhead in Oklahoma. Narconon Arrowhead is a premier drug rehabilitation and prevention center near McAlester, Oklahoma. “The majority of people coming to us for rehab started their drug use with marijuana. That’s why marijuana is often called the ‘Gateway Drug.’ But Ms. Clouser’s tragedy proves that even a so-called Gateway Drug offers it own perils of bad judgment and lack of accord.”
Arizona is Awash with Marijuana
Perhaps it’s not surprising that this event occurred near in Phoenix. News reports from the area reveal the plentiful supply of marijuana and other drugs moving across the US-Mexico border and into Arizona.
In the same week, Pinal County Sheriffs found more than a thousand pounds of marijuana in three abandoned or hidden vehicles in the desert. It’s common for Mexican drug traffickers to steal cars in Arizona, run them across the border where they are filled with drugs, then drive the vehicles back into the US through the wide open countryside. Two of the vehicles were still full of food and ice, indicating that they had only recently been abandoned.
The day before the baby fell off the roof, Cochise County deputies found 270 pounds of marijuana in a home in Pirtleville.
Ironically, the State of Arizona is accepting applications from companies who want to open medical marijuana dispensaries. There are ninety applicants for the fifteen dispensary licenses planned.
“Over the two decades we have been in Oklahoma, we have helped many people from Arizona recover their sobriety,” commented Mr. Hallmark. “We look forward to helping many more people steer clear of addiction and find productive, enjoyable lives as a result of our effective drug rehabilitation and prevention activities in Oklahoma and in all the surrounding states.”
For more information on the Narconon rehabilitation or prevention programs, call 1-800-468-6933.