Mom Claims Son Would Be Alive If It Weren’t For Legalization Of Marijuana
Laura Stack’s 19-year-old son, Johnny, died by suicide nearly three years ago. She says the legalization of marijuana allowed Johnny to easily access high-potency marijuana concentrate that she says led to psychosis and his untimely death.
“It wasn’t until after his death, when I started writing, and researching, and forming our nonprofit, that I really understood the potency and how what he had used had ruined his mind. And, he knew it had,” Stack tells Dr. Phil on Friday’s episode, “Is America Too High on Marijuana?” “According to the National Institutes on Drug Abuse, cannabis use does cause suicidal thinking, suicide attempts, and sadly, suicide in my son.”
San Diego ER seeing up to 37 marijuana cases a day — mostly psychosis
Meg and Scott knew something was going on with their son Kyle when, during the pandemic, he began refusing to get out of bed to attend class online.
Up until then, Kyle had been like a dream son: tall, good-looking, strong, athletic, with a great sense of humor. He was such a good baseball player that talent scouts were checking him out, and had a decent chance of someday playing in the Major League.
“He had the world by the balls,” his dad said. (At the family’s request, The Post has used pseudonyms.)
Now, Kyle was constantly irritable and depressed and wanted to drop out of his New Jersey high school. Then, one night, he lost it completely, fantasizing that his parents wanted to kill him.
CEO and founder of Johnny’s Ambassadors at Hershey Public School explaining the dangers of marijuana
HERSHEY, Neb. (KNOP) – Laura Stack is Johnny Stack’s mom and the Founder and CEO of Johnny’s Ambassadors.
The 19-year-old college student and math whiz snapped a photo of the mileage reading and posted it, along with a cryptic message, on Snapchat. Then 40 minutes later Stack walked to the ledge and jumped to his death. Johnny Stack was addicted to high-potency marijuana.
Laura has worked tirelessly since his tragic death to try and prevent what happened to Johnny from happening to others. She travels the country educating people about the dangers of marijuana on the adolescent brain. This week she spoke to 6th to 12th graders at Hershey High School.
“What happened to him is 100 percent preventable,” she says. “I know that with all my heart.”
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For 30 years, Dr. Libby Stuyt, a recently retired addiction psychiatrist in Pueblo, Colorado, treated patients with severe drug dependency. Typically, that meant alcohol, heroin, and methamphetamines. But about five years ago, she began to see something new.
“I started seeing people with the worst psychosis symptoms that I have ever seen,” she told me. “And the worst delusions I have ever seen.”
These cases were even more acute than what she’d seen from psychotic patients on meth. Some of the delusions were accompanied by “severe violence.” But these patients were coming up positive only for cannabis.
Stuyt wasn’t alone: Health care professionals throughout Colorado and all over the country were seeing similar episodes.
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With THC levels close to 100 percent, today’s cannabis products are making some teenagers highly dependent and dangerously ill.
‘Oh well, it’s just weed.’
Laura Stack, who lives in Highlands Ranch, Colo., said that when her son Johnny first confessed to using marijuana at the age of 14, she said to herself, “Oh well, it’s just weed. Thank God it wasn’t cocaine.”
She had used marijuana a couple of times in high school and cautioned him that marijuana would “eat your brains cells.” But at the time she wasn’t overly concerned: “I used it, I’m fine, what’s the big deal?”
“But I had no idea,” she added, referring to how marijuana has changed in recent years. “So many parents like me are completely ignorant.”
Initially, her son did not have any mental health problems and excelled in school. But he eventually started using high potency marijuana products multiple times a day, and this, Ms. Stack said, “made him completely delusional.”
By the time he reached college, he had been through various addiction treatment programs. He had become so paranoid that he thought the mob was after him and his college was a base for the F.B.I., Ms. Stack said. At one point, after he moved out of his childhood home, he threatened to kill the family dog unless his parents gave him money. His mother later discovered that Johnny had obtained his own medical marijuana card when he turned 18 and had begun dealing to younger kids.
After several stays at mental hospitals, the doctors determined that Johnny had a severe case of THC abuse, Ms. Stack said. He was prescribed an anti-psychotic medication, which helped — but then he stopped taking it. In 2019, Johnny died after jumping from a six-story building. He was 19. A few days before his death, Ms. Stack said, Johnny had apologized to her, saying that weed had ruined his mind and his life, adding, “I’m sorry, and I love you.”
A recent study found that people who used marijuana had a greater likelihood of suicidal ideation, plan and attempt than those who did not use the drug at all. Ms. Stack now runs a nonprofit called Johnny’s Ambassadors that educates communities about high-THC cannabis and its effect on the adolescent brain.
This week, Martha sits down with award-winning keynote speaker, best-selling author, and mother Laura Stack, who lost her son to suicide, after his use of highly potent marijuana. Laura details the hidden dangers of using marijuana, the process the marijuana industry uses to create highly potent marijuana and touches upon the studies that have been done on the effects of marijuana on kids.
Rocky Mountain PBS – March 28, 2022
9News – Family who lost son to suicide calling on state for THC potency limits
November 26, 2020
