Saints Row, Marijuana Send Youth on Rampage, Says British Tabloid
Saints Row, Marijuana Send Youth on Rampage, Says British Tabloid
May 16, 2007
Did Saints Row contribute to a Portsmouth man's violent rampage?The Daily Mail reports that Dominic Anderson spent last November 13th smoking pot and playing Saints Row before going off the deep end. The 20-year-old threw himself onto cars and attacked police officers. From the newspaper's coverage:
Police today said that Anderson's extreme behaviour bore "shocking similarity" to the video game and warned youngsters about the dangers of smoking cannabis...
After playing Saints Row on his Xbox 360 console he fetched a 12inch carving knife from the kitchen, slit both his wrists and attempted to stab himself through the chest.
A police constable reportedly said:
In the computer game, there are instances where you play a person who jumps on top of cars and tries to steal them by pulling the drivers out of them. There's obviously a shocking similarity between the game and the way Anderson behaved, jumping on cars and trying the door handles. His actions were one and the same as those in the video game.
Anderson was in court to plead guilty on the charges. He received a suspended sentence.
GP: From the actual descriptions of the event, it sounds as if Anderson was in some kind of drug - not game - induced meltdown.
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Posted 11/07/09 at 11:33pm
JDKJ: BREAKING: In photo-finish at the wire, House passes health care reform bill. Relatedly, in fit of pique, Austin Lewis kicks innocent dog.
JDKJ: BREAKING: In photo-finish at the wire, House passes health care reform bill. Relatedly, in fit of pique, Austin Lewis kicks innocent dog.
Posted 11/07/09 at 04:27pm
ZippyDSMlee: man I got alot of junk and dup files too >< god I need orginization...and no not the knee capping media mafia kind :P
ZippyDSMlee: man I got alot of junk and dup files too >< god I need orginization...and no not the knee capping media mafia kind :P
Posted 11/07/09 at 04:26pm
ZippyDSMlee: replaced :P
ZippyDSMlee: replaced :P
Posted 11/07/09 at 04:23pm
ZippyDSMlee: beemoh:hey its like 60GB porn,400GB anime 100GB games and crap I have took from all my DVDs, I hate waiting on dvds to install stuff..... oh and 40GB of my porn was in the found.000 folder...mostly corrupted.... least I got names of wut needs to be repa
ZippyDSMlee: beemoh:hey its like 60GB porn,400GB anime 100GB games and crap I have took from all my DVDs, I hate waiting on dvds to install stuff..... oh and 40GB of my porn was in the found.000 folder...mostly corrupted.... least I got names of wut needs to be repa
Posted 11/07/09 at 04:18pm
beemoh: @Zip: ...and you'd have to spend all that time re-downloading that porn?
beemoh: @Zip: ...and you'd have to spend all that time re-downloading that porn?
Posted 11/07/09 at 03:34pm
ZippyDSMlee: ggrrrrr......vista lost one of my hard drives and I had a heart attack thinking I lost 1TB of data....
ZippyDSMlee: ggrrrrr......vista lost one of my hard drives and I had a heart attack thinking I lost 1TB of data....
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:58am
JDKJ: Which could be explained by both (a) and (b).
JDKJ: Which could be explained by both (a) and (b).
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:56am
Austin_Lewis: JDKJ: You forgot C) the fact that, for some reason, every time he did something that would suggest he shouldn't be in the military, let alone an officer, higher ups ignored it or let it slide.
Austin_Lewis: JDKJ: You forgot C) the fact that, for some reason, every time he did something that would suggest he shouldn't be in the military, let alone an officer, higher ups ignored it or let it slide.
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:51am
JDKJ: Part of the problem is, I believe, that (a) the Army had a lot of time and money already invested in him and which they were unwilling to simply write-off and (b) an increasing need for the type of skills and services he provided.
JDKJ: Part of the problem is, I believe, that (a) the Army had a lot of time and money already invested in him and which they were unwilling to simply write-off and (b) an increasing need for the type of skills and services he provided.
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:48am
JDKJ: And that even if he was begging not to get cut loose, he was apparently a real good candidate for being cut loose, anyway.
JDKJ: And that even if he was begging not to get cut loose, he was apparently a real good candidate for being cut loose, anyway.
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:11am
JDKJ: @chada: And while Kennedy once noted that there's usually more than enough blame for everyone to get a slice, the possibility that the Army was unwilling to cut loose someone who was asking to get cut loose could be a factor.
JDKJ: @chada: And while Kennedy once noted that there's usually more than enough blame for everyone to get a slice, the possibility that the Army was unwilling to cut loose someone who was asking to get cut loose could be a factor.
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:07am
ZippyDSMlee: *noms on his feet*..nomnomnomnom*droooll* ...wuuutttttt uuu looking at?
ZippyDSMlee: *noms on his feet*..nomnomnomnom*droooll* ...wuuutttttt uuu looking at?
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:05am
JDKJ: I'm no psychologist, but I'm told that crazy people have a tendency to do crazy things.
JDKJ: I'm no psychologist, but I'm told that crazy people have a tendency to do crazy things.
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:03am
chadachada321: Whoops, was out of the convo for awhile. I do wonder what type of ammo he used etc, but the real issue is WHY he did it, not HOW
chadachada321: Whoops, was out of the convo for awhile. I do wonder what type of ammo he used etc, but the real issue is WHY he did it, not HOW
Posted 11/07/09 at 09:56am
JDKJ: But if it turns out that they actually did, they'll have Hell to pay.
JDKJ: But if it turns out that they actually did, they'll have Hell to pay.
Posted 11/07/09 at 09:45am
JDKJ: And I'd tend to rule out the possibilty of FN Herstal supplying restricted ammunition to someone merely because they're ordering it from a military base.
JDKJ: And I'd tend to rule out the possibilty of FN Herstal supplying restricted ammunition to someone merely because they're ordering it from a military base.
Posted 11/07/09 at 09:37am
JDKJ: I know you don't leave your gated community and get around much in dark alleys, so you may be surprised to learn that there's this thing called "the black market" where, if you've got enough money, ain't too much of anything which can't be bought.
JDKJ: I know you don't leave your gated community and get around much in dark alleys, so you may be surprised to learn that there's this thing called "the black market" where, if you've got enough money, ain't too much of anything which can't be bought.
Posted 11/07/09 at 09:36am
Austin_Lewis: Or, maybe he or someone else at the base ordered the SS190 from FN Herstal.
Austin_Lewis: Or, maybe he or someone else at the base ordered the SS190 from FN Herstal.
Posted 11/07/09 at 09:32am
Austin_Lewis: the hands of private owners. They run about 300 dollars minimum for a box of 50, and boxes of AP 5.7 are extremely scarce, mainly residing in the hands of Class III stores or individuals who for one reason or another got a demo box of it.
Austin_Lewis: the hands of private owners. They run about 300 dollars minimum for a box of 50, and boxes of AP 5.7 are extremely scarce, mainly residing in the hands of Class III stores or individuals who for one reason or another got a demo box of it.
Posted 11/07/09 at 09:30am
Austin_Lewis: There are other firearms that fire the 5.7. However, I too would like to know where he got the ammo and what kind was used. Maybe Hasan, planning not to live through this, went out and bought one the boxes of SS190 that are floating around in
Austin_Lewis: There are other firearms that fire the 5.7. However, I too would like to know where he got the ammo and what kind was used. Maybe Hasan, planning not to live through this, went out and bought one the boxes of SS190 that are floating around in
Copyright © 2007 ECA. All rights reserved.
Game Politics and Game Politics logo are trademarks of the ECA.
Game Politics and Game Politics logo are trademarks of the ECA.
Comments
Check it out. It's been legalized in many countries. It's medicinally legal in many states. And california is even attempting to get it legalized entirely, not just medicinally. The health effects are NOT the same as cigarettes. Cigarettes have MANY MANY MANY chemicals and preservatives in them that are very harmful to the human body. Marijuana has very few toxins compared to tobacco. Additionally, the average pot smoker smoke far less compared to the average cigarette smoker. Yes, there are health risks. But they are far less than both alcohol and tobacco. There are also PLENTY of other prescription drugs with more harmful side effects than marijuana. Please, do the research. Don't be suckered by all the lies the government has been feeding the US population for decades.
Some references:
http://www.drugscience.org/sfu/sfu_longterm.html
http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/History/whiteb1.htm
http://www.ukcia.org/research/gettman3.htm
And the most important one, the LaGuardia Comission. A government funded study about the effects of marijuana.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LaGuardia_Commission
I have it on good authority that the shoplifting of Hostess products from convenience stores rises sharply in areas where heavy 'weed' use occurs!
=D
I do love it when law enforcement agencies try to link pot smoking to violent crime, however... makes ya just want to grab 'em and say, "Have you ever MET a pot-head?! They couldn't commit a violent crime if the WANTED to! And they don't!"
Strangely, THC itself is legal in the U.S. - look up Marinol. As long as its synthesized in a lab instead of grown naturally, the FDA doesn't seem to give a damn.
I'm not saying personal growers will cease to exist. What I'm saying is that it's inevitable that a convential industry will form around marijuana. I never did say it would only be the tobacco industry cashing in on it, or that its only use is for smoking. I was just drawing comparisons. Notice I included other crops as an example as well.
As a matter of fact, the other uses you named further reinforce my belief that either a new congolmorate will spring forth, or a variety of existing industries will capitalize on it. You say most people who SMOKE marijuana are anti-establishment (in that context, you must mean anti-corporate). However, if lifting the ban on marijuana would ever be accepted, that would have to mean that it has been accepted into the mainstream. That means not all people who use it in some way will resist a corporate presence in it to fight "the man."
I should have rephrased my last post. I wasn't challenging your assumption that marijuana has other uses besides pot. What I was challenging was your assumption that if marijuana was legalized and introduced into the market, it would never turn into big business. That's a very naive remark to make.
The primary method of consuming marijuana is the joint, or marijuana cigarette. This is also the most affordable and will remain so in the event of legalization. This method carries the same negative health risks as tobacco cigarettes, and will be what is sold under the big tobacco blanket if marijuana is legalized. Legalization of marijuana does have have to do with health effects.
I could argue that tobacco will be made ILLEGAL long before marijuana is ever made legal. Just look at the trend of restrictions on smoking in public and take it to the next 'logical' step. But I digress ...
And, I'm not talking out my ass, thanks. It's my understanding that the US government grows a certain amount of marijuana for medical and scientific testing (The rest is destroyed). They do this on land owned by tobacco companies. The tobacco industry helps subsidize this because they use it on the off-production years to help replenish the soil, as well as allowing for the possibility of the legalization of marijuana. If legalization did occur, tobacco compamies could simply purchase the plants from the government, reinburse the scientific customers, and be in limited production in weeks (depending, of course, on the season).
By way of proof here is a link to an article detailing the monopoly that the Feds have on marijuana production: http://www.norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=7176
I can't find the ones that say that marijuana is grown on land owned by the tobacco companies, and even if I did, you can still debate my point, but I'd like to repeat: I am hardly, "talking out his [my] ass here."
until they unban THC its not going to get anywhere and while they play patty cake with their rich brethren in goverment people who have cancer and other bad health issues cant get pot because they might live ZOMG think opf the poor over price health system we need these sick poeple to die NAO plese!!
Uhg !
Furthermore, cannabis is not only used for smoking. The plant has many other uses extending into textiles, chemicals etc. So the cigarette companies won't be the only ones producing it, and unless they extend their uses of it to further than just smoking, other companies are going to make far more money off of the other applications, and then selling the buds on the side. Remember, bud is really the only smokable part, and that makes up less than 25% of the plant.
Instead of clueless, a better description would be - willing to take for granted information about things that don't directly affect the reader that sound bad to them. Theres not gonna be any fact checking or comparisons of information made here... Just a lot of tutting at the state of the youth of the country today :D (Then a cup of tea or 6 probably)
Phase 1) Find silly but yet serious offence with young person
Phase 2) Blame on video games
Phase 3) Journalistic profit!
The average reader is fairly clueless, (apologies to my aunt) and easily provoked towards worrying about most things that conflict with their lifestyle. (Anything relevent to people of age 20 or below for sure)
There have been quite a few studies made public in the UK (reputable I believe), that do link large amounts of ganja to schizophrenia and psychosis. We are pretty close to Holland - its not hard to get A1 quality seeds here if you really want to start growing.
That said, it's pretty obvious that gaming is a minor factor here considering what else was wrong with this dude...
Well, you could also argue that personal tobacco growers and small farmers make better tobacco and produce (respectively). However, corporations have a huge portion of control over both industries. Why? They can make it cheaper. The American consumer will always choose low price over high quality. Wal-Mart certainly taught us that. It doesn't matter if small growers can make the best herbs, MJ, what have you;they can't hope to dominate the industry forever. You are correct in insisting that it will take companies some time to start mass-producing the stuff. Once they get it right, however, the marijuana industry will resemble the tobacco industry of today: Dominated by big-name brands.
I won't fight you over the health implications of legalizing marijuana. However, if we're going to do it on "free-market" grounds, we need to understand what effect the market will have on the stuff, and vice-versa.
Not to mention that there's alternate ways to ingest marijuana, one of the most popular being cooking with it. I'm sorry, but legalization of marijuana has nothing to do with health effects.
i didn't know that about major tabacco companies, if that is true and marijuana ever got legalized, it would make tabacco companies the richest people in the world,. even more so that bill gates.
Seriously.
The most violent thing that can possibly happen to a pot smoker is crashing TOO hard on the coutch.
Wake up people. Don't be so ignorant.
This sentence makes about as much sense to me as saying:
"After eating a turkey sandwich he fetched a 12inch carving knife from the kitchen, slit both his wrists and attempted to stab himself through the chest."
The first paragraph puts "video game" before "after smoking cannabis." The third to fifth paragraphs are about the game, then the seventh reveals that he was a long-term heavy drugs user. You need to get three quarters of the way through before you're told that, "cannabis use is linked to schizophrenia and psychosis." It then closes by citing GTA.
The Mail could write exactly the same story about someone who *didn't* go on a rampage and just smoked some drugs and fell asleep.
"You can never tell how chemicals will affect a person’s mind - everyone reacts differently. I’ve got a buddy who’ll start fights if he has a few too many beers…and another will just walk up and start hugging random people with the same amount of alcohol."
I'm just talking from experience. Throughout university, anyone I knew/met who was drunk, had a wide range of effects, mostly traceable to being less inhibited. So they were more likely to do things they wouldn't normally do, like punch people, hug everyone, rant loudly, or apologize profusely for anything and everything.
Stoners on the other hand, were exclusively relegated to sitting around, focused intently on fish, fluff, discussion of space-time, late-nite cartoons, or petting a cat...
The only person I ever knew who punched someone else while high, was also stone-drunk at the same time. He thought he was talking to cat, and that it had insulted him over his choice of cat-food...
*Sigh*
This is the most ill informed piece I've ever seen.
"When interviewed, Anderson had no recollection of the events and a doctor concluded that he had suffered cannabis induced psychosis."
--No really, so it wasn't the game that sent him off on one, I'm shocked!--
"DC Kelly said: "In the computer game, there are instances where you play a person who jumps on top of cars and tries to steal them by pulling the drivers out of them. There's obviously a shocking similarity between the game and the way Anderson behaved, jumping on cars and trying the door handles."
--So a person suffering a psycotic episode acts out on the most recent stimuli he's had, am I the only person who doesn't find this suprising--
So the story here is some poor fellow does drugs, has an episode, and nearly kills himself doing stupid shit... I blame Saints Row personally!
The officer on the case, the judge, the doctor that treated him, the "head of strategy for health charity SANE", Anderson's father and Anderson himself ALL blamed the skunk cannabis!
The judge even said "It was your taking of the cannabis that led to this psychotic episode. But for this, you would have never been involved in this kind of behaviour."
So nobody's playing the "blame game" on videogames, so stop playing the "victim game"
On the other hand, the article makes it sound like Saints Row is a game where you slit your wrists and try to stab yourself (!?) which is kind of unfortunate.
Not entirely true, i have worked in a hospital for a while in the past and have met a few people that have suffered permanent psychological trauma because of cannabis.
It is one of the more "safe" drugs, but some people can and have had an extreme reactions to it.
As with every other idiotic, unplanned car-jacking case, right? Slapping the assumption of, "oh, videogames made him do it" onto this situation is shoddy investigative work.
"Drugs intelligence officer Detective Constable Steve Kelly said that Anderson had been smoking potent skunk cannabis and drinking alcohol on November 13 last year" (From the Daily Mail article)
Thank you, the fact he was drinking eases my mind a small bit. The rest of the article is focused on the drug use, especially of skunk cannabis, a little bit more potent than someone's average mary-jane, linked to causing psychotic episodes like the above incident. The rest of the story is focused on the guy's drug use, videogames are only mentioned by the constables on one instance.
I'm surprised the constables don't take a potshot at the game's illicit drug use, allowing you to buy "splifs" and such from local convenience stores. But blaming this kid's drug use on a game would be useless.
Let the blame game begin!
A game dose not tell you what to do....
Weed removes the need to do anythign but gnaw on stuff......wake up corporate madness people!
Weed is less dangerous than booze,as long as you dont smoke the weed that is LOL.
@jakethe8lf
Drugs (atleast marijuana) are illegal only because the old white guys who make the laws are ignorant and irrational evangelists. Reefer madness is completely bullshit. Weed is about as dangerous as CS.
Seriously how dumb can this guy get, wegot enough fuel to the fire.
I have this sudden desire to see a "game treatment" for Romeo and Juliet. Then we would finally have a murder-suicide simulator on the market, and all murder-suicides could be its fault.
When life appears to imitate art, we blame the art for causing it.
It's their usual sensationalist rubbish from the only paper in the country that takes Keith Vaz seriously.
I'm calling BS unless this story was picked up by other, more legit news companies. Oh and they don't use DM as a source.
Yeah, isn't one of the secret ones? Heard it gives you 50 points.
As an aside, I an against legalization of marijuana because of the real deterimental health effects, similar to tobacco cigarettes, coupled with the fact that the major tobacco companies are ready to sell marijuana cigs within a few weeks of such legalization. I just can't get behind selling people cancer.
I do support, however, de-criminalization of pot for personal use and prescription use. I guess that's a fine line, but that's just what I think.
Anyway, so this guy was high, drinking, and playing a video game? And they blame the game ... Wow.
I know. But I'm just pointing out hyperbole people spread. But, then again, if it is from the British tabloids, it's certain to be bullshit regardless.
If anything, I'm pro-legalization, blah blah blah, libertarian, blah blah blah.
And yes, I know that was a helluva run-on sentence.
Whether or not the theory's true I don't know, but I find it amusing as an argument. Personally I'm in favor of legalization mainly because drug use is for the most part a victimless 'crime.' If you want to put foreign chemicals in your body, I don't see why anyone should say you shouldn't. (As long as you are made aware of any potential risks, and as long as the drugs aren't things like strong hallucinogens that will quickly and severely impair your ability to judge right and wrong.)
True, but he apparently was going around stabbing at people (isn't that typically assault) with a kitchen knife. I'm sorry, but someone should be institutionalized for that behavior. No healthy person will have a psychotic episode like he did no matter how much GTA and THC they consume. The kid has gotten away with scapegoating IMHO. I can see not wanting to throw the kid in jail, but my bets are if he doesn't get psychological treatment he's a time bomb waiting to go off...
Then again the whole story seems to not want to pursue the truth.
No one was injured in his attacks (except him).
Kinda reminds me of JT's blame game over V-tech. But then, the only people who read the daily mail are right wing nutcases who believe this kind of thing anyway, mostly because british righties mostly want the whole world to go back to 1905, back when they last had a grip on the world. No-one in the entertainment industry's taken them seriously since the BAN THESE EVIL GAMES headline during the Stephen-Parakeh-murder- being-blamed-on-Manhunt fiasco, which it turns out many people actually believed.