A man flipped out on psilocybin mushrooms and ended up getting fatally shot by the police after leaping through a 2nd story glass window. So far, most of the coverage has been of the police brutality of the incident, but I imagine that people will focus more on the drugs in the coming days.

http://www.theguardian.c...beach-police-feras-morad

Blessings
~ND

This is very sad news

It also makes me wonder what kind of "friends" he was actually with at the time if they left him to walk the streets all alone after seeing him jump out of a 2nd story window delirious on mushrooms... Wow.

I try to warn people without scaring them away from it, but mushrooms are serious business at high doses and can catalyze very delusional and states sometimes that can be dangerous. After tripping countless times, I never thought it would happen to me, until it did. I'm just glad I had good friends and family around.

Safe tripping <3

Absolutely sad and horrible and Extremely upsetting .
What are these cops thinking these days ?
It's total insanity.

They didn't mention what kind of dose he took, but it seems possible that they either didn't know the appropriate dose and went way overboard, or had an idea of what a normal dose is with cubes but had much more powerful mushrooms, and overshot that way.

Universecannon: From what I gather, it sounds like he went out the window and started wandering around the city, and the friends called the cops before going after him. I imagine that they were either tripping themselves, or in enough shock that they weren't sure how to respond.
I work as an EMT for a living and have dealt with some bad drug reactions, and even with training, it's sometimes hard to know what to do when things take a turn for the bizarre. I really feel for their friends, they must have felt way out of their depth.

Blessings
~ND

This is really, really terrible. My heart goes out to his family and friends.

This is incredibly tragic, and I don't mean to detract from that at all; but I do feel like this event offers some valuable perspective relevant to the interests of harm reduction.

When we think about harm reduction, I think this shows that it's imperative for us to approach it systemically. For example: People take drugs. Sometimes they freak-out. No amount of public policy is going to change that fact. But...had this poor young man stumbled across an off-duty EMT instead of a cop I think he would be fine and none of us would be here reading about how he died.

I find it really unfortunate that we so heavily depend on cops to handle crises, particularly in cases that involve someone with a mental health issue. About half of police shootings nationwide involve the mentally ill, and in many instances the police are called and even invited into private homes to intervene and "assist". I don't understand why we rely on people with guns for this sort of thing... If someone is having an episode, whether because they are on drugs or they have a mental illness, we should be taught to call medical professionals, counselors, social workers...people who are specifically trained to intervene and help people in difficult and potentially dangerous situations without using deadly weapons.

Cops are not trained to help people. They are just people with guns, trained to detain people they perceive as criminals. If not just to lock folks up, why are they patrolling our streets? Who are they protecting and serving? What role do the police fill in our communities? Feras genuinely needed help and protection; and instead he was shot and killed because the police aren’t actually trained to help anyone.

I'm sure that this story will turn into some kind of anti-drug crusade, which is both saddening and unfortunate. I personally feel that aside from harm reduction, the discussion should be focused on how the police are trained to respond to people in distress. Why do we count on people with guns when a friend is having a really bad mushroom trip, we hear neighbors having a domestic dispute, or we see someone in the community having an episode in public? Why don't we have a framework to deal with these kinds of situations, and if we do why isn't it working? Why can't we take care of each other?

Thanks for sharing ND.

Stay safe everyone.

Why would a cop need a gun to handle a unarmed person? Why not mace or a tazer, or even words like the rest of us use? Said he tried to restrain the guy, but if a cop cant handle a single 20 year old who is unarmed he probably shouldnt be a cop! (the witnesses said the officer didnt restrain him but just fired though, and I would tend to believe them over the officer)

I hope the discussion remains about the cop who killed someone he should have been helping and not the mushroom eater who was out of hand but hurt no one. Whats really more important?

Sad....

Really wish there was better education about fungi and plants and drugs - this whole situation could have been avoided or at least handled better if there wasnt such a stigma indoctrinated into our society by the drug war.... Truth and responsible knowledge is so much more helpful then "just say no".....

Very sad...what a terrible tragedy.

I wonder if he was drinking also. The times mushrooms freaked me out that was the case and I have had others say the same. So sad.

What gets me is why shoot to kill? At that range if he had to shoot as he said why not a leg? Senseless use of force.

This is such a bewildering story! And so unnecessary.

The man was:

1. Apparently having a heavy mushroom trip.
2. Got into some sort of altercation with friends/family during the trip before he
3. Crashed/jumped/fell out a second story window!
4. Delirious and bleeding while wandering around aimlessly.

Can you imagine? I am no police tactic expert nor am I an expert on the human body and its resilience to physical abuse/damage but how could he have posed such a threat to this officer? Why couldn't the officer call for backup if he couldn't subdue the man on his own?

I think this should be a lesson for us all. It is a clear reminder of why set and setting are so important. The article is very vague on the details leading up to what happened (before the altercation with whomever he was with and before he jumped out the window...) and I guess we can never truly know.

According to the article, it was his first experience with any drugs. If that were true maybe he paid no mind to his setting and the surrounding environment which, as we all know, can lead to disaster. This is all speculation of course.

My heart goes out to the friends and family involved with this unfortunate event.

PEACE

The article is weird too because at first it says that the boy got in a altercation (weird word) with his friends and that the police tried a few things to stop him.... But all the eye witnesses at the end say there was no altercation and the cop just told him what to do then shot him when he didnt do it....

Kinda two different seeming stories there once you get to the end of the article... Makes me wonder how hard the cop really tried to use less violent means before going straight to murder...

I hate it when such things happen. Prohibitionists love these stories, irresponsible drug users are their best allies.

Tragic...

This story has the potential to go two ways: It can either show the excessive force used by police in dire situations when people have been irresponsible and lead to laws about handling unarmed people no matter how 'out of it' they are, or it can lead to people saying "Look what drugs did to this star student! Turned him into a crazed cop attacker and got himself killed!"

I doubt mainstream media will ever focus on his improper dose or set and setting with the mushrooms, that would imply they are ok with responsible usage... no they'll more likely demonize mushrooms further...

This has been on my mind all day since I read it on here this morning. Truly sad how all of this could have been prevented

What a tragedy. While I hope the focus will stay on why a trained law enforcement officer shot an injured and delirious man, but I'm almost certain it will turn around and be used by the police and government as an anti drug smear campaign. I can see it now "this is where drugs really take you." Plastered across a reenacted photo of the moment of this poor man's untimely demise.

This is a perfect example of why sites like the DMT Nexus are so important. I very much doubt this would have happened if there was a nexian present. It goes to show the HUGE importance of information about and understanding of the journey you're about to embark on.

My heart goes out to this unfortunate man's friends and family. Because this could have been avoided, this should never happen.

And to the police officer responsible: are you a fucking moron?!? Years of training in field tactics, unarmed combat and suspect negotiations and your first instinct is to shoot the man dead. You should be ashamed. Ashamed that you learned less than nothing during your training (shooting don't count, my 2 year old nephew could have hit a target at that range), ashamed that you have no self control, morality or common decency (seriously, you kill a man and then promptly lie about the circumstances) and, most of all, ashamed that you robbed a young man of the best part of his life.

Reading this story has really upset me (you can't tell though, can you?)
a little joke... And one... Two... Three... Ok, I'm good.

Seriously sad stuff. When will people learn?