A California woman who stabbed her boyfriend to death 108 times during a “cannabis-induced psychosis” was sentenced to community service in a shocking case critics are slamming as a gross miscarriage of justice.
On Tuesday, Bryn Spejcher, 32, was sentenced to 100 hours of community service and two years probation for the May 2018 death of her 26-year-old boyfriend Chad O’Melia, the Ventura County Star reported.
In administering the slap on the wrist, Ventura County Superior Court Judge David Worley said Spejcher “had no control over her actions” when she stabbed O’Melia in his apartment because she was under the influence of weed.
At trial, experts for the both prosecution and the defense claimed Spejcher went into a psychotic episode after taking two hits from a marijuana bong, the U.K Daily Mail reported.
Psychiatrists said the defendant’s psychosis was “100 percent” caused by the pot.
“From that point forward, she had no control over her actions,” Worley said, according to the VC Star.
The defendant also stabbed her boyfriend’s dog and herself before being arrested, police said, according to the Daily Mail.
The California woman who was convicted of stabbing her boyfriend to death 108 times during a “cannabis-induced psychosis” received a slap on the wrist Tuesday for the brutal killing.
Bryn Spejcher, 33, was sentenced to two years probation and was ordered to perform 100 hours of… pic.twitter.com/KbbT29q6Y7
— Paul Kang ✡️⚖️ (@LPaulKang) January 24, 2024
Shortly after the lenient sentence was read, the victim’s father, Sean O’Melia, excoriated the judge.
“He just gave everyone in the state of California who smokes marijuana a license to kill someone,” he warned, the VC Star reported.
Should marijuana still be illegal?
When police arrived at O’Melia’s apartment shortly after midnight on May 28, 2018, “O’Melia was covered in a pool of blood. Spejcher was screaming hysterically and holding a knife she plunged into her neck.”
“Law enforcement officers used a Taser and several baton blows to disarm her and then called for paramedics in actions her family said saved her life.”
In other words, recreational weed impaired Spejcher so much that she was a danger not only to others, but to herself.
The murderous psychosis she experienced undermines cavalier left-wing claims that recreational pot use is totally benign.
In August 2023, Rachel Levine — America’s transgender Assistant Health Secretary — urged the Drug Enforcement Agency to ease restrictions on marijuana, claiming it’s a low-risk drug.
However, multiple studies suggest pot is unsafe and unhealthy — especially for young people.
Two recent studies found a link between marijuana legalization and traffic deaths.
Moreover, a 2020 Harvard Health report said the drug could damage the heart.
Other studies suggest marijuana could be a gateway drug for opioid abuse.
Recent research also indicates that regular pot use can stifle motivation and increase the risk of psychosis.
“Healthcare practitioners report increasing numbers of young people with psychotic reactions from marijuana,” The Wall Street Journal reported. “Such breaks are more likely with chronic use, though one scientific review found nearly 1 in 5 users reported hallucinations or visions, and more than half experienced paranoia, after using the drug.”
“Yet the Biden HHS report promotes the mistaken perception that pot isn’t all that dangerous, no doubt because the drug is popular among young liberals,” according to the Journal. “Pot destroys lives, and it’s criminal to suggest otherwise.”
Relaxing restrictions on a substance that has been shown to induce violent psychosis opens a slippery slope toward drug addiction, criminality and death.
