Ten years ago, police found the disfigured body of Tynisha Ysais, a native Californian, with teeth marks on her face, and one of her organs removed in her Los Angeles apartment. That same morning, police found a man staggering through the streets of LA, naked and covered in blood. Police identified the man as Antron Singleton, an aspiring rap star known as “Big Lurch.” Ysais’ boyfriend testified that the night of his girlfriends death, he and Singleton had spent their evening smoking PCP. Police confirmed that the teeth marks belonged to Singleton, and medical tests revealed his stomach contents the morning of the murder included human flesh and blood.
Fast forward ten years. Though the popularity of PCP has lessened, use of a drug that has been nicknamed “the new PCP” is on the rise.
The designer drug known as bath salts, a dangerous cocktail of amphetamines, made international news this week when Rudy Eugene, stripped naked, attacked a homeless man and began to eat his face. After failing to heed the commands of police on the scene, he was brought down by four shots from officers.
Bath Salt Abuse Has a History of Violence
The use of bath salts has risen exponentially over the last two years. Poison control centers reported over 6,100 bath-salt emergencies in 2011, compared to only 303 such occurrences the previous year. While the Miami cannibal attack certainly is the most bizarre outcome due to bath salt abuse, erratic behavior, frightening visions, and violence due to use of the drug are nothing new.
Armando Aguilar, president of the Miami Fraternal Order of Police recognizes these similarities. ABC quotes Aguilar as saying that “the cases are similar minus a man eating another. People taking off their clothes. People suddenly have super human strength. They become violent and they are burning up from the inside. Their organs are reaching a level that most would die. By the time police approach them, they are a walking dead person.”
Here are a few other stories:
- Earlier this year in Chandler, Arizona, a teenager tried to hack off his arm with a meat cleaver.
- Another man high on the drugs faces burglary charges sustained because he thought electricity was chasing him.
Trips Lead to Uncontrollable Situations
Cannibalism and self-mutilation? These are things we expect to see in a Sam Raimi flick. In fact, we often consider the uncontrolled actions of others as fringe, bizarre. We expect this type of extreme behavior to belong to the psychos. However, these are actions happening without premeditation to normal people on a trip.
While the extreme outcome certainly differs from experiences we have had while drunk or high, believe it or not, we share something in common with the Miami Cannibal.
When we drink or use, we lose control. We think we can retain control of our actions but that simply isn’t the case. And who knows what will happen?
The Risk of Losing Control
Am I suggesting that the next time we get drunk or high we’re going to go all Dahmer on a homeless guy?
Of course not. That’s completely out of control.
But what about our control?
While it’s unlikely that our actions while high or drunk will make national news, we can be certain our actions will be equally tragic:
- Nearly 37,000 people committed suicide in the United States last year. One in four suicide victims take their own life while legally intoxicated.
- How many times have you awoke and not remembered how you got home? Have you ever considered how lucky you were to actually wake up? Drug and alcohol related incidents claim the lives of 100,000 Americans every year.
- What about the way we treat our partner or children while drunk or high? Surely we have the ability to control that, right? Seventy-five percent (75%) of spousal abuse victims reported that their partner’s drinking had been a factor in the abuse.
The truth is, when we allow ourselves to ingest a substance, we forfeit the ability to control our actions.
Our founder, Gene Duffy, once said,
“If we persist in the illusion that we can drink like so called ‘normal people,’ most of these things that have happened to those ‘worse’ than us will happen to us.
There is no mortal human being that has the power to predict the outcome of any future event.
Nobody knows what’s going to happen to him the next time he drinks or uses, especially you!”
That’s one thing we can count on.
Research
- Ysais Story
- Teenager in Chandler, Arizona
- Man Thinks Electricity Chases Him
- Suicide Rate (Those Related to Drugs/Alcohol)
- Drug-Alcohol Related Incidents
- Bureau of Justice Statistics, US Department of Justice, 2006