"After Loughner gave up pot and booze, he got worse"

[Enrique]

http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/01/jared-lee-loughner-friend-voicemail-phone-message?page=2#

(...)

In October 2008, Tierney was living in Phoenix, and Loughner came to visit. They went to see a Mars Volta concert with friends, and Tierney was surprised when Loughner said he had quit partying "completely." Loughner, according to Tierney, said, "I'm going to lead a more healthy lifestyle, not smoke cigarettes or pot anymore, and I'm going to start working out." Tierney was happy for his friend: "I said, 'Dude, that's awesome.' And the next time I saw him he was 10 pounds lighter." Tierney never saw Loughner smoke marijuana again, and he was surprised at media reports that Loughner had been rejected from the military in 2009 for failing a drug test: "He was clean, clean. I saw him after that continuously. He would not do it."

After Loughner apparently gave up drugs and booze, "his theories got worse," Tierney says. "After he quit, he was just off the wall." And Loughner started to drift away from his group of friends about a year ago. By early 2010, dreaming had become Loughner's "waking life, his reality," Tierney says. "He sort of drifted off, didn't really care about hanging out with friends. He'd be sleeping a lot." Loughner's alternate reality was attractive, Tierney says. "He figured out he could fly." Loughner, according to Tierney, told his friends, "I'm so into it because I can create things and fly. I'm everything I'm not in this world."

(...)

[Rosa Luxemburg]

1. who was he working for?

[LisaL]

2. It doesn't appear like he had a job.

He was a student at Pima college but they kicked him out.

[Catherina]

13. According to his facebook page- Child Protective Services

[MrScorpio]

3. I wouldn't surprised if he was self medicating some undiagnosed mental issues all that time

And then tanked when he stopped.

[Uzybone]

5. thats what I think too

The evil that is marijuana (sarcasm) was what was keeping the man from going over the edge.

[mmonk]

6. Possibly.

[LisaL]

7. Does his friend know what he was really up to?

Considering army rejected Loughner supposedly because he failed a drug test.

[Zanzobar]

4. Who doesn't?

Maybe not to his extremes, but definitely worse.

[Rex]

8. So he stopped using his herbal remedy and got worse, no surprise here.

I've personally seen it happen to friends and family.

[SpartanDem]

9. And they say pot and booze are bad for you

I say this proof Americans would be a lot more happy if they smoked more pot and drank more booze

[TheWraith]

10. Self-medicating isn't neccessarily a bad thing, sometimes.

And someone doesn't have to be mentally ill for that to be true--the brain needs a release of some kind or another, and if it can't do so one way, that same energy and manic drive can be taken to extreme political or conspiracy beliefs.

[dkf]

11. He didn't test positive for pot, he admitted he had used it hundreds of times.

Per MSNBC earlier today.

So he could have been clean. Oh the irony.

On another article a friend says he used to get off on learning and getting kicked out of school may have given him no outlet and pushed him over the edge.

[LisaL]

12. I don't see any irony in this.

I don't know what kind of mental issues he might have, but something like schizophrenia develops in later teens early twenties. If he's got anything of the sort his symptoms could have been developing, and it has nothing to do with him supposedly stopping pot.

[dkf]

15. Irony is he was probably currently clean but got rejected for using in the past.

The other irony may be if being clean pushed him over the edge.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

14. Ten bucks says this guy called George Noory's show

He sounds like every delusional whackjob who calls him on Fridays that think they are fucking brilliant.