West
This woman suffered marijuana-psychosis. She says Bryn Spejcher and the man she killed were both victims
An anti-marijuana advocate accused California lawmakers of valuing the cannabis industry’s profits over Americans’ health and the media of intentionally keeping the drug’s risks hidden from the public as recreational use grows across the country.
“Where are the messages that say this can increase your risk for depression, anxiety, psychosis, schizophrenia, increases the risk of suicide?” said Heidi Swan, a board member for Parents Opposed to Pot and a victim of marijuana-induced psychosis. “Where are those billboards? Where are those warning labels on the product? There are none.”
The health care data analytics firm Truveta recently reported that there is a “complex relationship between cannabis use and mental health disorders.” The Jan. 11 study found a nearly 50% increase in marijuana-induced psychosis emergency department visits between 2019 and 2020. A May study published in Psychological Medicine found that up to 30% of schizophrenia diagnoses in men ages 21 to 30 could have been prevented if the individuals had not been heavy marijuana users.
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But Swan said research and testimonies from doctors have been “dismissed by our elected leaders, have been dismissed by public health organizations, have been dismissed mostly by the media.”
Swan attended the recent trial of Bryn Spejcher, a 33-year-old who stabbed her date over 100 times before stabbing herself in the neck during a cannabis-induced psychotic episode. Spejcher was a novice user of marijuana who testified she didn’t know the potential side effects of THC.
Both Spejcher and the man she killed, Chad O’Melia, “are victims of the marijuana industry and of the state of California” because they weren’t properly warned, Swan said.
The anti-marijuana advocate worked with California lawmakers on two bills that would have added regulations on cannabis sales. The Cannabis Right to Know Act, introduced in 2022, proposed putting warning labels on all THC products to inform buyers of health and safety risks. The Cannabis Candy Child Safety Act, brought forward last year, sought to regulate cannabis candy packaging to protect against attracting unassuming children.
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Bryn Spejcher was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in December but received no prison time after killing her boyfriend while having an episode of cannabis-induced psychosis. (Ventura County District Attorney)
“We have huge public health campaigns about DUIs. We know these things, that if you’re impaired, you should not drive,” Swan said. “There is no warning about that with marijuana.”
The Cannabis Right to Know Act died awaiting a House vote, while Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed the bill aiming to prevent kids from ingesting THC candy.
“They were educated all along the way. All of them heard stories that I am sure they would rather not have heard. And in the end, the bill was pulled due to pressure from the industry,” Swan told Fox News. “So, we have no protections in California. We have no warnings about the mental health harms.”
A 2022 Los Angeles Times investigation uncovered corruption in the cannabis industry, with businesses bribing some Golden State lawmakers in exchange for licenses and more lenient regulations. As a result, state officials launched an audit to end the illegal activity, but Swan said the revenue stream coming from the booming industry still overshadows any interest in public health.
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Lawmakers aren’t “looking at the ledger properly,” she said. “They’re looking at tax revenue, but they’re not looking at the costs. And there are incredible costs.”
“The state of California is more interested in the health of the marijuana industry than they are of their own citizens,” Swan told Fox News.
Swan helped draft two bills that would have added warning labels to cannabis products and restrict companies from packaging THC-infused candy in a way that children could mistake. (David McNew/Getty Images)
Despite a recent influx of reports linking psychiatric symptoms with the drug, an August study published in Psychiatry Research tracked 210 teenagers and young adults and found that continuous cannabis use over two years did not increase risks of transitioning into psychosis or worsening clinical symptoms, overall neurocognition, or functioning levels.
Since 2012, 24 states have legalized marijuana for adult recreational use. Despite her personal experiences with the substance, Swan voted in favor of legalization during the 2016 California election, thinking it would be easier to regulate.
“California rolled out legalization without any thought to public health,” she said. “It’s one of the narratives of the industry. ‘Legalize it so we can regulate it.’ And then you try to regulate, and they come in with all their money and all their influence and just smash it down.”
Swan had never heard of cannabis-induced psychosis — a possible side effect of marijuana use that includes episodes of delusion, hallucinations and loss of contact with reality that are associated with conditions like schizophrenia — until she experienced it when she was a teenager in the early ‘90s.
“I lost touch with reality, and it was really scary, so I stopped using it,” she said in a previous interview with Fox News. But her brother, K. Anderson, once enjoyed the “fun house” effect the drug gave him and continued to use marijuana “from the time he was in middle school until he got his graduate degree,” Swan said.
“He went on to try crack and became a homeless drug addict with schizophrenia,” she added. “He was lost to us for a decade.”
Swan said the public is not being properly educated about the potential side effects of cannabis, and are instead being marketed the drug by big businesses and celebrities. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)
Swan and her brother finally reconnected when Anderson contacted his sister after finishing a year in jail and receiving treatment in a rehab facility. It wasn’t until almost a year later that Swan realized her brother suffered from an undiagnosed mental illness.
The pair wrote a book loosely based on Anderson’s life, “A Night In Jail,” to raise awareness about the risks of marijuana usage.
Swan said tragedies like the Spejcher case are just “a foreshadowing of what’s to come” if cannabis continues to be marketed to the public as safe.
“The celebrities, the athletes, the musicians who are all fronting marijuana companies, they post on social media themselves using and tell young people that it’s cool and that it’s safe. They should be held accountable somehow for their misrepresentation,” Swan told Fox News.
“How does a prevention advocate stand up against that kind of marketing, that kind of appeal to youth?” she added. “The least our government can do is to put out basic information to counter that.”
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San Francisco, CA
S.F. hospital stabbing analysis confirms Mission Local reporting on security lapses
A 13-page assessment released today by the San Francisco Department of Public Health confirms Mission Local reporting last month that protocol failures contributed to a social worker’s fatal stabbing in December, and that hospital workers, not a sheriff’s deputy, were first to intervene in the attack.
The DPH has hired four additional staff members to its security team to ensure around the clock threat management coverage, and committed an additional $15 million a year to “support a fundamentally strengthened and modernized approach to safety and security” across its facilities.
After a period of increasingly threatening behavior toward his doctor at General Hospital’s Ward 86 HIV clinic, Wilfredo Tortolero Arriechi, 35, arrived on Dec. 4 and was intercepted by his social worker, Alberto Rangel. He stabbed Rangel, 51, to death in the hallway.
According to today’s report, the DPH immediately took action: installing a weapons detection system at Buildings 80-90 where the attack occurred, launching a 24/7 threat management team to triage and respond to concerns and establishing a formal threat escalation protocol which “balances safety measures with trauma-informed, patient-centered approaches.”
The report also identified a need for better processes to respond to emergencies that occur within the DPH system. Although Rangel was stabbed at Ward 86, a clinic on the grounds of San Francisco General Hospital, and witnesses on the scene called 911 immediately, EMS workers did not arrive to take over Rangel’s care until 11 minutes after his stabbing. A full 26 minutes elapsed between the 911 call and Rangel’s arrival in the emergency room, only a block away.
Today’s report also confirmed Mission Local reporting that a Ward 86 employee first intervened in the attack on Dec. 4 — a direct contradiction to claims from the sheriff’s union that a sheriff’s deputy assigned to the site had “saved Ward 86 from a rapid mass casualty stabbing.”
The deputy had been assigned to the area that day after Tortolero Arriechi had made threats against his doctor, who worked there. According to today’s report, the doctor was in a different hallway at the time of the stabbing.
Hospital staff had repeatedly raised alarm bells with DPH security specifically about Tortolero Arriechi’s threatening behavior, but today’s assessment confirmed that no additional safety measures were taken until the day of the incident.
Mission Local reported that Tortolero Arriechi posted increasingly erratic messages on his social media in the weeks leading up to the stabbing, including a photo of his doctor’s note pinned to a wall with a knife.
The DPH assessment includes a timeline, which shows that Tortolero Arriechi had to be escorted out of City Clinic in SoMa as early as Nov. 13 after he appeared seeking out his Ward 86 doctor, who also worked there.
A week later, on Nov. 20 and 21, Tortolero Arriechi exhibited “elevated behaviors” at an appointment with the doctor, who reported his behavior to DPH security. The next week, between Nov. 24 and 26, security “attempted multiple times” to reach Tortolero Arriechi by phone, with no success. Security leadership at General Hospital “discussed” the case, but apparently took no further action.
On Dec. 4, the morning of the stabbing, Tortolero Arriechi went to both the City Clinic and Ward 86.
The doctor again reported to security that Tortolero Arriechi was seeking him out at City Clinic, and that Tortolero Arriechi had allegedly insisted that he would return daily until he could see the doctor. According to the report, DPH security then assigned a “safety ambassador” to the clinic.
That same morning at Ward 86, staff contacted DPH head of security, Basil Price, and informed him that Tortolero Arriechi had once again shown up at the clinic looking for the doctor, and told them that he would be returning that afternoon.
The DPH requested a “criminal history check” by the sheriff’s department that day, which surfaced no warrants for Tortolero Arriechi. After a sheriff’s lieutenant conducted a “threat assessment” on the situation, the sheriff’s department assigned a deputy to be “posted at Ward 86.” Staff at Ward 86 interviewed by Mission Local were under the impression that the deputy was keeping an eye out for Tortolero Arriechi, but the DPH report confirms the sheriff’s department’s assertion that the deputy was directed only to station near the specific physician that Tortolero Arriechi had threatened.
Later in the afternoon of Dec. 4, 2025, Tortolero Arriechi again went to Ward 86 looking for the doctor, where he was directed to speak with his social worker, Rangel. Moments later, Tortolero Arriechi stabbed Rangel, who later died despite efforts by his colleagues to resuscitate him.
Tortolero Arriechi is currently facing murder charges, and his public defender has said that he was suffering a mental health crisis.
“No actions can undo the events of December 4, 2025,” the report said. “However, through an expertly informed re-evaluation of our current safety and security measures, we can ensure an improved approach to workplace safety and security going forward.”
Ward 86 employee Alex Alvarez said he was frustrated at the lack of funding for mental health care and support for traumatized employees who have not yet returned to work.
Due to the lack of protocols in place, he said, “we have to create this whole ecosystem of services, of safety protocols … why do the employees have to pay for this? Why do employees have to take the brunt of this lack of action?”
over at Bleeding Green Nation. During the off-season, he’s been writing his mock
draft blog and just wrote up–a rather lengthy–mock pick for the Seahawks at
#32.
Personally, not enamored with the pick, but he does a VERY deep dive into the
offensive and defensive makeup of the Hawks, trying…
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