Trouble in Marijuanaville?

It is a long and widely accepted theory that pot smokers, being the mellowed out folk that they are, are not likely to commit violent crimes as, say, a drunk might? Here is some anecdotal evidence to the contrary:

Pot-smoking jail escapee tries to grab officers' guns

Police used a safe-wrap restraint system and a spit mask to subdue a pot-smoking Honor Farm escapee who fought with officers and tried to take their guns Wednesday afternoon in downtown Stockton, authorities said.

A bicycle patrol officer approached a man who was smoking marijuana in the first block of North American Street shortly before 3 p.m., police said. The man lied about his identity and then attempted to run away, officers said.

Run away? I thought the mellowed out weed smoker was just supposed to sit there with a goofy grin on his face and say, "Gee, Officer! It crawled into my hand! Honest!!

The officer and two backup officers attempted to detain the man... At that point, the man, identified by police as 22-year-old Matthew Cook, punched one of the officers, a witness said.

“The guy started punching the officer and the officer started punching him back,” Ruben Mendoza, 30, said. “I think that guy must be on drugs or something because it took three officers to get one guy down. That was a strong guy.”

During the fight, Cook tried to grab three officers’ guns, but he was unable to unholster any of their weapons, police said.

So, he tried to take the officers' guns away because he must have wanted to stick daisies in the barrels?? Might he have been on other drugs in addition to marijuana? Sure. But what we do know is that he was smoking marijuana out on the street, in a state where it is not legal. (Which could support the claim that marijuana damages brain cells). He punched the officers who were trying to subdue him and he tried to take their guns away from them.

At this point, it's merely anecdotal, not necessarily indicative of any larger trend. But the next time one of your pro-pot buddies gives you the line about how mellow and nonviolent pot smokers are, tell them about Matthew Cook.

Oh, and Matthew: Didn't your momma ever teach you it was impolite to spit??