One proud boy claimed that marijuana made him storm the Capitol. Stoner Twitter owned it
Robert Gieswein, a 24-year-old Colorado man, is currently in jail awaiting trial for attacking the police with pepper spray and a baseball bat in the January 6 riot in the Capitol Building.
A series of photographs seem to capture Gieswein marching with a group of Proud Boys and storming the Capitol on the 6th. It is decorated in a paramilitary style, including jumpsuit, flak jacket, goggles, and a combat helmet. The federal prosecutor accuses him of being one of the first rioters to break into the US Capitol that day.
Is he seriously blaming the grass?
In his legal motion to release Gieswein from prison, the Proud Boy’s lawyer evidently inclined to an overly stoned defense in order to be responsible.
As NBC4 Washington investigative reporter Scott MacFarlane revealed over the weekend, Gieswein’s motion contained this information:
[On January 5, 2021], Mr. Gieswein was with other Trump supporters in the Freedom Plaza in the district. He was approached by someone with a video camera who caught him in conversation. He’d just smoked a fair amount of marijuana, and his high can be felt in his dilated pupils and grin, as well as in the rambling comments that followed. When asked why he came, he said “to keep President Trump in office”.
On the first full page of the application for the release of the defendant Proud Boy Robert Gieswein from prison, Gieswein’s attorney states the following:
“Gieswein had just smoked a considerable amount of marijuana” when he told others on January 5 that he was planning “to keep Trump inside”.
He is said to have attacked the police on January 6th pic.twitter.com/3mjJzHGUdx
– Scott MacFarlane (@MacFarlaneNews) June 19, 2021
That is, to say the least, a creative claim to irresponsibility.
It is unclear whether the judge should come to the conclusion that Gieswein was only joking or was mentally disabled or that Giesewein was so stoned on January 5th that his intoxication was carried over to the 6th when he was allegedly a police officer as part of the Capitol Uprising had attacked.
Giesewein’s lawyer clearly insisted that the judge had no experience with cannabis. Because these theories are ridiculous. You are not without example, however. The myth that smoking cannabis will throw a consumer off course on a crime frenzy is one of the oldest ducks in the Reefer Madness playbook. It literally goes back to Harry Anslinger’s time.
To help the cause of justice, dozens of cannabis-savvy citizens clapped back. The series of replies to MacFarlane’s original tweet made some of the most entertaining reads of the weekend. Here are just a few choices.
Bruce Barcott
Leafly Senior Editor Bruce Barcott oversees news, research, and feature projects. He is a Guggenheim Fellow and author of Weed the People: The Future of Legal Marijuana in America.
View article by Bruce Barcott
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