Man claims he was hallucinating on pot candy when he killed his wife

Now that it's legal, is pot the new 'Twinkie Defense'?

A Denver man accused of killing his wife after eating marijuana-infused candy he bought at a legal pot shop has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder.

Richard Kirk, 48, entered his plea during a brief court appearance Friday as members of his family watched. He is charged with shooting Kristine Kirk, 44, last April while she was on a 911 call with police dispatchers.

The shooting stoked concerns about the effects of the marijuana snacks, which have become popular since the state legalized recreational pot shops.

Colorado lawmakers last year tightened regulations on edible marijuana, responding to the Kirk case and the death of a college student who jumped to his death after eating a potent marijuana cookie.

Colorado now has stricter potency limits on edibles.

Defense attorneys have suggested that Kirk was so impaired by the 'Karma Kandy Orange Ginger' that he may not have intended to kill his wife.

But prosecutors argue he had the wherewithal to remember the code to a locked gun safe and press the weapon to his wife's head.

On the 911 call, Kristine Kirk said her husband was paranoid and hallucinating after eating pot candy he had purchased in one of Colorado's recreational marijuana stores.

Dispatchers heard the woman beg her husband not to retrieve a gun from a safe.

Then they heard a gunshot and the line went quiet.

I don't know. This past week I was out of medication and went without sleep for 4 days and began hallucinating, even posting on here and not making sense to some in a few of my posts, including to myself. I don't even remember opening a soda, let alone would I remember a combo to a safe! For those that have smoked, or eaten in the past, if you HAVE hallucinated, did you act on autopilot and remember number combinations? Or would something like that have been too complex and need thought? And not the hallucinogenic kind. By the way, did I mention I'm a cynic, this couple had marital problems had been fighting, had money trouble, AND the wife had a $340,000 life insurance policy? Yeah, but he's blaming the murder on pot.

a reply to: Anyafaj

Pot or not the guys a murderer! Of course he's going to
point his finger at something else. I don't listen to murderers.
Nor should the media, the courts, the government etc etc.

I call BS.

He never would have left the couch.

Bo-log-Na! I perfer to pronounce how it is spelled

No one hallucinates off if olé Mary Jane.

Looking for an out and is using a poor one.

a reply to: Anyafaj

Pot is not hallucigenic first of all. Inhibitions and serotonin are risen to actuate the effect of well being and elation. never once while high on pot have I ever hallucinated, neither have any of my friends. Pot=killing is almost entirely against all effects that marijuana causes. If he killed his wife because he was high, he had that mentality before he got high, and that elation he felt while high gave him reason to do it because he would likley not remember it and give him a personal belief that it removed him from the crime.

At least it's regulated now, so perhaps edibles can have tighter restrictions. When you eat the stuff, your absorbs ~99% of it - vs. smoking where its something like ~15% if I remember rightly.

This seems like a concentrated effort of demonizing legalization, like this is some experiment that needs to end. Meanwhile there is news most every day about some drunk killing his wife or other family members, and no Western government ever says "let's ban alcohol".

MJ invoking violence?
What is this upside down, inside out land?
I just chill and giggle at stupid movies.

You want wanton violence, visit a bar after 12am.
What a lying dbag.

Sounds like part of a plea deal, to help protect profit margins.

Lets be realistic for a moment, pot can cause hallucinations in high enough doses (visual distortions etc), especially for first timers or people with pre-existing mental conditions. My guess would be that this guy had serious pre-existing mental conditions, otherwise he wouldn't be capable of murder regardless of how much he was hallucinating. If he tries to claim that his wife turned into an evil monster or something like that then I wouldn't believe him because pot can't cause those types of hallucinations. If he was taking pot candy it's also highly likely he was taking other illegal drugs at the same time which he has neglected to mention. The other thing to keep in mind is that alcohol can and has caused many people in the past to become so aggressive that they commit murder.

Total BS, this guy sucks.

I don't care what substance someone is on, murder is murder and you have to be a terrible person to begin with to do something like this.

So the second story of complete and utter lies about weed in a short period.......whats with the sudden anti weed crap going around ? or is this how they set it up into the system for profit for maximum profit on all sides ...? hmmmm

See, I kind of figured that was the deal going on. I don't have experience on pot, smoking or eating. And yea, I noticed more and more stories coming out of the woodwork now about "Pot kills" (Secondhand, but you get the meaning". I doubted the veracity as well. Supposedly ALL he had in his blood work was pot. So I suspect this is let's try a "Twinkie Defense and see if I can get away with murder. I thought I'd get an expert opinion, so to speak, before calling BS though, because my research on pot itself is from high school and we're talking a good 20 years, plus I'm sure things have changed in that amount of time.

No, you don't hallucinate by digesting marijuana. Otherwise those side effects would be widely noted, as it is currently legal in some European countries.

Anybody who has been violent having ingested marijuana in any way, was going to be even more violent if they had been using alcohol or coc aine. Pot has an inhibiting effect on violent behaviour, not an exaggerating one.

a reply to: Anyafaj

Hallucinations won't make you forget a code, so that argument is just stupid regardless of whether the man is telling the truth.

a reply to: IvanAstikov

Depends on the person, different people react differently.

a reply to: OccamsRazor04

That's right. Violent people react violently; non-violent people don't.

originally posted by: IvanAstikov
a reply to: OccamsRazor04

That's right. Violent people react violently; non-violent people don't.

I have known very nonviolent people who are happy drunks who turned violent smoking pot, so, no, sorry.

originally posted by: Sremmos80
Bo-log-Na! I perfer to pronounce how it is spelled

No one hallucinates off if olé Mary Jane.

Looking for an out and is using a poor one.

Yea I 100% agree here. Pot doesn't make you do anything. Well if anything maybe make you more passive and NOT do anything, compared to alcohol or other drugs.

ID

a reply to: OccamsRazor04

These sound like interesting anecdotes. Let us hear them and we might learn something.