So, I work at a medical marijuana certification office. A few weeks ago, we saw a patient and certified him for medical marijuana, helped him through the whole process, and he received a card from the health department making him a legal user of the product. He seemed perfectly normal at the time, and did not indicate to the physician that he saw or to me that he had any psychiatric problems whatsoever.
Then, he got in touch with one of these “compassion clubs” in town, whose purpose is to provide patients with cards with the product, in exchange for a donation- this is how they skirt the law with regards to dispensing, as dispensaries are not legal in this state yet. The club provided him with marijuana. Then he called me and told me this long, convoluted story about there being a conspiracy among the Jewish doctors of New York to harm him, and that they apparently have gotten to this club and have put poison in his marijuana- specifically, saltpeter, because when he smokes it, his penis becomes like that of a two-year-old. Then he asked me to personally hook him up with some marijuana, which I declined to do. He says that my failure to do this proves that the Jewish doctors have gotten to me as well.
He refuses to listen to or believe anything that I say about him being mentally ill or delusional- he says that he is not like that Jared Loughner that shot Gabby Giffords. Yet he also told me that karma will be coming to me, and that I could get hurt. I straight out asked him if he was threatening me, and he said that no, he wasn’t going to do anything to me- but I don’t know how much to trust that. Obviously, he knows where my office is, and he knows that I am sometimes here alone answering phones and whatnot, outside of business hours. My boss is in North Carolina, and is not able to offer me much protection or advice other than keep the door locked when I’m alone and to have a plan with the doctor for if/when he comes in when we’re open. I don’t feel that I can really call the police because he hasn’t done anything wrong. Is there any advice on what I can do, beside lock doors and have a plan? Normally I wouldn’t be so on edge about this, but I do live in the city where Gabby Giffords was shot in the head, which does help me to see that these things can happen.
there are lots of Jewish doctors and people who wouldn’t give out marijuana, so why do you suppose the guy will decide to target you? Or anybody at all?
Cover. Your. Ass. This was a call made to you at work, right? Do you guys have a recorded line? Did you tell your boss everything that you’ve told us, in typed form so he could read and weigh this lunatic’s words? I’m really sorry this had to happen to you, but I can’t believe your boss is so stupid to not take this seriously. Given the Loughner comparison, and the “you’re going to get hurt” line, jesus christ this is a legitimate threat. If your boss won’t help you, go to his boss. If he doesn’t have a boss and you don’t have an HR department, *file a police report. In the morning at the VERY latest. *Make sure your RL friends and/or family are made aware of the situation and your boss’s inaction (best if you have it in writing, did he email you that or was it just a call?).
If this guy does go out and shoot somebody, do you want it on your conscience? If he comes to shoot you, does your boss want your blood and/or a lawsuit on his hands? Your boss is almost as fucking insane as this guy. Schizophrenics are not generally violent. However, you don’t know if this guy is an exception. You also don’t know he’s schizophrenic. He could have just mixed drugs and been tripping big-ass balls. The major factor is, you don’t know. File a report, protect yourself (do you have a concealed-carry permit? avail yourself), and if he does do something fucked up, your ass isn’t on the line for it.
I’m not sure what my boss could even do. It’s a tiny office with just me and the doctor at the most, sometimes just me. I think it’s a bit unrealistic to really expect her to do much more than she has. There’s no HR. There’s no recorded line at work, which is where he called me at. I have documented the two conversations I have had with him since he turned on me through email with my boss and asked her in the email to save the email which I have sent for documentation purposes.
I’m sure that he is schizophrenic. His behavior is classic, and he told me that he has been told this before, like when he was in the mental hospital. He doesn’t seem violent to me in my rational brain, but my lizard brain whispers January 8 at the Safeway to me and it scares me.
Is it really advisable to contact police, especially knowing that he hasn’t actually done anything wrong, and doing so may antagonize him and provoke him to do something that he hadn’t planned on before? I’ll weigh it.
Assuming they acted on your report, the police would be able to assess his condition and take him into protective custody if he’s a danger to himself or others. I honestly don’t think it’s likely they would act on a one-time occurrence, but the longer the paper trail is, the more evidence that something needs to be done.
I mean, if this keeps happening multiple times and you wait and wait and wait to contact the police, they’re going to find out that it started way back when and get pissed at you for not reporting it sooner.
A similar situation happened to a close relative of mine, although she was more worried about the mentally ill person’s own safety and ability to care for herself. When she called the police, they knew the mentally ill woman’s name and standard M.O. (annoying the piss out of well-meaning strangers), and were able to reassure my SIL that she was not a threat.
On a more personal level, I’m about to start my practicuum in mental health counseling and if a client said those words to me and I felt threatened by it, I’d certainly make a police report about it.
It’s going to come to a head on Saturday, I believe. We are closed tomorrow, and he has a follow-up appt on Saturday. My boss told me to have the doctor call him tomorrow (we text and email about things) and tell him to not come into the office on Saturday and he will deal with him over the phone. If he cancels his recommendation, which I believe he is legally obligated to do considering that he didn’t disclose his mental illness during his evaluation and schizophrenia is contraindicated for marijuana- that’s what I’m concerned about. Now that the guy has spent $500 all together, including purchasing the marijuana, my concern is what he will do if/when the doctor tells him it’s revoked. What he says to the doctor over the phone when/if this happens should tell me a lot, I think.
I think it’s reasonable to wait and see if he gets agitated when the doctor cuts cut him off. If he takes it badly, then it can be all one big complaint.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the guy has a police record already. Not for shooting people in the head, I mean, just that he mentioned he’d been hospitalized and was unreceptive to getting help. Also, I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s threatened other people before. You say he’s called you twice?
I think you should talk to the cops and ask them what steps they suggest you take for your safety. I also think you should have a recording device put on your phone in case he starts calling regularly.
And can you or the doctor revoke his card? Marijuana and schizophrenia are a bad mix.
And of course, what everyone else said in the meantime. If he shows up at the office, it might be better not to let him in.
I’m pretty sure the doctor will revoke his recommendation on Saturday, hopefully over the phone. I don’t think that I will want to try to physically keep him out of the office if we’re open, though- it would escalate his behavior, I think, and also scare the other patients, who are already nervous and scared about coming to a business dealing with smoking pot. Not at this point, anyway.
perhaps you just have the wrong job, given your attitude to such things. If the job description involves dealing with people who are not quite mainstream and some likely a bit crazy, the lady who thinks that all such individuals should be put in custody at the drop of a zero tolerance hat is simply out of place.
Nonsense. I don’t know what you imagine the clientele of a medical marijuana dispensary are generally like, but paranoid delusions and threats are just as out of place there as anywhere else.
I think you may be assuming that these places exist to supply stoners who are just looking to get high while pulling the wool over someone’s eyes. You know who uses medical marijuana dispensaries? Little old ladies who’d like to be pain free during the day but don’t like being laid out on morphine or oxycontin. Regular people dealing with cancer who’d like to be able to get a bite down now and then so they have a better shot at recuperating.
Regular heads mainly depend on their neighborhood dealer - and as it happens the distribution of violent and delusional isn’t any higher among those, either.
If the doctor is responsible, he definitely should stop the recommendation for the marijuana. It is quite possible that the marijuana is making his psychotic symptoms worse: Mental Health: Types of Mental Illness
As for what to do about the guy, I think you do have sufficient grounds for calling the police. I don’t know the exact law in Arizona, but in most places you can have someone picked up by the police and taken for a psychiatric evaluation at the hospital if they have said anything that indicates a threat to themselves (like saying they want to kill themselves) or a threat towards someone else.
Just call the police, tell them what he said, and ask if he can be taken for a mental health evaluation because you’re worried about his safety and your own.
If he does show up again, don’t disagree with him. You CANNOT talk someone out of psychotic delusions like this and trying to argue with them about it can just agitate them. Don’t even act like you don’t believe him when he talks about the Jewish doctor conspiracy. Just say “Ok” and let him talk. Then, again, I think the best thing you can do is try to find an excuse to go in the back and call the police.
This is a very off the wall remark and seems to have absolutely nothing to do with what is actually going on. I hope **Alice **will disregard it (as I am sure she will).
I’ve noticed some very bizarre statements from you in the past, too- so if I actually felt this way, you’d be first up against the wall.
I, in fact, am the one that said upthread that I didn’t want to call the police and that he hasn’t actually done anything wrong yet. My concern is strictly that he now sees me as not someone helping him anymore, but someone that is actively involved in the conspiracy against him. He specifically said, “Oh, they’ve gotten to you, too”. Do I know what a mentally ill person with paranoia will do to me if they’re convinced that I’m part of a plot against them? No. Am I right to be concerned? I think so. I don’t have much experience with this type of mental illness, and I do live in a city where we were all somewhat traumatized by someone with paranoid delusions earlier this year. That incident really showed me that things happen, and the rantings of paranoid schizophrenics maybe shouldn’t be automatically considered harmless generic craziness.
