Our Views: Speed and weed

The Island Now

The movement to legalize the use of marijuana took a hit last week when a Nassau County jury found a teenager from Queens guilty of manslaughter for a high-speed crash on the Southern State Parkway that killed four the passengers in the car he was driving.

District Attorney Kathleen Rice said Joseph Beer, just 17 at the time, was driving in excess 110 miles an hour when the crash occurred two years ago. 

The jury found Beer guilty on charges of second degree manslaughter, reckless endangerment and reckless driving, all misdemeanors. It was deadlocked – reportedly 11-1 – on felony manslaughter charges relating to Beer’s impairment allegedly caused by his use of marijuana.

Instead of facing up to 25 years in prison, he is now looking at a maximum sentence of 5 to 15 years. Beer could be sentenced as a youthful offender which would limit the maximum sentence to just four years.

Whatever his sentence, this young man will live the rest of his life with the knowledge that he killed four of his childhood friends. And, although at least one juror wasn’t convinced, there is every reason to believe that his use of marijuana played a role in that accident.

Rice said she has not decided whether she will retry the case on the felony charges. In their summation prosecutors blamed the tragic accident on a reckless mix of “speed and weed.”

Beer, who only had a learner’s permit, admitted that he had been smoking pot before driving the car that was totally demolished. The defense argued that there was no evidence that he was impaired by marijuana even though there was a high concentration of THC, the psychoactive chemical in marijuana, in his blood.

An expert for the defense from the Yale School of Medicine said the presence of THC in the blood is not evidence of impairment. The defense argued that dangerous road conditions also played a role in the crash.

Of course, if you’re high and driving over 100 miles-an-hour any road condition is dangerous.

The legalization of marijuana for medicinal purposes and eventually for entertainment use appears inevitable. 

However this tragedy should serve as a reminder, especially to the young, that marijuana is a drug and its reckless use can lead to a lifetime of regret.

Share this Article