BBM I have been around a lot of people who have been addicted to a lot of things, and pot just has never been one of them. I've never seen anyone go into delirium tremens from pot. It is not a gateway drug. The gateway drug is alcohol. People don't want to believe it b/c it's legal and it looks like the folks on the commercials are having so much fun. I'm no teetotaler, but I can say that a lot of the bad things I've seen happen have happened as a result of alcohol and people's inability to handle it, or that they are full blown alcoholics, and die an early, and miserable death. About the most dangerous thing about pot, is getting caught with it, if you're living in a non-legal state. It has wonderful medical benefits beyond pain control and cancer benefits.
As for GR and his step-father shooting up in the parking lot, that's what happens when you are an addict. Lines blur. People will do things, when they are bound by addiction, that they would have never dreamed that they would have done. They can justify anything, they lie, and manipulate, and many, many, times it's to the people they love, but, when they are addicted they love nothing, nor no one, any better than that next fix, pill, or drink. It is all that encompasses their lives and until they decide to quit for themselves? They can't. Which brings me to my other theory that GR was still using. One thing that made me think this was the comment that the woman made, That hurting GR was like kicking a dog. I have wondered if he got them into selling Heroin (or some other harder drug) somehow or if he got it from his connection at some point and helped another person out by getting it for them (This is very common. Addicts will go to other addicts for help finding what they want, and other addicts will try to help, b/c it might score them some extra stuff). If this happened and someone died, that person's family may have taken it out on the whole family if they thought they were the ones who were actually dealing the Heroin (maybe they were but I've not heard that they were). Again, just a theory, but I've heard so many people blame the dealers for deaths, and feel they should be tried for murder, that maybe someone did a little bit of "mountain justice".