Family members of a man stabbed to death by a Ventura County woman during an episode of cannabis-induced psychosis in 2018 are outraged after a judge on Tuesday sentenced the 32-year-old woman to t…

During that psychotic break, she stabbed O’Melia multiple times, eventually killing him. She also stabbed herself repeatedly, officials said.

The next morning, officers arrived at the apartment to find O’Melia in a pool of blood and Spejcher screaming hysterically while still holding a knife in her hands. As officers tried to disarm her, Spejcher plunged the knife into her neck, authorities said.

This seems like the right move to me. If you drink alcohol, you know that you’ll be impaired driving and should be held accountable. When you smoke pot, you don’t expect that you’ll stab yourself in the neck. She truly seems to be a victim just as much as the guy, even if his outcome was ultimately worse.

    • legios@aussie.zoneEnglish
      2·
      10 months ago

      There’s a few ways to do it, but analysis is normally done via PRISM along with other things.

      “PRISM is a semi-structured diagnostic interview designed to deal with the problems of psychiatric diagnosis when subjects/patients drink heavily or use drugs”

        • legios@aussie.zoneEnglish
          2·
          10 months ago

          Like a lot of things it’s a differential analysis, meaning it’s down to narrowing things down but there is also blood tests, chemical tests etc. It’s fairly accurate but relies on anecdotal evidence such as past historyt etc.

          Many years ago I worked in ‘criminal psych’ but this isn’t just “Oh I think this is why it happened.” The article is light on but it seems she has never shown any psychological/psychiatric issues. This is a difficult one for me since I’ve seen people with substance-induced (or drug-induced) psychosis.

          Psychosis is crippling, and she will be experiencing guilt and there’s probably an onset of a psychotic disorder. People saying she ‘got off light’, while she’s lucid she knows what she did and will be struggling for life with this.

            • legios@aussie.zoneEnglish
              2·
              10 months ago

              Any time!

              Psychosis is a literal break from reality. I suspect when the police showed up she was no longer psychotic and realised what was happening and couldn’t deal with what had happened. She knew she did it but couldn’t understand how or why but knew she did it by physical evidence, she now knows she did it but the integration of her psychotic state and actions to her non-psychotic state would be crushing, hence the suicidal actions she had.