Ohio Man Commits Suicide After Marijuana Charge
The latest tragic victim of marijuana prohibition is Robert W. Batsch, a 55-year-old husband and father.
Hours after he and his wife were charged with felony child endangerment yesterday for allegedly growing marijuana in their family’s home, Batsch shot himself in the chest with a .22 caliber rifle.
If found guilty, Batsch—and his wife—each faced one to five years in prison.
To find out how you can help MPP put a stop to horrific stories like these, please click here.
Tagged with: Ohio and Robert W. Batsch and suicide and victim by the author
44 comments
This is truly horrible and sad. This prohibition and these ridiculous laws are leaving people so desperate that they willing to take their own lives. I can see how Robert chose death rather than to see his kids taken away and his wife going to jail along his side.
WHEN IS OUR GOVERNMENT GOING TO STOP MAKING CRIMINALS OUT OF GOOD PEOPLE???????
Free The Weed. Free The People.
Just sad! I denounce our current form of government control as our superiority. The laws are wrong and this is not the government that once established our great country. America wants control of the government and our freedom back!
My prayers are with your family.
How is a marijuana plant dangerous to a child? Chemicals, fertalizers, tools left out in the open? I have a hard time believing that a marijuana plant is more dangerous than, say, electric sockets. Do the children ever play outside? Pretty much every living plant you see outside is less dangerous than marijuana. I guess the message here is that ever parent who allows there children to experience the natural world first hand should be charged with Child Endangerment.
What a sad country we live in. Thought and prayers to the family.
Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally.
Abraham Lincoln
@ Mike R:
Every living plant is less dangerous than marijuana…please tell me you meant the opposite.
and of course the prohibitionists will say he had nobody to blame but himself for his “drug addiction”. this fucking country is going to hell in a hand basket….quickly.
Wow, this is truely sad, the laws that were broken here are totally backward and talking with Ohio legislature about this issue is about as useful as talking with a brickwall. The ignorance surrouding this issue is just disgusting.
It is unfortunate. I was once a recreational marijuana user and now I am not, but with this being said. I am one that suffers from chronic back pain and I personally take a narcotic that works, but the side effects are worse then my pain. I have been educating myself on the issue at hand in regards of medical marijuana, and my outlook on the herb is very benefical.
Why?
I’ll tell you why. Since my research on marijuana, and the true way of utilizing the herb has made me a true believer that it works. I made myself an example, or test dumby and came to a conclusion.
This experiment was to see the two simularities between the prescribed narcotic (hydrocodone #10 w/tylenol) and marijuana.
The hydro (short for hydrocodone) allowed me to be pain free for at least 2-3hrs. The side affects were: headache,nausea, short of breath, and my ribcage was very sore. (This test was also using the weaker hydro that was prescribed to me prior before the stronger hydro).
The marijuana that I tested was a sativa blend (gram for gram compared to the hydro, both strengths). Mild, but affective. The results were amazing. I was pain free, same as the hydro, the effects lasted approx. 2-4hrs. Noticed the extra hour I recieved from smoking the sativa blend! Side affects: NONE!!!!! I did not have headaches, no feelings of nausea, shortness of breath, or pain to the ribcage. As a matter of fact, the next day I felt even better then the prior day. (Good night of resting!!!!!)
In conclusion of my test. I found that the use of marijuana in a safe manner can give positive results vs using a prescribed narcotic (hydrocodone#10/tylenol), which is legal; causes more pain and harm. If our government cannot see this obvious simple test, then our pharmacutical makers are just going to keep getting richer and richer, while innocent people die off.
I am truly sorry that the individual decided to take his life. I wish him and the family the best. Our prayers are with you all.
We need to make a change!!!
Please take a look at another unjust case
http://www.wptv.com/content/news/stlucie/fortpierce/story/Roberto-Alberto-Cepero-grow-house-sentenced-wptv-S/9-5T3NK5gkaCmQhm6FjrUw.cspx
JD, Although I agree that Mike R’s statement was rather bold, at least 4 plants I can see sitting in front of my PC are poisonous. If my toddler were to eat a leaf off one of these very common houseplants, she would likely wind up in the hospital or in the least, receive severe gastrointestinal trouble.
Some plants could be considered as safe as marijuana easily, but by far I would agree many are more dangerous.
Thanks for the link Michelle, I used to live just north of Ft. Pierce in Vero Beach, really hits home. My condolences to both families. I wish the families well of the officers involved too. It’s unfortunate when bad judgment is passed along each generation. We all make mistakes, hopefully some of them will own up to theirs and get out of the business of destroying others lives for a measly paycheck.
=(
Ask your self this question people . If / when the coming economic crunch hits in the next year or so , how many will grow cannabis to try make some money? How many lives will be ruined due to the economy and prohibition if/when this happens. I mean really, what will you do if your kids are starving. This is just a crystall ball thing at this point but, people MUST look at the future. How cruel of a government it would be to ruin people futher in a very trying time such as that.
Heres a little story over at CCM . If our government does things like this with alcohol and cannabis..makes one wonder what else they do.
http://www.cannabisculture.com/v2/content/2010/02/24/Chemists-War
This is so sad
… this will all be over someday.
I will get cannabis legalized. For this man and myself (who has also contemplated suicide as a result of my possession charge.) My condolences to the family.
Prohibition is bad.
This is sad on multiple levels, 1st to say the cannabis laws are the cause of this mans death is unethical and wrong. Even though unfair and unjust growing marijuana is illegal and this man knew the consequences of his actions. 2nd this a poor move for the legalization and decriminalization of marijuana cause this man did not even wait nor fight any of these efforts in a legal form or fashion just in the most extreme way before even seeking legal counsel or allowing court hearing to proceed. 3rd he committed suicide in fear of losing his child!? Yet, he decides to kill himself leaving his child with no father at all. 4th the fact this site uses this tragic story solicit donations for their cause is even worse. There is a right and wrong way to battle injustice and this is not the right way, my heart goes out to the child in this situation. In no way should this man be seen as a martyr for a cause.
Someone needs to ask all the congressmen in Congress “What should be do with you and your well being after Marijuana is legalized and found NOT to harm ANYONE? Should we beat the Congressmen with canes? They want to do that to us…and we dont kill people…THEY ARE…its TREASON and TYRANNY….”
oh…MD 18..can i ask you since you say that this is not the way to battle prohibition, how has the government battled against us? They would have shot the man themselves if he has shown ANY restraint during his arrest. There is NO right or wrong way to WIN wars…and this is just that, A WAR ON THE PEOPLE….NOT DRUGS
Its ok JJ , MD sounds like some sort of shill to me , ignore the troll who knows nothing.
@MD – I dont think anybody is trying to portray this man as a martyr, but as you mentioned he was doing something “illegal” so what kind of fight did you want him to put up? Drag his family through courts just to loose everything in the end.
We’ve seen plenty of cases where parents ended up in jail and kids with social services.
Suicide should never be a solution to any problem but that wasnt the point of the article. If the laws were different, it would never come to this. This also comes back to the point that the only loss of life that comes from marijuana is the loss of life caused by our government in the process of their war on drugs, which as we all know is really the war on people.
Judge not for you shall be judged yourself.
Free The Weed. Free The People.
This is not a war on people it’s a war for profits, which is exactly why Marijuana is still illegal to this day. It regenerates more income for federal and state government bodies then it would if it was legal. And for the very people that grown themselves by having unregulated market values. Seizing of property, building, staffing, and maintaining prisons, DEA, law enforcement salaries, fines, and court hearings, rehab. It’s a multi-billion industry keeping it illegal then the profits projected if it we’re legalized. And yes he should of went thru the entire court proceedings alerted his local media, used sites like these to expose to the general public the unjust laws and punishments make your cases public, Alerting the courts, starts to alert media outlets, media outlets attract public awareness, public awareness attracts Elected officials attention for elections and re-elections. This man has no voice for our cause now. Anything viable to be added to general knowledge was silenced with him.
I wonder if the D.A.R.E. officer at these schools teaches the kids what will happen to them and their parents when they turn their parents in for crap like this. I think this went on in the 30s and 40s in Germany, to be good little Germans and turn in anyone that has commited a crime or talked ill of the goverment. Help us make it legal again and join your local Norml we can use the help, the only way its going to happen is with numbers. This is a war on a weed and there are too many casualties too much blood and broken famalies.
Proof that marijuana won’t ruin your life…but getting busted sure will.
Family questions SWAT drug search that led to dog’s death
http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/2010/feb/23/family-questions-swat-drug-search-that-led-to/?news
MD, I do agreee that for the most part, MONEY is the reason for these laws, but to say that this is not a war on the people is foolish. Why did Christianity get invented? Why is any religion that condones violence to the face and shoots you in the back really made? Why are laws made? Rules? TO CONTROL THE POPULUS of the people. In the bible, it says “thow shalt not kill” yet Christianity has cause more deaths than Communism. Laws are put in place to protect people, yet with marijuana it is not the people that need protection from marijuana, it is the people that need protection from the police, judges, lawyers, etc. The people are the ones that know what is right and wrong. NEA, it is the concious thought process that can tell a person or group of people that something is either right or wrong. So again, to say this is not a war on the people is just plain NOT TRUE.
@MD – if you mean that he could have done more for the cause, then yes, i agree with you, but the end result for him would have still been the same: jail time, loss of property, fines, kids taken away by child services.
So what I been trying to say is that these unjust laws had this person cornered and pushed him towards suicide. It’s the laws that made a criminal out of him and it’s the laws that made him feel like there was no other choice.
Again my condolences to the family. Justice will be done.
Free The Weed. Free The People.
So tell me MD, what are doing to end Prohibition?
All of us here know everything you’ve mentioned in your second comment, you’re preaching to the choir.
Some people don’t have the fortitude to withstand the hideous and disgusting process that the “law” would have put this person through. Grow some compassion.
How many more have to die? LEGALIZE!!!!!!!!!
There is a universal law, and alot of us have experienced it in one way or another, in that what comes around goes around. To you sick, demented politicians who keep taking political contributions, (Bribes), on behalf of you’re big money pharma companies to lie, cheat, corrupt, and to allow situations like what happened to this Father occur because of you’re laws of injustice against a plant with so many medical benefits to protect big pharma’s profits, please die, and die horribly!
@JJ # 19 tar and feathers anyone?!
The reason they consider it Child Endangerment is because growing pot is illegal. They assume that anyone growing pot is selling it to shady characters that will be around the children. Also, if busted, the child faces a horrific lifestyle change and even worse must live without his/her parents.
Of course we all know that is bullshit, but it happens. People do grow and sell to shady people, and sometimes bad things happen in those situations. Also, having a light that burns anywhere from a couple hundred to 1000 degrees Fahrenheit going 12 hours a day in a closet or room is definitely a fire hazard, also endangering the child.
I would love for nothing more than to see the prohibition ended, and taking people to jail for growing a plant is a victim less crime almost no matter how you look at it. But some idiots are always going to fuck up, and those are the ones we all get compared to.
I feel a pain in my gut for this family, and for all the poor saps living in that far right, stuck in the past, ignorant fucking state.
Everyone please contact your congressmen & women and let them know how you feel about all this. Remember, there are more of us than there are government officials. If we wanted to storm the white house or pentagon and demand change, we could. Everyone forgets that along the way and lives in fear, and as long as we live in fear the govt WILL control us.
This is so sad. I wish his family the very best. Add one more victim to the list, there are so very many.
This is purposeful manipulation.
“If you don’t want your loved ones to suffer under prohibition, then give to MPP, because we care”
I am sick of MPP using the suffering of marijuana consumers as a fund-raising tool.
Ask me to donate because it’s the right thing to do.
Am I truly to believe that MPP is the leader in this fight?
WE, THE PEOPLE, are the leaders.
MPP is just taking advantage of the public’s postive view towards pot.
I am happy that MPP works to decrim/legalize Marijuana and protect patients and recreational users.
I doubt the sincerity of MPP.
One of your own founders are being brought up on several charges of misconduct, in fact, I believe Bruce Mirken even stepped down as head of comms.
MPP does not lead this fight.
Americans For Safe Access has done more for patients rights than MPP ever could.
I know about what MPP reports on at least a week in advance.
What has happened to the leadership at MPP?
I do not trust your orginazation enought to donate.
How do I not know you all are paying yourseves enourmos saleries?
MPP should be more open about what they do and why.
I question MPP’s motives in it’s pursuit of the legalization of Marijuana.
I wonder why a billionaire like George Seuros is YOUR largest contributor.
What does he have to gain from a legal marijuana market?
Hmmmm. I wonder… I’m not the only person who has lost faith in MPP.
Something needs to change.
How selfish these parents were! To risk their childrens safe home with this kind of invasion by breaking the law! And the father continues to be selfish by taking the easy way out! Plain and simple “prohibition” did not cause this, two selfish parents who likely did not fight for legalization, caused this. LEOs were doing their jobs, the parents were not. I am a CA MMJ user who expects to get into trouble when I break the law!
yes if the Laws are Just we should follow them and be punished for breaking them but if not it is our job as the People to not abide by them and do everything in our power to change them. This was not a case of selfish parents show a little respect for the dead but a case of how Marijuana prohibition destroys yet another American life. The point is this man would still be alive today if these unjust laws didnt exsist. Lets stop this war on the American people how many more innocent lives need to be taken before we end prohibition.
The ones who should be charged with child endangerment our the task force who conducted the raid and the judge who singed the warrant for ever aloowing this childs life being put at risk for one of the safest substances know to man.
as a neighbor here in Detroit we feel for the family Yes WE NEED TO FREE THE WEED!! WE have the right to pick our way to live or die!
It took a while to get to this point but I agree with you #35
NM Cannabism.
My first disappointments started with the restrictions placed on patients who can and cannot get medical MJ, then Mirken leaving, then the charges of misconduct, and the list continues to grow.
Have Compassion for him? What about the Wife and Child he ABANDONED? The Laws did not make him do it, he chose that action ALL by himself and for that I say he is a True Coward!
He could have been a Man and stood up to the charges, like his wife is doing, but no, he didn’t have the guts, he chose the easy way out and in doing so I have not a gram of respect for him. Hopefully his wife will remarry a Real man (who is Pro Legalization) and his orphaned child can have a real role model to look up to.
If you can’t do the time, don’t commit the crime!
Only ten days to vote, ends March 12, 2010
http://www.change.org/ideas/view/legalize_the_medicinal_and_recreational_use_of_marijuana
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This is Round 2, so if you voted once already in round 1, you need to vote again for this final round. Only the top 10 win.
I remember when Obama got elected everyone thought this guy is cool and he will lift the ban. WRONG. This guy wants to control everyone and if you can use Marijuana he doesnt have full control and the pharmacies do not make any money off all the sick people. Just think how much money pharmacy drug sales would go down and then think is that good for the consumers and American Citizens or is that good for Obama and his friends. That is your answer. If you voted for Obama to simply get Medical Marijuana and nothing else then he lied to you about that as well. This is another reason to vote him out ASAP. He can use it all he wants but not the every day tax payer.
Dealing Pot as a kid is the ONLY Job that Obama has ever had!
Kinda sad isn’t it?
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