MARCH 26, 2015
DENVER, COLORADO (REUTERS)
A 22-year-old Oklahoma man committed suicide by shooting
himself in the head at a Colorado ski resort after witnesses said he ate
"a large amount" of marijuana-infused edibles, the local coroner said
on Thursday.
Luke Gregory Goodman died from a self-inflicted gunshot
wound on Tuesday in the mountain town of Keystone, about 50 miles west of
Denver, Summit County Coroner Regan Wood said in a statement.
"According to witnesses the decedent had consumed a
large amount of edible marijuana candies prior to his death," the
statement said.
Final toxicology results on Goodman will be completed in
about three weeks, the coroner said.
Colorado and Washington state approved the recreational use
of marijuana by adults in landmark 2012 ballots. Voters in Oregon, Alaska
and the District of Columbia followed suit last fall.
Goodman's suicide is the latest of a handful of deaths which
Colorado authorities have said may be linked to legalized pot since retail
sales of the drug began in the state in January of last year.
In March 2014, a student from the Republic of Congo who was
attending college in Wyoming, leaped to his death from a hotel balcony in
Denver after eating six times the recommended amount of cannabis-infused
cookies.
The Denver medical examiner's office listed "marijuana
intoxication" as a contributing factor in the death of Levi Thamba Pongi.
A month later, a Denver man was arrested and accused of
fatally shooting his wife as she spoke on the phone with a 911
dispatcher. The victim said her husband was hallucinating and was
frightening her and the couple's three children.
A search warrant affidavit filed by a Denver police sergeant
said Richard Kirk had recently bought a joint and pot-infused candy, although
he also noted that Kirk may have been under the influence of prescription
painkillers.
Kirk has pleaded not guilty to the first-degree murder of
his wife, Kris, and is set to go on trial in October.
Source: Reuters.com