Heather and Randy Bacchus hold a photograph of their late son, Randy Michael Bacchus III, in their home in Mahtomedi. DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT
Heather and Randy Bacchus have been grieving since their 21-year-old son, Randy Michael Bacchus III, took his own life one year ago in Colorado while suffering from cannabis-induced psychosis.
But the parishioners of St. Mary of the Lake in White Bear Lake, parents also of three daughters, are determined to share their story to help others understand the dangerous impact of high-potency marijuana that is replacing the less potent “weed” of the 1970s and beyond.
All this even as a bill before the Minnesota Legislature, passed by the House last year and moribund in the Senate this year, would make recreational marijuana legal and set up a framework to grow, package and sell the drug.
“We didn’t realize at the time what the weed really was,” said Randy Bacchus, 53, of their son’s marijuana use, which began at age 15. “Back in the day, the 1970s, ‘80s and ‘90s, THC (the psychoactive agent in cannabis) was about 2% to 5%. Today, the concentrates, a dab, or vape, is at 30%, 40%, up to 90%.”
“I thought it was quasi-harmless,” Randy said. But as their son’s struggles with marijuana grew — and the family tried to help him with counseling, a wilderness therapy session in Utah, changes in high schools, asking him to leave the house, also inviting him back into the…
