Aaron Reddy (2000 – 2019)

Aaron was an intelligent, handsome, articulate, and comical young man who was compassionate and forgiving.  He was accepting, loving of everyone, quick-witted, and always joking around with family and friends.  He was the life of the party.  Aaron was in the Future Business Leaders of America organization as well as a college accounting program.

Looking back now, there were signs we never connected to marijuana.  Starting in middle school, he became aggressive.  We don’t drink or do drugs, so I didn’t know that we should have suspected drugs.  We’re part of the Indian community.  For immigrant families, drugs can kill the American Dream, especially when we don’t know this aspect of American culture.

Food is a large part of our culture.  Aaron loved cooking; he loved food and fellowship.  No wonder he went to work in the food and restaurant business, where all his dreams died.  We literally learned of my son’s marijuana use within hours before he died.  That was the day we found marijuana in his bedroom.

At age 16, Aaron began working at a restaurant.  A family he worked with was planning to start a medical marijuana business in Maryland. They knew that Aaron was smart at business and planned to become an accountant.  We’ve since learned that they were making marijuana edibles and selling them on the side.  Plus, restaurant workers who had medical marijuana cards, sold high-potency honey, shatter, wax, and budder to the other (younger) kids working there. 

One day our lives changed forever.  That morning, he revealed a paranoid aggressive side new to me.  A co-worker warned me that he was probably using marijuana.  After finding marijuana in his room that evening, I called Aaron at work and told him that he was in trouble and would lose his privileges.  The biggest mistake I’ve ever made was not waiting for him to come home first before discussing the matter.

That evening his father, Raj, called him and found out he had crashed his car into a tree.  He was crying and saying, “I’m sorry, dad.”  Raj told him, “Come home and we will talk about it.”  He didn’t come home.  He crossed the highway on foot, dazed, and was hit by two vehicles—one being driven by a young man who had two prior DUI cannabis arrests.

My heart stopped the night I looked down from Joppa Road bridge and saw my son’s body.  I screamed to him, “Mommy is here!”  This was a nightmare from which I could not wake up.

By the time we drove to the other side of the highway, they had covered Aaron up because he had died.  The police noticed the smell of marijuana and found a dabbing rig in his car.  The toxicology report came back clean.  We asked if they tested for THC, but they hadn’t tested for it.  We had to ask the coroner three times before Aaron was tested for THC.    Very high levels of THC Delta-9 and -11 were found in his system at the time of death.

The Indian community doesn’t talk about this, but we are sharing Aaron’s story to be his voice to say, “Stay away from marijuana.”  There is no benefit; it will give you pain.  The cannabis industry uses us as guinea pigs, making money while we suffer.  When you legalize drugs, you are opening your home to drug dealers.  Dangerous people enter your home through Instagram or Chat.  They don’t care about your child dying.                                           By Anita Reddy

QUOTE: “The cannabis industry uses us as guinea pigs, making money while we suffer.  When you legalize drugs, you are opening your home to drug dealers.  Dangerous people enter your home through Instagram or Chat.  They don’t care about your child dying.”