Rudy EugeneToxicology Report: Marijuana Not Ruled Out as Cause of Agitation

While the toxicology report on cannibal attacker Rudy Eugene failed to find the bath salts drug in his system, an addiction expert speculates that marijuana could have influenced the face-chewing attack he carried out in Miami last month.

The Miami-Dade County, Fla., medical examiner said the toxicology reports detected marijuana, but the suspected street drug called bath salts was absent, as were alcohol and prescription drugs.

An addiction expert told CBS news that she would not rule out marijuana as causing the agitation that sparked the attack.
It could have been the strain of marijuana that increases the dopamine in the brain, such as sativa, said Dr. Patricia Junquera, assistant professor at the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Miami.

She explained that there are two strains of marijuana; one is sativa, which increases dopamine and gives a person energy.

If Eugene had a mental disorder the marijuana could have further hiked his dopamine levels, according to Junquera.

People don't really know what the amount of either is in each little packet of marijuana, she said. And we can't differentiate between the two in the blood, much less in a dead person.

The second review of the toxicology report comes a month after the horrific 18-minute cannibal attack, where Ronald Poppo, 65, was pounced on while sleeping on elevated train tracks on a causeway. His attacker, Rudy Eugene, 31, had scattered his clothes from the beach to the mainland in Miami, before punching and straddling the homeless man and proceeding to eat his face, police say. Police shot and killed Eugene when he could not be subdued.

Poppo remains hospitalized and has undergone several surgeries to restore and reconstruct as much of his face as possible. His left eye was gouged out by his attacker, but doctors are working to restore the vision in his right eye.

The family of Poppo's attacker says Eugene was a religious man who was not violent in any way. I knew my son, Rudy Eugene's mother, Ruth Charles, told ABC affiliate WPLG in Miami. Rudy will never, never do something like that.

Eugene's girlfriend, who did not wish to be identified, expressed similar sentiments. She said he was a religious man who did not abuse drugs.

He loved God. He always read the Bible. He would give you knowledge on the Bible. Everywhere he went his Bible went. When he left he had his Bible in his hand, the girlfriend told WFOR in tears.

That was his body, but not his spirit, she added.