Rudy Eugene, AKA the Miami Zombie, was not high on bath salts when he ate Ronald Poppo's face last month. The toxicology report found only marijuana in his system-- not the synthetic drugs the media was hoping for.

As I previously reported, the media's insistence that Rudy Eugene was high on bath salts stemmed from an uniformed police officer's speculation. His misrepresentation of facts then snowballed into dozens of false reports, claiming not only that Eugene was high on bath salts, but also that bath salts are a 'super-potent form of LSD' -- another lie. Now, the mainstream media must confront the fact that, despite all of their rumor-mongering and subsequent calls for a baths salts ban, Rudy Eugene was probably mentally ill.

Mental illness was always the most likely cause behind the "Miami Zombie" story. But pinning a tragedy to a drug scare is easier (and perhaps more lucrative) than explaining a non-existent safety net for the mentally ill. Bath salts, the mainstream media naively believes, can be banned and eradicated. Treating mental illness is a far more complicated story.

Here's to hoping the drug-scare-loving media does not shift the blame to weed. Because even though Eugene tested positive for marijuana, pot builds up in a person's system over time. He may not have been high at the time of the attack, and even if he was, weed is not known to cause violent behavior, but a relaxed state of mind. Mental illness -- not weed, bath salts, or any other drug -- is still the most likely explanation for the "Miami Zombie" tragedy we may never understand.