The problem isn't drugs. The problem is some in this country, mostly social liberals/progressives, have been trying to make civilization more "civil" by restricting our ability to weed out the bad elements in society. It is extremely rare for someone to go from being a law abiding citizen to murdering a woman for her car, so I'm guessing this kid has a long and well-documented history of escalating violence and criminal activity. In the really old days, this kid would have been hung or shot by his victims. In the old days, the local sheriff would have taken him for a "walk in the woods" and then filed a missing person report on him. Nowadays, our more "civil" society just keeps letting the guy go back on the streets and escalate his activity until it reaches this point.