Utterly false. I posted a message in the politics & legal section around the time of the first reefer madness story about a "cannabis death" - Lee Maisey. You can check it out here . Since then there's been a further report of a cannabis death in UK newspapers, local papers printing this :
Quote:
A CORONER issued a stark warning on the use of 'recreational' cannabis at an inquest into the death of a popular teenager.
Speaking at Hastings Magistrate Court on Wednesday, coroner Alan Craze said: "I know a lot of people take the view that cannabis is harmless.
"I do not think people realise what people use as a pastime, or for recreation, is putting themselves in jeopardy of mental illness."
The inquest heard smoking cannabis dragged 19-year-old Stephen Dengate to the depths of depression â?? and cost him his life. He was found dead at his Oxford Road home after smoking the drug and sniffing lighter fuel.
The inquest revealed the combination of the two substances had triggered fatal respiratory problems.
Stephen, affectionately known as Scooby, had been plagued by mental health problems after he started smoking the Class C drug at 11.
He had been known to self harm by cutting his arms, lash out and punch walls, resulting in mental health doctors prescribing him Prozac.
Tragically, Stephen had been getting his life back on track when he died in August 2003 â?? he was enjoying his work as a storeman at Woodgate, Rye, after moving back in with his parents Sally and Michael.
Sally, who discovered her son's body, said of his cannabis smoking: "It started at school, he was bullied, and he used it as a means of escape."
Hundreds attended Stephen's funeral last year, including friends from Xtrax, the youth recreation centre at Havelock Road, where he regularly visited.
Recording a verdict of misadventure, Mr Craze said: "There's no doubt that the death has been caused by a combination of the two drugs.
"Each one has the same effect on the body, and they have been working together.
"Had he taken one and not both together this might not have happened - the cannabis and volatile gas were too much for his body to take."
n Cannabis was controversially reclassified from a Class B drug to C in January.
It can cause a range of mental health problems from anxiety and paranoia to actual psychotic states.
in response to which I sent the coroner this :
Quote:
For the attention of Alan Craze
I am writing to you with reference to your verdict and comments on the death of Stephen Dengate, as reported in Hastings Today. Are you aware, Mr Craze, that there has never, in the ten thousand year plus history of human cannabis use, been one single verifiable death due to cannabis use. Are you aware that there is not even an established LD50 for cannabis in humans. I guess not, otherwise you would not have reached your conclusion, nor made the ludacrous statement to the court. Have you read the report in this months Lancet commisioned by the department of health - again I assume not, since the report concludes that "Available evidence does not strongly support an important causal relation between cannabis use by young people and psychosocial harm," yet you falesly assert that cannabis users put themselves "in jeopardy of mental illness.". And finally, your unqualified verdict that the action of cannabis and solvents together caused the death - please forward to me the research evidence into the interactions and contraindications of cannabis and solvents, as I obviously missed this research which must exist and be the basis of your verdict, otherwise you are guilty of guesswork and pandering to the current political vogue of inventing cannabis deaths to justify the current legal position. If you cannot forward this evidence to me, then I would suggest you rethink your verdict, as it obviously has no basis in scientific fact.
and to the paper this :
Quote:
I have already emailed the coroner regarding his incorrect verdict, now I feel I must address your appalling journalism. This is probably the most innacurate article I have read all year (and I read a lot of the reefer madness stories that are currently en vogue, so you should congratulate yourselves for reaching the very zenith of poor journalism - Piers Morgan must be headhunting you as I type). One would have hoped that the two things required in all journalistic pieces would be an unbiased opinion, and sufficient research into a subject - your article demonstrates neither. Had your reporter (and the coroner) bothered to check, you would know that current research, as published in this months Lancet, finds no causal link between cannabis and mental illness, yet your rag continues to proliferate the lies of the reefer madness brigade. The final line in the report sums up the quality of the journalism : "It can cause a range of mental health problems from anxiety and paranoia to actual psychotic states." , I would be grateful if your reporter could provide the source for this sweeping assertion, as all the research that I have read (which is all the creditable research, by the way) suggests entirely the opposite.
Shame on you for printing something more suited to the brothers Grimm than a newspaper.
suffice to say I received a response to neither, but if you keep shouting someone's eventually gonna listen ;)
