- Britain's most senior coroner is warning that hundreds
of young people are dying in accidents caused by their prolonged use of
cannabis.
-
- Hamish Turner, the president of the Coroners' Society,
said that the drug, which is often portrayed as harmless, has increasingly
been behind deaths that have been recorded as accidents or suicides.
-
- In the past year, he estimated that cannabis was a significant
contributory factor in about 10 per cent of the 100 cases that he had dealt
with in south Devon, where he works.
-
- Conversations with his colleagues led him to believe
that the scale of the problem elsewhere in the country was equally bad.
"Cannabis is as dangerous as any other drug and people must understand
that it kills," said Mr Turner.
-
- "From my long experience I can say that it is a
very dangerous substance. Increasingly it is mentioned not only as the
first drug taken by people who overdose, but also in suicides and accidental
deaths.
-
- "It is an awful waste of young lives. People are
trying the drug at a very young age. Many go on to harder drugs and I am
dealing with more and more heroin overdoses. People can also suffer severe
consequences from the cannabis alone, however.
-
- "Bereaved parents say to me, 'We didn't realise
how dangerous it was until it was too late, if only we had done something'.
It is heartbreaking."
-
- Recent examples of the dangers of the drug cited by Mr
Turner include the case of James Taylor, a 31-year-old, who was found hanged
in his Torquay flat. The inquest heard that he had started smoking cannabis
when he was about 15 and was a habitual user. The drug was blamed for the
depression and mental health problems that later plagued him and which
led to his death.
-
- Mary Taylor, his mother, said that there was no doubt
in her mind that cannabis had killed her son. "The cannabis made him
paranoid from the word go. He went from a good-looking, artistic, talented
chap to someone who did not trust anyone, not even his sister, who he was
very close to.
-
- "Because of the damage the drug did to him he became
more isolated, more lonely and more depressed. The loveliest boy was destroyed
by this drug. I would never have believed that James would have acted as
he did when he took his own life.
-
- "People who insist that cannabis is harmless are
talking rubbish. We had years of hell when James was on cannabis, and that
was all he was taking. Now he is dead and our family life has been devastated."
-
- Cannabis also contributed to the death of Dragan Radoslavjevic,
42, from Paignton, Devon. He died earlier this year after using a power
tool to drill a hole in his head. An inquest in Torquay heard that he suffered
from depression and relied on drugs such as cannabis and heroin.
-
- Mr Turner said that stronger varieties of cannabis -
up to 10 times more potent than those used in the 1960s - were now common,
leading to physical and mental problems in young people living in rural
areas as well as in cities.
-
- The drug robbed young people of their appetite for life,
the coroner warned, with regular and prolonged use leading to panic attacks,
paranoia, psychosis, racing heart, agitation, an increased risk of heart
attacks and strokes, and even a tendency to violence.
-
- "Cannabis is a mind-altering drug which has ravaging
effects on the brain," he added.
-
- In another case, Ralph Hamilton, 27, from Torquay, died
when the car he was driving hit a bus in Totnes. Witnesses reported that
he "looked almost comatose" as he drove directly into the front
of the open-topped bus. Blood tests showed that Mr Hamilton had been taking
cannabis and the inquest heard that he was a regular user.
-
- Other coroners also expressed concern about cannabis.
Michael Gwynne, the coroner for Telford and Wrekin, said that he feared
that deaths would spiral if the Government decriminalised the drug. "There
is clearly some evidence that cannabis is a contributory factor in drug-related
traffic accident deaths but, because of the problems with toxicology, we
are unable to state its full impact," he said.
-
- "What the Government should not do is become more
tolerant of the drug; that would involve setting legal limits, and risk
cannabis becoming a major cause of road traffic deaths."
-
- Veronica Hamilton-Deely, the Brighton and Hove coroner,
said that national figures supplied by coroners' offices showed that illicit
drugs, particularly cannabis, were increasingly present in victims of road
traffic fatalities. These statistics showed that in 2000, 12 per cent of
the 3,400 people killed in road accidents showed traces of cannabis: a
sixfold increase on a decade earlier.
-
- The dangers of cannabis were highlighted in research
published last month, which showed a sharp increase in drug-related deaths.
According to the European Centre for Addiction Studies at St George's Hospital
Medical School in London, in 2002, British coroners cited cannabis as the
major cause of death in 18 out of 853 drug-related deaths. The drug was
also implicated in a further 31 out of 1,579 deaths involving a cocktail
of drugs.
-
- The biggest killers were heroin, which was the major
cause of death in 712 cases, and cocaine, which was the principal factor
in 147 deaths.
-
- © Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2003.
-
- http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml
- =/news/2003/11/02/npot02.xml&sSheet=/news/2003
- /11/02/ixhome.html
-
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- Comment
- From Steve
- 11-2-3
-
- Jeff -
-
- Wow, what a piece of pure propaganda. This article was
purely opinion without one speck of scientific evidence. This article claims
hundreds of people die every year strictly from cannabis use. What a load
of you know what! Let's get real. Millions of people worldwide smoke cannabis
and lead a normal productive life. The DEA's own description of a somebody
operating a motor vehicle under the influence of cannabis is of a carefull
driver who obeys all traffic laws. I kid you not! Cannabis is not alcohol.
Cannabis is not cocaine. Cannabis is not heroin. Cannabis is not LSD. People
need to educate themselves.
-
- This article's sole aim is to instill fear in the hearts
of the reader. If people only took the time to educate themselves on the
subject, they'd learn that humans have had a deep, fruitfull relationship
with the herb since the dawn of civilization. There is absolutely NO evidence
that cannabis smoking is harmful. In fact, it seems to be helpful to many
people in dealing with sickness, depression, & physical pain.
-
- If people knew the history of hemp, that cannabis was
snuffed out by huge chemical corporations like Du Pont & people like
Hearst, they might change their tune. I'm sick & tired of this, and
I thought I was safe from garbage like this at Rense.com... Guess I was
wrong.
-
- Steve
-
- Comment
From Carstie Clausen
11-2-3
-
- Since the days of Harry Anslinger and William Randolph
Hearst there has been a yellow journalistic disinformation campaign directed
against cannabis and its users. This particular piece of propaganda seems
to have been directed by the Post against the decriminalization legislation
that is just coming down in Great Britain. Is the Post a Murdoch publication
or does it have Bilderburger links?
-
- It would be useful for you to do an investigatory piece
on this publication and its ilk. I quite enjoy the Rense website and am
of the feeling that either a majority or a huge plurality of its site-browsers
would appreciate material relating to cannabis that is informative rather
than propagandistic. As a casualty of the Trickydick war on drugs in this
Untied Skates of a Miracle, it is my firm opinion that alternative news
and information sources should take a positive stance on the single greatest
civil liberties issue facing the U.S. today, the continued criminalization
of cannabis and hemp at the behest of the pharmaceutical drug industry
(the most profitable hunk of corporate Amerikka) and their stooges, the
best politicians that money can buy.
Comment
From Alton Raines
11-2-3
I'm quite sure the only marijuana related deaths take place when cops blow
away harmless pot smokers during idiotic drug raids..
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