Cannabis is blamed as cause of man's death

Telegraph Group Limited ^ | 20/01/2004) | Richard Savill

[Dubya]

A man of 36 is believed to have become the first person in Britain to die directly from cannabis poisoning.

Lee Maisey smoked six cannabis cigarettes a day for 11 years, an inquest heard. His death, which was registered as having been caused by cannabis toxicity, led to new warnings about the drug, which is due to be reclassified this month as a less dangerous one.

"This type of death is extremely rare," Prof John Henry, a toxicologist at Imperial College, London, said after the inquest at Haverfordwest, west Wales.

"I have not seen anything like this before. It corrects the argument that cannabis cannot kill anybody."

The inquest heard that Mr Maisey had complained of a headache on Aug 22 last year. Next morning he was found dead at the house he shared with a friend, Jeffrey Saunders, in Summerhill, Pembrokeshire.

Michael Howells, the Pembrokeshire coroner, said Mr Maisey was free from disease and had not drunk alcohol for at least 48 hours. Post-mortem tests showed a high level of cannabinoids in his blood.

He recorded a verdict of death by misadventure because Mr Maisey had died while taking part in an illegal activity. The death led to a warning about the changing strength of Dr Philip Guy, a lecturer in addictions at the University of Hull, said: "Cannabis is not the nice hippy drug it used to be. It has been experimented with to produce stronger varieties."

Dr Guy said that death was more likely if users ate the drug rather than smoked it. "I would not be surprised if in this case the deceased had ingested a fatal amount of cannabis."

Last autumn police issued a warning that big consignments of strong cannabis were being smuggled in from Africa. On Jan 29, cannabis will be reclassified from a class B to a class C drug.

The shadow home secretary, David Davis, said last night: "This highlights what we have been saying about the effects of cannabis all along. When will people wake up to the fact that cannabis can be a harmful drug?

"By reclassifying the drug David Blunkett has shown he has lost the war on drugs. In my eyes, it's nothing more than an admission of failure."

Tristan Millington-Drake, the chief executive of the Chemical Dependency Centre

[woofie]

bummer man

[explodingspleen]

The pro-drug libs I know are fond of asking the question, "How many people have died from smoking marijuana?" and then answering it themselves "ZERO!"

I will print this for them. It will annoy them to no end. :)

[Dubya]

LOL.

[John H K]

The pro-drug libs I know

Are you in favor of alcohol continuing to be legal? Then you're a pro-drug lib too :-)

[wireplay]

Sounds like someone making up a reason to blame marijuana. I haven't smoked for 15 years but I can't believe that for all this time SUDDENLY someone dies of smoking. Just smacks me of an agenda.

[SAR1]

6 joints a day for 11 years great. lets keep smoking it will do you really well. you deserve to die you freakin moron. you had it coming to you.

[Indie]

This is bull. NO reason to continue WOD. They can throw all this tripe out there they want.

[primeval patriot]

Which organ failed as a result of marijuana toxicicity?

[RussP]

Good Lord, I'll bet several hundred people died just today from drinking alcohol. And here we have the first known case in Britain of someone dying from smoking marijuana! Anyone who thinks that alcohol should be legal, and marijuana illegal, apparently doesn't think very hard.

[CurlyDave]

The pro-drug libs I know are fond of asking the question, "How many people have died from smoking marijuana?" and then answering it themselves "ZERO!"

Hey Spleen:

Before you get too cocky here try doing a little research on how many people have died from aspirin.

Then ask about alcohol.

Then tobacco.

Let me point out that water toxicity is a known phenomenon. That's right, people die from voluntarily drinking excessive amounts of water.

As a final exercise read the parable of the mote and the beam.

[hunter112]

Dr Guy said that death was more likely if users ate the drug rather than smoked it. "I would not be surprised if in this case the deceased had ingested a fatal amount of cannabis."

He didn't necessarily smoke it. Given the rarity of death tied to marijuana, you'd have to almost consider this a freakish cause of someone's premature demise. Self-inflicted, to be sure, but that doesn't prevent a cause of death being considered a freak accident.

[i get it]

What about the guy who was hit by a bale-o-dope that was dropped from a plane a few years back. Wouldn't he be the first victim?

[Orblivion]

Is there any real scientific proof here? Sounds like scapegoating to me.

[RussP]

Great points.

But the more fundamental point is that the legality of any particular drug should not depend on its danger or lack thereof.

The bigger point that the drug prohibitionists fail to grasp is that we each "own" our own bodies, and therefore we should have the right to ingest whatever we wish. If you think the gov't owns your body, you don't have a clue what freedom means. It's that simple.

Of course, you are still responsible for your actions even under the influence of a drug, any drug. And if you screw up, you damn well should be held accountable. That goes for marijuana *and* alcohol.

[mseltzer]

I haven't had any in years. They must really be growing it strong nowadays.

[JudyB1938]

Bull. I don't believe it. Something else caused that death, not marijuana.

[Jeff Chandler]

Dave's not here.

[Prodigal Son]

Lee Maisey smoked six cannabis cigarettes a day for 11 years

Dude was stoned all the time.

[rebelyell]

Seems to me a key point missing in this story is the fact that cannibis is NOT TOXIC. The federal government in this country has tried for years to establish a lethal dose of cannabis for humans and has failed miserably. The closest they came was suffocating some poor monkeys to death by cutting off their oxygen supply and replacing it with smoke from burning cannabis. Sorry, but this is complete and utter bullshit and anyone who has studied this subject (on either side of the debate) should know it. Six joints a day leaves the user out of touch with reality....not dead.

Again, I state....cannabis is not toxic so no one has EVER died of toxicity. Try again limeys......