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

[AxelPaulsenJr]

I simply lack the will to go on with you any further.

Goodbye, any future posts from you will be ignored.

As O'Reilly likes to say, "I will give you the last word".

[AxelPaulsenJr]

bttt

[AxelPaulsenJr]

bttt

[Land of the Free 04]

Are you in favor of hard liquor continuing to be legal?

Yes, for antiseptic purposes and when eating tainted meat or as a pain killer.

Marijuana has pain-relieving properties, so I guess you're in favor of relegalizing it.

[TKDietz]

I knew that article sounded like bs and now when I came across the article posted below my suspicians are confirmed.

UK/Switzerland: Death was not caused by cannabis

On 20 January 2004 the newspaper Daily Telegraph reported that cannabis was blamed as cause of death of a 36 year old British man. However, a review of the toxicological data and autopsy report by a Swiss expert revealed that there is no reason to assume that the sudden death of Lee Maisey in August 2003 was due to cannabis.

Mr Maisey smoked six cannabis cigarettes a day for 11 years,
which was reported in some newspapers to be "excessive". He
had complained of a headache on 22 August last year and was
found dead at his home next morning. Michael Howells, the local coroner, who led the investigation of the death cause, said Mr Maisey was free from disease and had not drunk alcohol for at least 48 hours. "High levels of cannabinoids" had been found in his blood. The report led to new warnings about the dangers of the drug. Dr. John Henry, a professor of toxicology at Imperial College, London, said: "I have not seen anything like this before.
It corrects the argument that cannabis cannot kill anybody."

The Federal Health Ministry of Switzerland asked Dr. Rudolf
Brenneisen, a professor at the department for clinical research at the University of Bern, to review the data of this case. Dr. Brenneisen said that the data of the toxicological analysis and collected by autopsy were "scanty and not conclusive" and that the conclusion death by cannabis intoxication was "not legitimate".

According to the toxicological analysis of a British laboratory (Forensic Alliance) Mr Maisey's blood contained 130 nanograms per milliliter (ng/ml) of the THC metabolite THC-COOH. THC could not be detected due to analytical problems. Dr. Franjo Grotenhermen of the nova-Institute in Cologne said: "A concentration of 130 ng/ml THC-COOH in blood is a moderate concentration, which may be observed some hours after the use of one or two joints. Heavy regular use of cannabis easily results in THC-COOH concentrations of above 500 ng/ml. Many people use much more cannabis than Mr Maisey did, without any negative consequences."

(Sources: Daily Telegraph of 20 January 2004, Neue Zuericher
Zeitung of 28 January 2004)

[Shryke]

TKD, don't get the wrong impression - THC is basicaly harmless, IMHO. This guy died from THC toxicity - there is no other cited probable cause. More people have died from drinking pure water. Ultimately, THC is safer than meteorites, spontaneous combustion, and accidental eating by Godzilla.

[TKDietz]

I don't doubt that too much THC could kill someone. But I'm a lawyer, and I have seen dozens of drug test reports, many of which showed higher concentrations of THC than the deceased had in his blood. The coroner in this case was not a physician. No explanation was given for how exactly this low level of THC could have killed someone. There are heavy pot smokers all over the world walking around with higher levels of THC in their system, probably millions of them. They aren't dying. Something else killed this man.