Posted on 02/06/2006 7:53:49 AM PST by Wolfie
Cannabis Psychotic Nearly Killed Me
A wealthy music producer has spoken about the dangers of cannabis after being viciously assaulted in her home by a family friend who had been made psychotic by the drug.
Lisa Voice, one of Britain's richest women, has had to undergo 11 operations to reconstruct her face after the unprovoked attack last June.
Voice's lawyers hope that her decision to go public about her trauma will encourage the government, police and courts to rethink their approach to cannabis misuse. They say that her experience calls into question the government's decision to lower the classification of cannabis, despite medical warnings that it can lead to psychosis among some users.
She was asleep when the 20-year-old family friend, who was in her home in north London, attacked her in her bedroom. He punched her repeatedly, tried to strangle her and jumped on her head.
He subsequently pleaded guilty to grievous bodily harm. Medical experts concluded that he was mentally unstable at the time of the assault due to "cannabis psychosis". He will be sentenced at Middlesex crown court tomorrow.
Voice's injuries were so severe that on the night of the attack doctors warned her family that she was unlikely to live. She lost some of her vision when her eye sockets were smashed and has had her nose rebuilt with ear cartilage.
Over the past eight months Voice, a 52-year-old mother of two, has also had titanium plates inserted into her face to hold her cheeks together and underwent a tracheotomy to allow her to breathe.
A music producer who has worked with pop stars from Sir Tom Jones to Lemar, Voice has also built up a property investment company. At the time of the attack Hollywood film makers were working on a movie about her life, including her 12-year relationship with Billy Fury, the rock star, who died in 1983.
Speaking from her home yesterday, Voice, who is worth UKP29m according to the Sunday Times Rich List, said: "He ( her attacker ) was a kind, sweet boy I had known for more than a year and welcomed into the family. But a few days before the attack I noticed he was acting strangely. I suspected he was smoking cannabis.
"Then I woke up to find myself being attacked. He broke my jaw, totally destroyed my nose, smashed my skull and my whole face now needs wires and metal plates to function. I am a bionic woman as a result of this assault."
Voice's life was shattered on the morning of June 7, 2005, with a sharp blow to her head while she was still asleep. Punch after punch rained down on her and she was dragged out of bed. Her attacker then began to jump on her head. She thought her life was over.
"I was yanked out of bed. He was punching me continually. It was just petrifying," Voice said yesterday. "I could feel my jaw swinging everywhere, my cheeks were hanging off, he smashed my nose to pieces. But then he started jumping on my head. He was strangling me. My eye sockets were smashed and I was lying there in a pool of blood."
Drifting in and out of consciousness, Voice was aware of her two teenage children in the room desperately struggling to stop the attacker. "My daughter was shouting, 'He's killed my mum, he's killed my mum'," she said. "Her nails were torn off trying to stop him."
Voice was already vigilant about security after a raid at her home in 2002, when jewellery worth hundreds of thousands of pounds was stolen. She had installed a top-of-the-range security system.
However, last June's attack could not have been predicted. Her attacker had told them that he came from a respectable background, that his father was a teacher and his brother was a solicitor. He had been welcomed into the family. "In the days before the attack he did begin acting irrationally," recalled Voice. "I noticed something was wrong and he did seem to be losing the plot. I thought that all kids smoke cannabis today, but it's so strong they can't function."
Police and medical experts believe the cannabis triggered a psychotic incident - the assault. Voice told police: "I looked up and saw his eyes were huge and wide open. They were what I can only describe as wild and I was honestly terrified and feared for my life. I can still see his face and eyes staring down at me."
Dr Shahrokh Mireskandari, her lawyer, said: "Let government ministers who say cannabis is a harmless drug come and explain that decision to Mrs Voice and her many doctors. Cannabis should never have been reclassified and people such as Mrs Voice now face a lifetime of pain because of the dangers of this drug."
Voice plans to release photographs of the attack revealing the extent of her injuries. It is hoped that the images will have a similar impact to those of the heroin addict, Rachel Whitear, which were used in schools to warn children of the dangers of the drug. Voice is happy for the images of her injuries to be used in educational material.
Details of her attack come within weeks of the government decision not to return cannabis to its previous higher classification. It will remain a class C drug despite warnings from the Royal College of Psychiatrists that there is evidence linking use of the drug to psychosis and violence. Users are not automatically arrested for possession.
Although Voice's attack was over in minutes, she is still recovering. Doctors told the family that it was one of the most vicious attacks they had encountered. That evening, medical staff told her family to fear the worst.
However, with the help of a team of specialist reconstructive surgeons and 11 operations to date, her face has slowly been rebuilt.
"I had no nose and couldn't breathe so they took cartilage from my ear and used that to rebuild my nose," she said. "I have titanium plates behind my cheeks - which are held in place by wire running behind my nose, face and eyes and secured through my jaw - which also had to be rebuilt.
"I've lost part of my vision which can make me unsteady on my feet and have had a tracheotomy."
However, she remains optimistic. "I do actually regard myself as fortunate and I am lucky. I did have a good face, good features and I do now have an odd mouth and eyes, but to be quite honest I almost died that day. I have had to put my film on hold but am now excited about the prospect of starting work on it again."
Her assailant has since been successfully treated for his "condition" and has expressed his remorse to the family.
The family's legal advice is that he may well receive a non-custodial sentence when he is sentenced tomorrow. However, Voice will present the judge with statements from the family detailing the impact that the assault has had on them.
Last year researchers from New Zealand reported that regular cannabis smokers had almost double the normal risk of schizophrenia. Particular concern has focused on the strong "skunk" variety of cannabis.
Charles Clarke, the home secretary, wrote to his panel of independent experts last year asking them to re-evaluate the decision to downgrade cannabis. He and Tony Blair had indicated that a U-turn was imminent but the panel did not recommend a reclassification.
There is mixed research on pot effects. If someone is prone to mental illness it makes perfect sense to me that pot would send them over the deep end. I hope you do not love pot so much that you would deny that it has different effects on different people.
A man I knew got so paranoid on pot, he became dangerous but realized it before he did anything criminal and stopped using. Others I know can smoke with only a reduced level of drive in life as a consequence, which only affects their personal income and advancement. They reduce their intellectual operation.
I have never known anyone who has not suffered a degree of consequence from using the drug on a regular basis. It is not free of consequences; it is not harmless. Just like booze.
Read an article just this morning from www.foodnavigator.com/europe in which the author (and editor) states that the "plummeting minteral levels suggest nutritional crisis in UK". Early onset diabetes is linked to this "crisis" which, by the way, you won't about in this country because the food lobbyists have far too much clout. I will add that there is a steady recognition of the lack of nutrition in our food supply due to processing and/or GMO's.
As an occasional pot smoker for the last 35 years, I can tell you that back in the 70's there was some really crappy pot & there was also some really powerful stuff. Nowadays, it is the same, but the good stuff costs a way lot more - therefore - the average pothead usually ends up smoking the mediocre stuff most of the time.
This is the same old whine about marijuana. I want to see the results of a study of normal, productive, otherwise law-abiding citizens who smoke pot, drink alchohol, etc - VERSUS - psychotic, violent, mentally impaired people who smoke pot, drink alchohol, etc.
Now that would really tell the tale.
Total agreement here.
Although I can sympathize with you're family dilemma, I find it highly unlikely that a psych ward has just a bunch of potheads on the unit, they might smoke pot in addition to being mentally unbalanced or they might be taking hard core dope and smoking pot as well.
I doubt that a normal person who ocassionally smokes marijuana ends up on a psych unit.
Had she never checked on this man's background before allowing him to stay in the house with her and her teenaged children? STOOPID!
"IMO, alcohol is more dangerous than marijuana."
Maybe. I don't know, having never smoked pot.
I can state with personal knowledge that it made a very bright MIT-engineer-to-be (the aforementioned college roomate) into slug. I think he dropped out and worked at a quickie-mart or something.
I favor legalization because the government has no business being a nanny over people, from the left (seatbelts, helmets, junk food) or the right (drugs, alcohol).
That, and as an avid hiker, I came across a pot farm by accident and nearly got killed by a deadfall drap (plastic sheet with dirt on it, sharpened wooden spikes in the bottom, ala Viet Cong). My dog stepped on it but wasn't heavy enough to trigger it fully. Pulled him out just before he fell. I would have died.
The underground pot world has made it impossible to hike in any national forest.
LOL. Someone seriously harshed his buzz.
very interesting information about the underground pot world and your hiking. I'm so far removed from that kind of life style now.
Wonder what the real cause of this was?
I for one am absolutely convinced that smoking large amounts of weed (particularly the modern skunk varieties) as a teenager can trigger psychotic illness in those genetically vunerable.
I watched it happen to someone once. He never recovered.
I have been a multiple lines insurance agent for 37 years. We can tell when a heavy pot user comes into our office, and it shows in their driving records.
I could call the Association of Alcoholics Anonomoyus and ask then if Aclcohol is dangerous and recieve the same answer.
I am sure that Psych unit would also say taking Benzodiazepines is dangerous so I fail to see the point here...
He sounds like he could use a drink.
What you see is *Driving under the influence* that encompasses many mind altering substances.
You can be arrested for driving while using NYQUIL...
Satire?
Funny...big yuks
I wouldn't touch that filth with a 10 foot cattle prod.
Sorry, no I wont. I dont need a PHd who never experienced weed or other drugs tellling me how dangerous they are without listing booze right up there with it. It is dishonest for any entity to decry drug use and not include alcohol. At age 38, I drank more before I turned 29, than most do in a lifetime. I have been sober for coming up on 9 years, and can testify beyond a shadow of doubt that weed pales in comparison to the damaging effects of alcohol. But drug warriors like their crutches, too, and fail to see that the jack black double they have to "relax" after work can lead to the same problems as the drugs they claim are so evil. Thats why these threads are always so full of shiite..
I'm kinda surprised thast this thing has gotten up to 80 replies with no sign of the Nerd Herd thusfar.
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