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Cannabis blamed for teen's rail line death

By Antony Stone | ic Wales | August 19, 2004

A teenage boy knocked down and killed by an express train was probably under the influence of cannabis at the time, an inquest jury heard today.

Phillip Francis, 18, from West Wales, turned his back on the speeding train and walked down the track as its driver sounded the horn.

Within seconds he was hit by the 415-ton First Great Western high-speed train heading to London Paddington from Carmarthen at 7.58am on May 6.

An inquest jury in Llanelli heard today how the parents and friends of the teenage labourer, of Randall Square, Pembrey, had been devastated by his death.

Driver Michael Jonah said he had already been slowing the train from 75mph to 65mph as he approached Pembrey station from a mile away.

He saw the teenager walk out from the side of Talybank Bridge, Pembrey, and continue on to the track.

"He just continued to walk on the running lines and turned his back. He made no acknowledgement of the horn."

He said that he appeared to raise both of his arms to shoulder height in the moment before being struck.

[Greenbudnote: Like he was welcoming the impact. Sounds to me like he committed suicide, stoned or not.]

"The front of the driver's cab then struck this young person and he disappeared from view below the train," Mr Jonah added.

David Emmott, a British Transport Police investigator, said Phillip had been at a sleepover at a friend's home in Burry Port that night.

He said his parents were aware that he had been using cannabis for about one year but had been unable to stop him taking it.

[Greenbudnote: Gratuitous use of the "addiction" myth...]

He had left no suicide note, did not suffer from depression and was seen as pleasant and well-balanced by all who knew him.

"It seems most likely that his death is the result of disorientation as a result of his use of the drug," Mr Emmott said.

[Greenbudnote: Uh...yeah...]

Pauline Mainwaring, deputy coroner for Llanelli, said a post-mortem report had concluded the teenager had died of multiple injuries.

Toxicology tests confirmed that he had taken cannabis not long before the accident.

[Greenbudnote: HOW long? 1 hour? 6 hours? 24 hours? I think that fact makes a big difference here.]

It was likely that he was experiencing one or more of the psychological effects associated with the drug at the time of his death.

These include disturbances of memory and judgment, anxiety and panic attacks, irritability and hallucinations.

[Greenbudnote: And the urge to step out in front of trains? Oh come on...I don't care how high I am, I have never experienced an effect that would make me want to throw myself into the path of an oncoming train. This is stupid. The kid obviously had an underlying mental disorder or was suicidal and no one bothered to notice, but instead authorities blame cannabis as the reason he killed himself. More Reefer Madness, courtesy of our friends Down Under.]

The jury recorded a verdict of accidental death.

__________________
"I believe in the near future, the government will use anti-drug hysteria to set up a police state."
-author William S. Burroughs, 1947

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drdoug99

well as we know, "Its use frequently leads to insanity. "

he obvously went crazy using the wacky weed

i'm sad for the kid and whatever reason he decided to not move out of the way for a train, but to blame weed for that is crazy...

JTP

As unfortunate as this even was, blaming it on weed is just dumb. I don't think I could ever be stoned enough to miss a TRAIN.

smokebud4life

This is a serioulsy tragic accident, you know that the dea couldnt be happier though. They just love when things like this happen, they love to use these tragic accidents as reasons for brainwashing the public into thinking it was the cannabis. THE KID OBLUOUSLY HAD PROBLEMS.

He just continued to walk on the running lines and turned his back. He made no acknowledgement of the horn."

He said that he appeared to raise both of his arms to shoulder height in the moment before being struck.

COMON WHAT DOES THAT TELL YOU?

syre

This is ridiculous... Psychological effects, eh? I'm not a regular smoker, but I know damn well marijuana doesn't distort a persons reasoning enough to jump in front of a train. I don't think anyone who's never smoked weed should be able to make accusations like this. If I take a half-ounce blunt to the head, I might end up giving the pizza delivery guy a $50 tip on accident, but I ain't jumpin' in front of any trains.

 

xxdr_zombiexx

cannabis has jack sh*t to do with the boy's demise.

He committeed suicide, plain and simple.

I have seen this many times.

Here in the US the safety net of social services like community psychiatric hospitals have been decimated by egregious budget cuts for political reasons.

I have seen time and time again violent and unstable people ejected from the hospital a long time before they are ready, and an aware of several really bad consequences. Here in Atlanta numerous mentaly ill people use trains to commit suicide. (And those who dont die or go on assaultive or shooting sprees - gunning people down in a wealthy person's mall, attacking an 8 year old girl with a claw hammer - end up being admitted numerous times wasting funds that could have been better used keeping them in the hospital longer.)

Reefer madness clouds people's ability to get at what's what in such situations. Arbitrarily blaming marijuana does not answer the questions and puts other people at risk becasue proper questions are never asked, let alone followed up on or asnswered satisfactorily.


Differnt issue - because this boy committs suicide and has a history of pot smoking the rest of the world should be penalized? should be prevented from enjoying smoking pot? should be thretened with arrest, ruination and being shot to death?

I think not.

__________________
Alien Space Signal

There's no money for your issue so long as we're squandering $50 billion a year on the DrugWar. Ben Masel

Fear became the ultimate tool of this government - V.

Rajones

The kid pretty obviously suicided, and hey why not get high first. I know I would have.

king cola

I've been reading up on the history of cannabis use in earlier times. This is one of the things someone had used it for. 1845: Dr. Jean-Jacques Moreau de Tours initiates the science of psycho-pharmacology in France, using cannabis to treat the insane and depressed. Back then cannabis was being used a lot for medicine. I agree about what some of you said, people blame marijuana for suicide, if anything i think some people who are suicidal just use it to relax and try to forget about their problem but in reality it doesn't go away, they kill themself and let's forget the mental illness they might have, let's just blame marijuana is what people do. What about people who commit suicide but are alcohol users, we don't try to ban it and say yea it made them commit suicide. Marijuana was illegal in the first place because some as$hole named harry anslinger had nothing else to launch his narcotics career with, when he got in cocaine and opium was already illegal. He needed something else to work with and went for marijuana, to get his views out he went to a news paper editor, william hearst who was willing to put the lies in his papers, keep in mind this was before our US gov even said anything bad about marijuana and all the bad things said about it from that day forward. Just want to also add hearsts cut of the deal was by him putting marijuana lies in his papers, he thought it was going to get hemp banned, they both though marijuana and hemp were the samething, in his case he had money invested in the timber, hemp would have givin them competition, he also hated mexicans and they were the ones blamed for our country using marijuana/hemp. Mexicans and blacks were used in the lies. Here we are today with reefer madness cause of one mans financial gain.

3 good articles

http://blogs.salon.com/0002762/stori...naIllegal.html

http://www.bigeye.com/marijuana.htm#protein

http://www.tlmp.org/history_of_marijuana.html

MRTOK3R

i dun care how much anybody smokes u aint gonna die all u gonna do is just fall asleep dats bout it. dats juss str8 bs i smoked a whole half n a day is was fun not a death experience deez peepo just seyin bs bud dunt kill!!!
stay smokin..

tiburon_gt1

For this boy's death to be blamed on weed is absolutely ridiculous! If he wasnt suicidal then why did he raise his arms up waiting for the train to hit him? He obviously acknowledged that the train was there and he had to have known what the outcome would be cause no reefer or any drug would ever make me jump out infront of a train! Another thing, look at the time that this happened, 7:58am, does it make sence to you why he would be walkin on train tracks so early in tha morning after gettin high at a party? My theory is that he could have been walkin on these tracks for hours waiting for a train to come and hit him cause he is suicidal! If you havnt ever got high then dont blame weed for a death cause gettin high is not what you think, it wont make you jump out infront of a train, smoke up, you will see!