Hashishi

Mother stabs herself to death after psychotic episode linked to her cannabis habit
3-12-`07 | The Daily Mail

The Daily Mail is notorious for covering the issue of Diana`s death right up to this day. Amongst informed news readers this paper is acknowledged to be qualitatively the smoothest-going on one`s anus and may be found in enlightened households throughout Britain perched on top of toilet roll holders as a worthy alternative to the most quilted of brands. With that said...

A mother stabbed herself to death with a carving knife after a psychotic episode linked to her cannabis habit, an inquest heard.

Cannabis addict Julie Cross plunged the five-inch knife into herself after claiming a dog was speaking to her.

Mum-of-one Julie, 41, told pals the creature was trying to tell her something before ramming the blade into her chest and abdomen in Goring, Sussex.

An inquest in Worthing heard Cross used speed and cannabis on a daily basis and in the weeks leading up to her death slashed her wrists and smeared her blood across a crucifix.

Rhys Cotton, 20, who lived with Julie and her son Terry Greenslade, 22, discovered her body slumped on the floor in June 2007, after his bloodstained dog alerted him when he got out of the bath.

She suffered three fatal puncture wounds to her lungs and liver, the deepest of which was 13cm.

In a letter read to the inquest Cotton said: "I went upstairs and could see into her bedroom. She said 'I think the dog is trying to tell me something'.

"I thought that was quite strange. A lot of things she did I found strange but didn't really think too much about it.

"She would tell me she regularly heard voices and would often trash the house."

Julie was diagnosed with drug induced psychosis in 2006 and spent much of the last year of her life in and out of the Millview mental hospital, in Arundel, Sussex.

It bears mentioning that there are no proposed instances of 'cannabis psychosis'. There is a very specific condition known throughout the psychiatric profession as 'amphetamine psychosis'. Given that the tortured Julie was a regular user of amphetamines I`m leaning toward this being the stated cause in her notes, though the increasing backwardness and misinformation surrounding cannabis as relates to the psychiatric profession leads me propose this with a degree of scepticism.

West Sussex coroner recorded a verdict of misadventure, saying the wounds could have been a 'cry for help' rather than a suicide attempt.

Katie Leason, of mental health charity Rethink, said the case further proved cannabis causes severe mental illness.

She said: "We don't believe there is any doubt about it now. There is a proven link between the drug and psychosis."

As far as the scientific literature goes, there is no stated premise for cannabis causing mental illness whatsoever. Ms. Leason is either privy to information the world`s most eminent scientific institutions aren`t or she has made a grave and baseless assumption. In the latter case one must ask whether there is any scrupling left in the Daily Mail`s coverage of this issue. (Yes, I am being facetious)

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