I enjoyed this tweet by the English journalist, Peter Hitchens, who has been sounding the alarm about cannabis for years.
After Keir Starmer, leader of the Labour party dodged multiple questions about past drug use, LBC radio presenter, Nick Ferrari, asked Emily Thornberry, Labour’s shadow attorney general for England and Wales, the same question.
Ferrari answered, “Yeah, I smoked dope” (at university). The two then share a chuckle about this.
On X, Hitchens wrote:
Gosh, look at the hilarity here about marijuana. Tee hee hee go the radio presenter (love those glasses @NickFerrariLBC) and the Labour front-bencher. Oh what a jolly, trivial thing. Then read this: https://breakingnews.ie/ireland/man-who-cut-off-wifes-head-during-cannabis-induced-psychosis-returned-to-hospital-1604721.html… . Still giggling?
The report he links to is that of a man in Ireland who cut off his wife’s head during a cannabis-induced psychosis.
Mr Costa Silva’s trial heard that due to his mental disorder, he had come to believe that his wife was possessed by a serpent and that she would kill him.
After he attacked her, by striking her on the head with a mug, strangling and stabbing her, he cut her head off believing that he had to do so to make sure the serpent was dead.
Two forensic consultant psychiatrists gave evidence that Mr Costa Silva was suffering from cannabis-induced psychosis with symptoms including paranoia, delusions and auditory hallucinations.
As a result of his illness he did not know the nature and quality of his actions and did not know that what he was doing was wrong, the psychiatrists said. Barristers for the defence and prosecution told the jury that Mr Costa Silva was not legally responsible for his actions.
The jury of seven men and five women took two hours and 24 minutes to come to their unanimous verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity.
Any drug that can induce such a response in a person ought to be taken seriously.