Well, I was going to start off this post by claiming that this story was an outright fabrication, but some further research has corroborated the Sun’s allegation. Still, there plenty of questions to be answered. For instance, while the coroner, Michael Howells, states the victim was “free from disease” and etc. we are left in the dark re: the specifics of his death. Did he have a history of heart ailments? Asthma? Uncontrollable falling down? We just don’t know.
Furthermore, we have no way of knowing whether the cannibis had been tainted by any other chemical agents. Urban legend certainly supports the occurrence of marijuana laced with PCP or Crystal Meth (among other things), and even such reputable institutions as the US and Mexican Government have admitted to tampering with God’s good herb (you… Human Paraquat! =) So before you run off claming death by THC poisoning, Mr. Howells, you’d better investigate some other possibilities. Especially when you’re making these claims about a chemical with a LD50 (lethal dose in > 50 % of subjects) way, way, way higher than say… Caffeine! (THC has a LD50 = 666 mg/kg orally in rats, while Caffeine’s is only 192 mg/kg.)
In larger animals (dogs and monkeys specifically) researchers have been _unable_ to deliver a lethal dose orally. (And not for lack of trying! In a study comissioned by the President and Congress in 1970, they went so far as to administer 3000 mg/kg doses orally without fatality in many animals!) The same study contained a case study on “Very Heavy, Very Long-Term Cannabis Users” which basically concluded that, “Yeah, they’re pretty fucked up, but it’s not killing them.” (Incidentally, Nixon was understandably P.O.ed about having paid for this report, and was heard to remark, “You know it’s a funny thing, every one of the bastards that are out for legalizing marijuana is Jewish. What the Christ is the matter with the Jews, Bob, what is the matter with them? I suppose it’s because most of them are psychiatrists, you know, there’s so many, all the greatest psychiatrists are Jewish.”)
So anyway, to get back to my point, while it’s certainly tragic that this 6-joint-a-day smoker ended up dead, I’d be willing to bet dollars to doughnuts that it wasn’t pot alone that killed him, QED.
ps. Two rather funny things about this post. 1) The man was found to have died by way of “Misadventure!” 2) “What the Christ is wrong with the Jews, Bob?” =)