17<\/p>\n Angela Hector says she’s terrified by what cannabis can do to people after her uncle Roger Leadbeater was murderedCredit: Eyevine 17<\/p>\n Kind-hearted Roger Leadbeater died with his faithful springer spaniel Max by his sideCredit: PA 17<\/p>\n Emma Borowy was a habitual cannabis user who would sacrifice feeding herself to pay for the drugCredit: Facebook<\/p>\n It later emerged the woman charged with killing him, then 32-year-old schizophrenic Emma Borowy<\/a>, was a habitual cannabis<\/a> user who, when not being treated in a mental health<\/a> hospital, would sacrifice feeding herself to pay for the drug.<\/p>\n Mother-of-one Borowy, who died in a suspected suicide<\/a> in prison in December 2023, had absconded from Royal Bolton Hospital eight times since she was sectioned in October 2022, and each time she escaped she would buy weed and display increasingly concerning psychotic behaviour.<\/p>\n \u201cAs far as I could see she was never reprimanded at all for having cannabis despite having it every time she left and even having it on hospital grounds,\u201d Roger\u2019s grieving niece, Angela Hector, 56, told The Sun.<\/p>\n \u201cI am now so scared of what cannabis can do. This has had a massive impact on us as a family. We have lost somebody really important to us.\u201d<\/p>\n In May this year, London Mayor Sadiq Khan<\/a> backed a call for the partial decriminalisation<\/a> of possession of the Class B drug in a recent report by the London Drugs Commission.<\/p>\n It suggested doing so could free up law enforcement and court resources, as individuals caught with small amounts might face warnings, fines or community service, and eventually pave the way towards a regulated cannabis market.\u00a0<\/p>\n But the suggestion set alarm bells ringing for Roger\u2019s family – and the Police and Crime Commissioner for Dorset, David Sidwick.<\/p>\n He wrote a letter to police minister Dame Diana Johnson which was signed by 13 other PCCs, claiming the effect of the drug in society may, in actual fact, be \u201cfar worse\u201d than heroin, and it should be upgraded to Class A – a belief shared by the former Home Secretary Suella Braverman<\/a>.<\/p>\n Mr Sidwick said: \u201cIt is a chronically dangerous drug that we haven\u2019t gripped. The whole world has been subjected to a PR campaign in the other direction.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI worked in the pharmaceutical industry for 30 years and this drug has long-term chronic side effects.\u00a0<\/p>\n Monster GUILTY of stabbing Daniel Anjorin, 14, to death and slashing at cops with Samurai sword in \u2018ferocious\u2019 rampage<\/p>\n \u201cIt is associated with more birth defects than thalidomide<\/a> and is linked to more than 20 cancers<\/a>. Not to mention the issues with psychosis and drug driving.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr Sidwick\u2019s concerns are echoed by the findings of a Sun probe which reveals cannabis is behind a mental health epidemic that has seen a third of people presenting with psychosis in London<\/a> developing it from heavy use of high strength weed.<\/p>\n The THC levels – the mind-altering element in weed – nowadays is almost seven times stronger<\/a> than it was 35 years ago, shooting up from three per cent to 15-20 per cent in potent modern-day cultivated cannabis.<\/p>\n The increase has a frightening effect on the addictiveness of the substance, making users, particularly teenagers with developing brains, vulnerable to mental health issues with prolonged heavy use, which can progress to violent disorders – sometimes with deadly consequences.<\/p>\n \u2018Epidemic\u2019 17<\/p>\n Dorset’s Police and Crime Commissioner David Sidwick wrote a letter to police minister Dame Diana Johnson which was signed by 13 other PCCs, claiming the effect of the drug in society may, in actual fact, be ‘far worse’ than heroinCredit: Supplied 17<\/p>\n The THC levels – the mind-altering element in weed – nowadays is almost seven times stronger than it was 35 years agoCredit: Alamy<\/p>\n Psychiatrist professor Sir Robin Murray, who specialises in psychosis at King\u2019s College, London, told The Sun: \u201cTo the parents in their 40s and 50s who see their children smoking cannabis, they need to be aware that it is a very different substance to what it was years ago.<\/p>\n \u201dThe result is that it\u2019s far more addictive. We\u2019re seeing smokers having up to 20 joints a day.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are at the beginnings of an epidemic of cannabis-induced psychosis.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cAbout a third of the people in London who present with psychosis have developed it from heavy use of high potency cannabis.<\/p>\n \u201cThe mental health service is a right mess. One of the reasons for that is that we\u2019ve got more people who are psychotic than we\u2019re expected to have.\u00a0<\/p>\n We are at the beginnings of an epidemic of cannabis-induced psychosis<\/p>\n Sir Robin Murray<\/p>\n \u201cHalf of those people with cannabis induced psychosis will develop schizophrenia<\/a> in five years.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cBut it is not schizophrenia that makes you violent, it\u2019s cannabis that makes you violent.<\/p>\n \u201cCannabis makes you paranoid, so if you\u2019re hearing voices from God commanding you to do something, then you\u2019re seeing violence in a bizarre and horrifying murder that is not like plotting to kill your wife in six weeks time, but a sudden psychotic episode where you kill whoever you come across.\u201d<\/p>\n The effects of this were seen on June 27, when Marcus Arduini-Monzo<\/a>, 37, was jailed for life after he murdered 14-year-old Daniel Anjorin<\/a> with a samurai sword as he walked to school in a 20-minute rampage in East London.\u00a0<\/p>\n The appalling attack was blamed on Arduini-Monzo\u2019s cannabis misuse.\u00a0<\/p>\n Links to violence 17<\/p>\n Innocent Daniel Anjorin was murdered as he walked to school in a 20-minute rampage in East LondonCredit: PA 17<\/p>\n Marcus Arduini Monzo ambushed the 14-year-old on April 30 last yearCredit: Enterprise 17<\/p>\n The appalling attack was blamed on Arduini-Monzo\u2019s cannabis misuseCredit: PA<\/p>\n Cannabis is currently a Class B drug, along with ketamine<\/a> and amphetamines. It was returned to Class B after being downgraded to Class C by Labour<\/a> between 2004 and 2009.<\/p>\n English teacher Ross Grainger runs a blog cataloguing cannabis-related violent crimes called Attacker Smoked Cannabis, and has written a book of the same name – inspired by the phrase he uses when searching for incidents.\u00a0<\/p>\n He told The Sun: \u201cI started this in 2017 when I was worried we could be going in the direction of decriminalisation and I realised there was a problem.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d say there has been a steady violent episode every two weeks for the past 30 years – and what I log is the tip of the iceberg.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI log murders, suicides, rapes, drug driving and terrorism<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI was struck by how it is considered a peaceful drug that couldn\u2019t in any way lead to violence, yet the evidence I read as I began researching showed how strongly that is not the case, and how strongly it is linked to terrible violence.\u00a0<\/p>\n I\u2019d say there has been a steady violent episode every two weeks for the past 30 years – and what I log is the tip of the iceberg… For me, there is no drug worse than cannabis<\/p>\n Ross Grainger<\/p>\n \u201cI see the same pattern emerging where a young person has cannabis from a young age, loses their mind and commits a terrible act of ultraviolence.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019d be forgiven for thinking it is legal in this country. Really it is decriminalised in all but name.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cFor me, there is no drug worse than cannabis. Other drugs have horrendous side-effects, but what can be worse than actually losing your mind?<\/p>\n \u201cIt seems crazy to me that a Government can be so anti-smoking<\/a>, and do so well in enforcing a ban, but then be so lax at enforcing cannabis legislation.\u201d<\/p>\n ‘Cannabis took my son’ 17<\/p>\n Julie Romani lost her son Jordan to cannabis in 2017Credit: Julie Romani 17<\/p>\n Jordan began smoking cannabis when he was 14Credit: Julie Romani 17<\/p>\n Julie set up a charity, Help For Dependency, after her son’s death and now raises awareness of the dangers of cannabis to mental healthCredit: Julie Romani<\/p>\n Heartbroken mum, Julie Romani, 60, from Bradford, West Yorks., knows only too well the harmful effects cannabis addiction<\/a> can have after her son Jordan took his own life in September 2017, aged 27.\u00a0<\/p>\n He\u2019d started smoking cannabis as a young teenager and couldn\u2019t function without it.<\/p>\n The widowed property developer and mum-of-two, whose husband died aged 61 in 2011, when Jordan was 21, said: \u201cMy husband was diagnosed with prostate cancer when Jordan was 14, so I think that\u2019s when he started to develop a habit.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe didn\u2019t know what was going on. We put mood swings down to him being a teenager, but the emotional instability, nastiness and anger continued and got worse over the years.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cHe was depressed and ended up where he couldn\u2019t get a grip on reality. He used to say the only thing that made him happy was his \u2018Happy Baccy\u2019.<\/p>\n \u201cHe tried so hard to quit and had even stopped smoking it for three months before he died, but he couldn\u2019t cope with it and couldn\u2019t cope without it.<\/p>\n \u201cJordan had everything to live for but the cannabis took him.\u201d<\/p>\n After Jordan\u2019s death Julie set up a charity, Help For Dependency<\/a>, and now raises awareness of the dangers of cannabis to mental health.<\/p>\n ‘Chicken and egg’ situation 17<\/p>\n Julian Hendy’s father was killed by mentally ill Stephen Newton in a drug-induced psychosis in 2007Credit: Supplied 17<\/p>\n Julian with his dad, whose killer got a murder convictionCredit: Handout<\/p>\n Investigative journalist Julian Hendy founded the charity Hundred Families<\/a> after his father Philip, 75, was killed by mentally ill Stephen Newton in a drug-induced psychosis in 2007.<\/p>\n Newton lay in wait for Philip to emerge from buying a newspaper before fatally stabbing him in the street in Bristol<\/a>.<\/p>\n Julian\u2019s charity has now backed over 300 families who have lost loved ones at the hands of mentally ill patients, many of whom were under the influence of cannabis.<\/p>\n He said: \u201cCannabis and serious mental health problems are very common to go together. Around 70 per cent of those with serious mental illness also abuse drugs.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt is sometimes difficult to know which caused the other in a chicken and egg situation.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a lot that needs to be done in treating mental illness and stopping patients from being involved in drugs that can cause schizophrenia and make mental illness worse.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the case of my dad, the services knew this chap took drugs and they didn’t do anything to stop him taking these drugs.\u00a0<\/p>\n Jordan tried so hard to quit and had even stopped smoking it for three months before he died, but he couldn\u2019t cope with it and couldn\u2019t cope without it. Jordan had everything to live for but the cannabis took him<\/p>\n Julie Romani<\/p>\n \u201cThe death of my dad was very preventable. They should have done better to save my dad, they didn\u2019t do so, and I see that in lots of cases.<\/p>\n \u201cMy father\u2019s killer got a murder conviction, which you don\u2019t always get. It was found that he had made the dangerous choice of taking drugs that caused him to become psychotic and murder and therefore he was held responsible and jailed for 16 years in October 2008.<\/p>\n \u201cYet in the case of Valdo Calocane<\/a>, who committed the Nottingham murders<\/a> of 19-year-old university students Grace O\u2019Malley-Kumar<\/a> and Barnaby Webber<\/a>, and caretaker Ian Coates<\/a>, 65, he was not tested for drugs, and was convicted on the grounds of diminished responsibility.<\/p>\n \u201cThen you get shorter sentences in hospital which doesn\u2019t feel like justice for the families.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cHe should have been tested for drugs at the time of his arrest and he wasn\u2019t.<\/p>\n \u201cRight now people who present with problems due to cannabis will not be helped because cannabis is the cause, unless they have psychosis, and only then they sometimes get the help.<\/p>\n \u201cMental health services seem to be aware this is a common problem but they don\u2019t actually take enough effective steps to try to stop people becoming psychotic.\u201d<\/p>\n 17<\/p>\n The killer of Grace O\u2019Malley-Kumar, Barnaby Webber and Ian Coates was not tested for drugs, so he was convicted on the grounds of diminished responsibilityCredit: PA 17<\/p>\n Julian says Valdo Calocane should have been tested for drugs at the time of his arrest, but he wasn\u2019tCredit: PA<\/p>\n Crazed cannabis killers<\/p>\n JAKE NOTMAN<\/p>\n Jake Notman, 28, was jailed for eight years and eight months after admitting to killing his girlfriend, Lauren Bloomer, during a psychotic episode triggered by a cannabis brownie.\u00a0<\/p>\n In November 2020, Notman stabbed Bloomer more than 30 times and ran her over outside their Tamworth home.\u00a0<\/p>\n Bloomer, 25, had begun recording on her phone after seeking help online for Notman’s bad reaction to the drug.<\/p>\n The audio recorded her screams and Notman\u2019s chilling words before the sound of a revving engine and a thud.\u00a0<\/p>\n Neighbours saw him run over her and return indoors without offering help.\u00a0<\/p>\n Notman later called 999, saying he\u2019d been told he killed his girlfriend.\u00a0<\/p>\n Prosecutors initially charged him with murder, but psychiatric experts concluded he couldn\u2019t distinguish reality at the time.<\/p>\n The court accepted his manslaughter plea.\u00a0<\/p>\n The judge said the killing was \u201cunexpected and frightful,\u201d partly caused by the drug.<\/p>\n PIETRO ADDIS<\/p>\n Pietro Addis, 19, was jailed for 15 years in May 2023 after fatally stabbing his grandmother, Sue Addis, at her home in Withdean, East Sussex, in January 2021.\u00a0<\/p>\n Though he admitted the killing, a jury accepted his plea of diminished responsibility due to a psychotic episode, finding him guilty of manslaughter.\u00a0<\/p>\n Addis, diagnosed with ADHD in 2018, had been living with his grandmother but tensions rose over his cannabis use.\u00a0<\/p>\n At the time of the attack, Brighton restaurateur Sue was seeking professional help for him.\u00a0<\/p>\n On the day of the incident, Addis called 999, and police discovered Sue in the bath with 17 stab wounds.\u00a0<\/p>\n Judge Christine Laing KC stated that despite his mental condition, Addis bore significant responsibility.\u00a0<\/p>\n He must serve at least 10 years in custody and five on licence.<\/p>\n DANIEL O\u2019HARA WRIGHT<\/p>\n Daniel O\u2019Hara Wright, 24, was found not guilty of murdering his mum, Carole Wright, by reason of insanity after a harrowing trial at Oxford Crown Court.\u00a0<\/p>\n Suffering a severe psychotic episode, he believed his mother had become a demon and killed her and gouged out her eyes during a walk at Watlington Hill on October 23, 2020.\u00a0<\/p>\n The day of the killing, he woke up between 10am and 11am and smoked a small amount of cannabis \u2018through a hollowed out potato\u2019.\u00a0<\/p>\n Witnesses saw him behaving erratically afterward, including biting off a chicken’s head, climbing a pylon, and telling strangers he\u2019d “fallen from the sky”.\u00a0<\/p>\n Experts agreed he was deeply psychotic, with delusions of being a god or shaman. Psychiatric evidence confirmed he did not understand his actions were wrong.\u00a0<\/p>\n The jury, after over two hours of deliberation, accepted the insanity defence.\u00a0<\/p>\n Wright\u2019s deteriorating mental health had been evident for years prior to the killing.<\/p>\n Angela, a community service officer and mum-of-five, is still fighting for answers, furious that her uncle\u2019s killer was reportedly never reprimanded for her cannabis use, despite allegedly having it on hospital grounds.<\/p>\n \u201cDespite evidence showing the detrimental impact it has on mental health, I cannot see any evidence that anything is done to help mental health patients stop taking it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cBorowy was refusing to take her own anti-psychotic medication and self-medicating instead, with disastrous consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n Borowy was sectioned in October 2022 for sacrificing two goats she stole from a farm in a witchcraft ceremony.<\/p>\n One time she escaped she told police she would murder hundreds of people and had threatened a \u201cbloodbath\u201d. She was also often found with knives.<\/p>\n Tragically, after being granted supervised leave on August 7, Borowy ran off from the healthcare worker accompanying her and travelled to Sheffield<\/a> where she killed Roger Leadbeater two days later.<\/p>\n Angela is now incredibly wary of being around anyone she suspects is using cannabis.<\/p>\n \u201cI went to a 90s festival just last month and I had to leave because the smell of cannabis in the air was too much for me,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t feel safe and I was scared of what it could do to the people smoking it. They could be a walking timebomb.<\/p>\n \u201dI know what happened to Roger is rare, but he is proof that it can happen – and the reality is that cannabis is not rare.<\/p>\n \u201cThe problem with a murder caused by cannabis is that they are so tied up with mental health that the cannabis side of it gets forgotten. More needs to be done about prevention.<\/p>\n \u201cSadiq Khan needs to take a walk in our shoes for a week to see what he thinks of cannabis use then.\u201d<\/p>\n A spokesperson from the Home Office said: “We are continuing to work with partners across health, policing and wider public services to drive down drug use, ensure more people receive timely treatment and support, and make our streets and communities safer.”<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/family-seek-answers-sheffield-park-1012058726.jpg\")
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