(The News – Portsmouth, UK) The parents of a young musician who killed himself on a railway line have been left questioning whether cannabis caused their son’s mental illness.

Ben Gregory, a talented trombonist, was prone to stress when he started using the Class B drug when he was 18 years old.

But after starting university studies, he began showing signs of paranoia and was diagnosed with psychosis and paranoid schizophrenia after suffering from night frights, depression and hearing voices in his head.

OK, what exactly do we mean by “prone to stress”?  Is it possible that by age 18, his psychosis and paranoid schizophrenia began to manifest and he sought cannabis to get some relief?

The 25-year-old, who lived in Wisteria Gardens, Havant, was given medication and received counselling. But he died after stepping out in front of a train at Warblington Railway Station in Havant on June 8 last year.

OK, what exactly do we mean by “given medication”?  Could he have been given one of the anti-depressants that have been shown to double the suicide risk in young people aged 18-25?

An inquest in Petersfield heard Ben didn’t have any alcohol or drugs in his system when he died. But his parents still don’t know whether cannabis caused their son to develop his mental illness.

His father, Raymond, said: ‘The medics couldn’t tell us for certain. But we know cannabis can cause psychosis in about one per cent of young men.

No, Raymond, schizophrenia and psychosis are suffered by about 1% of young men, period.  Whether they use cannabis or not.

‘Stress can also be a trigger. He was finding it difficult to cope with his university course and family problems and his grandfather died in the middle of this.’

Ben’s mum, Pamela Parry-Jones, said: ‘He dabbled with cannabis when he was 18. He had difficulties all through his life. He found it difficult through school and college, and he found our divorce difficult.’

So, then, a young man having trouble in school, grieving over his parent’s divorce and grandfather’s death, who has been “prone to stress” since adolescence and was taking brain medications committed suicide.  It sounds to me like using cannabis probably kept the young man alive and able to cope for seven years.

Police: Man mooned crowd only minutes after being released on marijuana charge – Fosters
PORTSMOUTH — Minutes after he was released on bail for marijuana possession, Adelbert Harvey was arrested again in Market Square Tuesday afternoon for allegedly mooning people, say police.

As a result, Harvey, 35, with no permanent address, faces three Class A misdemeanor charges of possession of drugs, breach of bail conditions and indecent exposure-lewdness.

According to [police they] received reports from witnesses nearly 10 minutes after Harvey was released about him exposing his buttocks in the middle of downtown.

[Prosecutors] argued that Harvey should be held on cash bail because of the fact that he violated terms of his release nearly 10 minutes after being arrested for the marijuana charge.

Judge Sawako Gardner asked Harvey if the court could trust him to stay on good behavior after which he responded with, “if I don’t drink, I guess.”

While admitting to having a drinking problem, Harvey said he was still intoxicated when released on the first charge and called his latest arrest a “wake-up call.”

Don’t you just hate it when you get a story about a messed-up alcoholic doing something really stupid, but since marijuana is illegal people will equate breaking the law on marijuana with the stupid things that were caused by alcohol.