It’s no secret that the lobby for cannabis decriminalisation has been working overtime in Ireland in recent years. In our towns and cities, weed smokers have basically taken over. The smell is everywhere. It’s just a harmless drug, we’re told. No big deal. But headlines continue to prove that decriminalising the drug would be bad for society, including a headline in the BBC today.
A ruling from a London court just today brings us back to one truly awful story from last year. A 37-year-old man was on Wednesday found guilty of murdering a 14-year-old boy who was on his way to school when he was hunted down with a samurai sword, the BBC reports.
Daniel Anjorin was walking to school in north London on 30th April last year when Marcus Monzo, a former Amazon delivery driver who was high on weed, walked up behind him and killed him.
Daniel, wearing his school PE kit, had headphones on and was unaware of Monzo’s presence as he walked down the residential street where he lived in Hainault. The schoolboy had waved goodbye to his mum and walked out of the front door at around 7am, schoolbag on his back as he made his way to school.
Monzo, a Brazilian-Spanish national, had already been on a spree of destruction that day – having started his series of attacks at 6:45am that morning, having ploughed his van into a 33-year-old pedestrian. He had then proceeded to chase the man, slashing him in the neck. Before that, he had skinned and deboned his poor pet cat, Wizard, before setting out in a cannabis-induced psychosis to “kill as many people as he could.”
Daniel was dead just moments after leaving his family home when he was struck with a 60cm sword, causing horrendous injuries to his face and neck. Chillingly, eye witnesses described Monzo screaming “in delight” and smiling after fatally wounding Daniel with the 60cm (24in) sword.
After killing the young teenager, Monzo, with an address in Canning Town, made his way into a nearby home where a couple and their four-year-old daughter were asleep. The BBC reports that he demanded to know if they believed in God before slashing the man on the arm and leaving the house. After he was arrested, Monzo told police that his personality had switched to that of a “professional assassin”, and that “something happened, like a game happening”.
His murderous rampage took just 20 minutes. All I can say is thank God for the incredibly brave police officers who tried to disarm Monzo, suffering serious injuries as a result.
The Old Bailey heard today how Monzo’s first victim, who he drove into with his van, had been walking to work at the time before he was catapulted into the air. He had shouted that he did not know his attacker, to which a crazed Monzo replied “I don’t care, I will kill you” while chasing him down the street.
The court heard that Monzo “moved quickly, like a predator”. While Daniel’s body lay in the middle of the road, Monzo was seen to drag him, while a woman exclaimed in shock, “He’s just killed that boy.” Indescribable.
When an ambulance arrived to treat the teenager, Monzo even attacked the vehicle, causing the “extremely frightened” paramedics to retreat. The prosecutor at the Old Bailey told jurors it was “miraculous” that more people weren’t killed as Monzo slashed and chopped at anyone he came across.
The case cannot be ignored, because it shows the incredible and underdiscussed harms associated with cannabis use.
The BBC reports: “Both the prosecution and defence agreed Monzo had a psychotic disorder. However, prosecutors said his behaviour was triggered “by self-induced intoxication in the form of drugs” through his use of cannabis, which led to the psychosis.”
While Monzo’s defence claimed that he was “most likely suffering from a pre-existing condition,” prosecutors successfully argued during the three week long trial that his psychosis was a result of his cannabis misuse, not an underlying mental health condition such as schizophrenia.
The ongoing trend is to deny the severity of the impact the drug can have. You’re also accused of being too uptight if you complain about the stench or seeing people lighting up in public, even around children. Similarly, Monzo, when giving evidence, also tried to downplay the impact of his drug use.
The Telegraph reports: “He denied smoking the class B drug on the morning of the attack, but said he had consumed cannabis up to four times a week in the preceding five months.
He told the court: “When I smoked I felt more in tune with my feelings. Mostly it helped me relax; feel more present. I noticed things more, it was like a sensorial enhancement.”
But the harms of the drug are so real. Consultant forensic psychiatrist Dr Bernard Chin, who saw Monzo four times, and gave evidence for the defence, spoke about how his cannabis use had triggered a pre-existing schizotypal disorder characterised by hallucinations and delusions. Are we meant to ignore these facts?
Kirsty O’Connor, from the Crown Prosecution Service, speaking in the aftermath of the verdict, said: “The CPS maintained throughout that Arduini Monzo’s mental state was driven by his own cannabis misuse, which meant that he was fully responsible for the devastation he caused last year.
“The jury, by their unequivocal verdicts, have accepted the prosecution’s case.”
The simple and straightforward reality is that as cannabis use grows, so do the harms. It’s hard, looking at the case above, not to come to the conclusion that despite its growing popularity, it could be one of the most insidiously dangerous drugs of all. The effect of the drug on the brain is profoundly well-documented with studies showing that long-term use can seriously disrupt critical brain processes. Instead of cheering for cannabis legalisation here, we need a serious conversation about the dark sides of the drug.