Times: 'Psychotic' reaction to smoked cannabis led soldier to kill with garden shears

[turkeyphant]

Originally Posted by http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,29389-2396424,00.html

A SOLDIER who bludgeoned his friend’s father to death after suffering a psychotic reaction to home-grown cannabis was jailed yesterday for ten years.

Laurie Draper, 31, “beat the brains out” of Paul Butterworth, a teacher, by repeatedly smashing 3ft garden shears into his head and body.

Mr Butterworth’s son, Ashley, fled to save his own life after unsuccessfully trying to drag his father’s body away from the paratrooper.

Draper, an Iraq War veteran with eight years of exemplary service, began to smash up a bathroom after smoking a small amount of the drug that had been grown by his victim.

Attempts to restrain him resulted in the sustained attack on Mr Butterworth, 53, which Judge Findlay Baker, QC, called an “appalling act of extreme and persistent violence”.

Sentencing Draper at St Albans Crown Court, the judge said: “I have no doubt it would not have happened if you had not consumed cannabis. Your conduct became at first strange, then alarming, then delusional. Resisting attempts to calm you down, you attacked Paul Butterworth.”

When Ashley Butterworth intervened, some blows landed on him, the judge said, adding: “Fearing for his life he desisted, leaving you to beat the brains out of his unfortunate father and eventually drag his body, mutilated and barely recognisable, to the living room sofa.

“Anyone who unlawfully takes a dangerous mind-altering controlled drug and who finds that his mind is altered in unexpected and undesired ways must take responsibility for his subsequent actions.”

Draper, originally from Leicester but based at Colchester Garrison, Essex, was a lance corporal who had served in Northern Ireland. He had a family history of schizophrenia.

He admitted manslaughter in March on the ground that his mental state had been affected by Mr Butterworth’s home-grown, high-strength cannabis.

The three were smoking the drug in the design and technology teacher’s home in Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire. Draper and Ashley Butterworth had been childhood friends but their relationship fizzled out when Draper joined the Army. They met again in the weeks before the attack as Draper prepared to leave the forces.

Ann Evans, prosecuting, told the court that Draper had smoked a pipe with cannabis in it. She said: “After just one pull on the pipe Ashley observed the defendant to be euphoric, giggling and obviously enjoying the experience.

“Having finished the first pipe he then asked for a second. This time Ashley increased the amount of cannabis to what he estimated to be half the size of a garden pea.”

Draper then stripped naked, threw his clothes into the fire and began “frantically” washing himself in the kitchen. He started smashing up the bathroom. When the father and son tried to stop him, Ashley Butterworth was punched in the face.

Mrs Evans added: “Draper then grabbed hold of some long-handled tree-loppers that were lying against a chair in the hallway. He struck downward at a 45 degree angle towards Paul Butterworth’s head. This was done with maximum power and cut down into his head just above his eyebrow.”

The court heard that a second blow hit the man in the right cheek, although he was almost certainly dead from the first blow. As Ashley Butterworth ran he saw Draper return to his father’s body where he aimed three or four more blows with the garden tool.

Mrs Evans said: “The most likely explanation for his behaviour was that he had developed a cannabis-induced psychotic mental state during which he experienced delusionary thinking, in other words that the house was on fire, his life was in great danger and that Ashley was attacking him.”

Draper was diagnosed by Michael Laker, a psychiatrist, as having the disorder hypomania.

I love the way cannabis is blamed instead of eight years of murdering Iraqis and hypomania. Additionally, if cannabis was decriminalised and controlled, this man would never have smoked it and had this reaction.

[wellhelm]

It sounds like the herb just fed an already pre-exsisting mental illness. I do not believe weed alone could do something like that. I also doubt he murderd Iraqis for 8 years seeing the US has only been in Iraq 4.

[Creeping Death]

"Draper was diagnosed by Michael Laker, a psychiatrist, as having the disorder hypomania."

Case closed.

[wellhelm]

help
Definition of Hypomania



Hypomania: A condition similar to mania but less severe. The symptoms are similar with elevated mood, increased activity, decreased need for sleep, grandiosity, racing thoughts, and the like. However, hypomanic episodes differ in that they do not cause significant distress or impair one's work, family, or social life in an obvious way while manic episodes do. Hypomanic people tend to be unusually cheerful, have more than ample energy, and need little sleep. Hypomania is a pleasurable state. It may confer a heightened sense of creativity and power. However, hypomania can subtly impair a person's judgment. Too much confidence can conceal the consequences of decisions. Hypomania can be difficult to diagnose because it may masquerade as mere happiness. It is important to diagnose hypomania because, as an expression of bipolar disorder, it can cycle into depression and carry an increased risk of suicide.

I was making the point that its most likely more than than just hypomania, especialy with the family history of schizophrenia.

[Forthesevenlakes]

You guys already beat me to it, but what was this judge thinking? How does the legality of a drug at ALL with its safety or effects on the brain? And why wasn't pre-existing menal illness or trauma from army service blamed? How convenient to have this news come at a time when Britain is trying to make drug penalties more severe.

Many more people die in alcohol-related violent incidents, but you dont see anyone deeming it a psychotic episode.

[FatfuhrerRyan]

They...they actually blamed canabis...?
This is just ridiculous...

[themoors]

Haven't you seen reefer maddness? this stuff can kill!

[acolon_5]

Once again, feeding the propaganda machine. Oh yes, Cannibis can make you kill your friends, family and yourself. Also causes chronic mastrabation.

Reminds me of a story that I heard as a kid. A teenager was badly beaten and almost killed. His "friend" he was with said that two adults approached them and there was a "sweet" smell in the air. He said that these two adults then attacked. The news ate it up and blamed MJ.... when the kid who was beaten finally woke up he told poliece that his "friend" had done it and there were no adults and no drugs....
MJ has been a scapegoat for a long time....It's not fair, MJ didn't do anything to anyone.
SWIM has two friends one with serious depression and bi-polar and another with MPD both of these two people are using MJ to help regulate their disorders (with great successs). MJ doesn't aggrivate their disorders, but rather helps to calm them down. When the friend doesn't use MJ, her MPD goes out of controll and she switches frequently.... MJ is medicine to many, not a recreational high.

[Paracelsus]

I agree with your point about cannabis being unfairly blamed about lots of crimes and all that shit, but it is still a mind-altering drug, so its effects on psychologic disorders cannot be foreseen. It helps a lot of people in beating drug addiction, curing chronic pain, getting calm, etc. but the human psyche is a very fragile and complicated thing, you can never know what exactly happens in your brain when stoned. Hypomania (and most likely another mental disease which wasn't discovered in this guy) and post-war trauma could have been a cause for this psychotic reaction. But it's most likely that this guy just freaked out and they blamed the dope.

[Nagognog2]

There was a case a few years ago of a guy working for ChemLawn. He suddenly went berserk and picked up a rock and crushed the skull of the woman whose lawn he was spraying. His lawyer argued the chemicals he was working with caused his homicidal rage. ChemLawn and the chemical companies who made the chemicals mounted a million-dollar defence of their products. The young man was convicted on all counts and got like in prison.

He had no record of any criminal behavior before this one (fatal) act.

[Alicia]

Although anyone with any family history of mental illness should be very careful when touching anything psychoactive. Not everyone who have these illnesses will go violent. it all depends on there psychological makeup of the person. Swia knows some people who actually medicate themselves on weed which is not encouraged, but to alleviate there symptoms. depends on the mindset too.

[Sickman]

This is so ridiculous. Would this article have read the same if the guy had done the same after drinking three shots of home-made whiskey?

[AntiAimer]

This is beyond ridiculous. Most likely what happen, this guys a idiot which Marijuana may have increased his dumbness.(Dosen't even state anything else he may have consumed that day,sodas?Alcohol?Nicotine?Perscriptions or OTC drugs?) Then after he killed the dad, the cops questioned him and he said he smoked Marijuana. So now there just blameing it for the cause, letting the guy get a less sentence(Any chance they get at demonizeing Cannabis)... People are so dumb, they would believe it too. This guy should get life in prison or just kill him now...instead of wasteing taxpayers money. Its ovbious he's really messed up in the brain, he WILL do something stupid again. Now, he'll be pumped up on synthetic man made drugs.

Even if this is true, just another cause in the failed "drug war". Education is key.

[darawk]

The only way to affect lasting change in policy or anywhere else is stark honesty. As much as I would like to blame the drug war and absolve cannabis, it's plain that that is not the truth.

If marijuana were legal, this would still probably have happened. It's well known that marijuana can trigger the manifestation of latent psychological illnesses. It doesn't cause them, but it can very often set them off. Almost all mind-altering drugs can, and it just gets more common as they get stronger. Probably peaking with LSD or Mescaline.

If he hadn't smoked weed that day, the guy would probably still be alive. It IS the fault of cannabis. But putting this in perspective, if we didn't have cars, there wouldn't be millions of car accidents every year. If we didn't have tylenol, 600 some people wouldn't die from liver poisoning every year, etc...

Cases like these involving cannabis are extremely rare, almost to the point of irrelevance, but they are real. Denying them only makes it easier for the anti-drug people to poke holes in our arguments.

[Sickman]

Originally Posted by darawk

Cases like these involving cannabis are extremely rare, almost to the point of irrelevance, but they are real. Denying them only makes it easier for the anti-drug people to poke holes in our arguments.

Darawk, I appreciate your perspective. You may be right. However, anti-drug people are often dishonest and exaggerate their position. In the dirty war of politics that will need to be fought if and when weed is legalized, minimizing cases such as this will be advisable.

[dip]

[paranoid]