As you well know, it’s physically impossible to overdose from marijuana use — there are no legitimate recorded deaths as a direct result of smoking cannabis.*
That hasn’t stopped the occasional quack in the U.K. from attempting to assign deaths to cannabis use. (See here, here, and here.)
Usually, these idiots are treated with some derision, but simply allowed to continue on, but Dr Louay Al-Alousi faced the wrath of the dead boy’s parents — who hired their own pathologist.
A consultant pathologist who was found guilty of professional misconduct will discover whether he can practice without restrictions later this week.
Dr Louay Al-Alousi admitted the charge when he appeared before a General Medical Council hearing in January last year.
The doctor, who works for the University of Leicester and the University Hospital of Leicester NHS Trust, carried out flawed post-mortems on two teenagers.
He wrongly attributed their death to cannabis use. His mistakes were exposed by the parents of 16-year-old James Burgess, of Leicester Forest East.
James’s parents, Paul and Joanne, enlisted their own pathologist, while a coroner had a third expert examine James.
Both agreed his death was due to an unsuspected heart condition.
At the inquest, cannabis was ruled out as a cause of death and the family’s solicitor called for Dr Al-Alousi to be reported to the GMC.
It’s a shame that the parents had to do all that just to find out how their son died. Clearly they knew that it was a nonsensical post-mortem. It’s also troubling that the panel is even considering lifting restrictions on this quack.