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Newsreader Jon Snow: Smoking high-strength cannabis 'more terrifying than war zone'

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Soft Secrets
17 Feb 2015

Skunk: Jon Snow described his terror at taking the high-strength form of cannabis

Skunk: Jon Snow described his terror at taking the high-strength form of cannabis

Newsreader Jon Snow has described taking high-strength "skunk" cannabis as more terrifying than working in a war zone.

 

The presenter today admitted to trying the drug in a blog post - all in the name of science.

He said it took him to the "darkest place I have ever been" during an experiment at a lab near University College Hospital, Euston.

Writing on the Channel 4 News website, the presenter said: "I felt as if my soul had been wrenched from my body. There was no one in my world.

"I felt I had lost all control and had only the vaguest awareness of who I was and what on earth I was doing.

"I cascaded into a very, very, dark place, the darkest mental place I have ever been.

"I was frightened, paranoid, and felt physically and mentally wrapped in a dense blanket of fog."

Mr Snow's experience was being filmed for Channel 4's Drugs Live programme, to be broadcast on March 3.

The trial run by Professor Val Curran was backed by the NHS and saw him inhale two "huge balloons" filled with skunk in vapour form.

Mr Snow said what happened "outstripped anything I have ever experienced".

He described his extreme terror at being put on a tray and eased into an MRI scanner, saying: "I’ve worked in war zone but I’ve never been as overwhelmingly frightened as I was right then."

The newsreader vowed never to take the drug again and issued a call for better education over what drugs do to the brain.

He added: "I can fully believe this week’s figures that tell us that 25 per cent of all psychosis treated in Britain is associated with smoking skunk."

 

 

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/newsreader-jon-snow-smoking-highstrength-cannabis-more-terrifying-than-war-zone-10051640.html 17/02/2015

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Soft Secrets

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