A coroner in Great Britain ruled that a British woman died from a marijuana overdose, The Telegraph reported Thursday. News of the woman's death was widely circulated because she is the first British woman to reportedly die from pot abuse.
Gemma Moss, a mother of three, was found dead in her Bournemouth, England home on Oct. 29, 2012. There was half a joint under Moss' body, along with a wrapper containing pot leaves in her bag, The Telegraph reported.
Moss, a church going woman, used to smoke pot but stopped two years before she died. The 31-year-old began smoking again to help her fall asleep because she was depressed after breaking up with her boyfriend, The Telegraph reported.
An autopsy was unable to find anything suspicious about her death.
"The physical examination and the examination of various organs including the heart and the liver showed no abnormality that could account for her death," said pathologist Dr. Kudair Hussein, according to The Telegraph.
But Hussein did say Moss' blood had high levels of cannabis, a class B drug in Great Britain.
"The level of cannabinoids in the blood were 0.1 to 0.15 milligrams per liter, this is considered as moderate to heavy cannabis use," Hussein said, The Telegraph reported.
With these facts at hand the coroner, Sheriff Payne, concluded that pot was to blame.
"The post mortem could find no natural cause for her death. With the balance of probability that it is more likely than not that she died from the effects of cannabis," Payne said according to The Telegraph.
But several medical officials dismiss the coroner's ruling as unlikely.
"In 40 years I have never come across deaths from cannabis alone," said David Raynes, from the National Drug Prevention Alliance, The Telegraph reported. "There have been cases where it has been combined with other drugs or alcohol."
Mason Tvert, director of communications for the Marijuana Policy Project, told the New York Daily News that medical research proves death from marijuana is impossible.
"You would need to literally consume a third of your body weight in marijuana," Tvert said.
