As I strolled through the London Underground recently, a sleek advertisement caught my eye, compelling me to take a closer look. It was the kind of polished promotion typically linked to a wellness brand, but intriguingly, this one was marketing medical cannabis.

The ad was from Mamedica, a prominent UK provider of medical cannabis, among several companies that have placed similar advertisements throughout the Tube and other parts of London.

While it is entirely legal, I was still taken aback to see cannabis being promoted akin to vitamins or allergy medications.

It’s crucial to understand that medical cannabis is meticulously manufactured to specific standards, with a regulated balance of THC (tetrahydrocannabinol, known for its psychoactive effects) and CBD (cannabidiol, valued for its therapeutic benefits).

Moreover, there are a few recognized medical applications for cannabis that are widely acknowledged by healthcare professionals.

As a clinician who has seen the devastating effects cannabis can have on the mind, I am deeply concerned that plastering the Underground with glossy hoardings like these implies to those strolling past that it is a safe and effective drug in general.

In my clinic, I am increasingly seeing patients who have legally bought medical cannabis to combat conditions such as depression, anxiety, insomnia and ADHD.

Yet a major review of 54 previous studies published in the Lancet Psychiatry earlier this year found no evidence that medical cannabis helped anxiety, PTSD, or psychosis.

The normalisation of cannabis, whether legal or not, will have repercussions, writes Dr Max

For depression, one of the most common reasons people seek it out, there wasn’t a single randomised controlled trial to assess.

What’s more, concerns have been raised by experts that many of the prescriptions being dished out by some of these firms are for high-potency products with THC content exceeding 30 per cent. One strain, cheerfully named Space Cake, clocks in at 34 per cent THC.

Street skunk typically contains between 14 and 16 per cent. So we are prescribing products considerably stronger than the drug wrecking young minds on our psychiatric wards, to people who are already mentally unwell, with no credible evidence that it does them any good.

Moreover, the normalisation of cannabis, whether legal or not, will, I believe, have repercussions.

In recent years, there has been a quiet cultural shift towards accepting cannabis as normal – anecdotally I hear about mums bringing illegal cannabis gummies to a wedding, where they may once have had a few glasses of Prosecco.

Fruit-flavoured sweets laced with the psychoactive component of cannabis don’t reek of skunk and allow respectable people, yummy mummies included, to tell themselves they’re not really doing drugs because nobody is holding a joint.

But the pharmacology is rather less cheerful. The effects from eating cannabis can take up to two hours to kick in, which is why people often think ‘nothing is happening’ so take a second sweet, then a third, sometimes ending up in A&E in the small hours, terrified when the cumulative effect takes its toll.

And because the dose in each sweet and its contents is essentially uncontrolled, there is no way of knowing what you’ve actually ingested.

‘As a psychiatrist who has spent two decades watching cannabis ruin lives at all levels of society, I fear we have all taken our eyes off the ball where cannabis is concerned’

I have seen patients on psychiatric wards after a cannabis edible they were assured was ‘mild’. One, a teacher in her 40s, had taken a single sweet at a friend’s birthday party but it was four times stronger than she’d been told.

She spent three days convinced her own children were going to attack her. She had never taken a drug before in her life.

Sadly, some patients don’t come back from this state.

Even more disturbing is what happens further downstream. Essex Police recently warned that illegal cannabis edibles are being used by county lines gangs to lure and recruit children, some as young as ten, into a criminal world from which there is rarely a way back.

The ‘sweets’, packaged to look like Haribo or Skittles, are advertised cheaply over social media and posted through the door in plain envelopes that don’t smell of anything.

The poor parents would have no idea what is in the brightly coloured ‘treats’ at the bottom of the school bag.

To a county lines gang a young child with no previous convictions is the perfect courier for Class A drugs.

Home Office estimates show that about 15,500 children were identified as at risk or involved in county lines gangs in 2025.

However, it conceded that was ‘likely to be a significant underestimate of the problem’.

As a psychiatrist who has spent two decades watching cannabis ruin lives at all levels of society, I fear we have all taken our eyes off the ball where cannabis is concerned.

The video captures the chilling moment when Bailey, a transgender woman, admits to the fatal shooting of her parents, Gail and Joseph Bailey. The incident occurred in their home in Washington City, Utah, in June 2024, after the couple allegedly interfered with their child’s plans for sex reassignment surgery.

Now, nearly two years after the tragic event, the interrogation footage provides a poignant insight into the confession that shocked a community.

Mia Bailey, who has since pleaded guilty to the murders, offers a detailed account of the crime that left both parents dead, revealing the depths of a family conflict that ended in a double tragedy.

Transgender killer Mia Bailey pleaded guilty to parents’ murders. (Washington City Police Department)

“I don’t regret it. I hate them,” Bailey said when speaking with police in the interrogation room.

Interrogation video shows Mia Bailey admitting to parents’ murders in Utah. (Washington City Police Department)

Bailey’s demeanor appears calm and celebratory at times when discussing how the killer shot multiple rounds at the couple.

This yellow Kia Soul belonging to Mia Bailey is pictured after the killer fled the scene of parents’ home murders in June 2024.

Court documents say Bailey’s brother was also shot at through a door; he was able to escape and call for help that evening. 

Mia Bailey’s vehicle is seen driving past a home following parents’ murders in 2024. (Washington City Police Department)

Bailey is also heard on video blaming mental health struggles for the vicious attack. Bailey told investigators that Gail tried to “sabotage” the gender transition surgery.

Bailey was born male but had undergone a name change and had been identifying as female before the attack.

This past December, Bailey was sentenced to two consecutive sentences of 25 years to life in prison after pleading guilty and mentally ill to aggravated murder and aggravated assault, according to KUTV.

<!–>

Numerous individuals have recounted near-death experiences, but occasionally, those who return from the brink of death bring back more than just memories—they carry tales of the inexplicable.

Some of these survivors recount witnessing and hearing events that defy logic, such as conversations in the operating room and the presence of objects well beyond the confines of their hospital beds, all while they were clinically dead.

Among the most notable cases are those involving patients whose brains seemingly registered minimal or no activity during these extraordinary experiences.

In one instance, a woman vividly described a worn tennis shoe perched on a distant hospital ledge, while medical staff worked tirelessly to revive her following a heart attack.

In another case, a patient left surgeons astounded by detailing peculiar hand movements made during his open-heart surgery, despite being anesthetized and having his eyes securely taped shut.

Perhaps the most controversial case involved a woman whose body temperature was lowered to 50 degrees Fahrenheit during a rare procedure that left medical monitors reportedly showing no detectable brain activity.

Researchers have spent decades attempting to explain the phenomenon, with some arguing the visions are caused by hallucinations, trauma or fragments of consciousness lingering during medical emergencies.

But several near-death experiences continue to baffle experts because of the precise details patients later recalled, details they seemingly should never have been able to witness.

Many people have reported near-death experiences, but in some cases, survivors appeared to bring back something far more unsettling than memories

Scientists have increasingly studied the phenomenon, with one study estimating that up to 17 percent of people who come close to death experience some form of near-death event.

Research has also suggested that heightened awareness during these episodes may be surprisingly common.

A 2014 study found that 74.4 percent of respondents said they felt more aware during their near-death experience than in ordinary consciousness.

Research conducted with the Near Death Experience Research Foundation (NDERF) found that many episodes occurred after cardiac arrest, when previous studies suggest little or no brain activity should be present.

While skeptics argue these events can be explained by hallucinations, memory distortion or lingering awareness during trauma, several cases continue to baffle both scientists and medical professionals.

The shoe on the ledge

In a 1977 case, a woman was admitted to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle after suffering a heart attack.

The patient, Maria, was treated by hospital worker Kimberly Clark Sharp.

During a rare 1991 brain surgery in which her body temperature was lowered to 50 degrees Fahrenheit and medical monitors reportedly showed no detectable brain activity, Pam Reynolds later recalled specific conversations and surgical details she allegedly should not have been able to perceive

Sharp later wrote that Maria ‘observed a number of scenes during her resuscitation,’ including what she described as an out-of-body experience.

At the time, Maria was flatlining on the operating table, according to Sharp’s account published in the Journal of Near-Death Studies.

Maria claimed that while doctors attempted to revive her, she left her body and floated outside the hospital building.

She told Sharp there was a dark blue, left-footed tennis shoe sitting on a ledge on the other side of the hospital.

Maria described the shoe in detail, including that the toe area was worn.

When Sharp checked the location, she found the shoe exactly where Maria said it would be.

Sharp later said: ‘The only way she could have had such a perspective was if she had been floating right outside.’

Skeptics later recreated the scene and suggested the shoe may actually have been visible from the ground.

Still, the case remains one of the most widely discussed near-death experiences ever reported.

The ‘flapping’ surgeon

Another famous case involved a patient who recalled a bizarre detail he seemingly could not have seen.

Truck driver Al Sullivan underwent bypass surgery in 1988 when he experienced what he described as leaving his body during the operation.

Sullivan was under anesthesia and had his eyes taped shut.

Yet he later described an odd detail that stunned his doctors: his surgeon appeared to be flapping his arms like a chicken.

Sullivan wrote: ‘I began my journey in an upward direction … To my amazement, at the lower left-hand side was, of all things, me.’

‘I was lying on a table covered with light blue sheets, and I was cut open so as to expose my chest cavity. It was in this cavity that I was able to see my heart on what appeared to be a small glass table.’

‘I was able to see my surgeon, who just moments ago had explained to me what he was going to do during my operation. He appeared to be somewhat perplexed. I thought he was flapping his arms as if trying to fly.’

When Sullivan later described the surgeon’s movements, cardiologist Dr Hiroyoshi Takata was reportedly shocked.

Takata explained that during surgery, he often tucked his hands beneath his armpits to keep them sterile while pointing with his elbows.

Medical staff said the unusual detail appeared to support Sullivan’s claim that he had somehow observed the operation during an out-of-body experience.

Skeptics argue Sullivan may have noticed the movements before anesthesia fully took effect, but the story remains among the most controversial near-death cases ever recorded.

The ‘standstill’ case

In 1991, Atlanta woman Pam Reynolds began suffering symptoms including dizziness and loss of speech.

Doctors at the Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix, Arizona, determined she needed a rare and dangerous procedure to remove a brain aneurysm.

During the operation, Reynolds experienced what became one of the most famous near-death experiences in medical history.

Her case drew worldwide attention because the experience allegedly occurred while she had no measurable brain activity.

Doctors performed what is known as a ‘standstill’ operation, lowering her body temperature to 50 degrees Fahrenheit while stopping her heartbeat and draining blood from her head.

Medical monitors reportedly showed a flatlined EEG with no detectable brain activity.

Despite this, Reynolds later recalled details from the operating room, including conversations between surgeons.

She also accurately described the surgical saw used during the procedure and other details that advocates say she should not have been able to know.

Medical equipment, including headphones emitting clicking sounds to monitor brain activity, suggested she should not have been capable of hearing the conversations.

Reynolds’ story later became the subject of the documentary The Day I Died and continues to be cited in debates over consciousness and the possibility of an afterlife.

Skeptics maintain the conversations Reynolds described may have occurred before brain activity fully ceased, while she was still partially aware under anesthesia.

Authorities are once again seeking the public’s help in solving the mysterious disappearance of Laureen Rahn, a 14-year-old who went missing from her New Hampshire home in April 1980.

On Monday, Attorney General John M. Formella, along with New Hampshire State Police Colonel Mark B. Hall and Manchester Police Chief Peter A. Marr, announced that investigators have uncovered new leads in the case, which has remained a mystery for 46 years.

An updated image of Laureen, created by the FBI’s Boston Division to show what she might look like today, was released in conjunction with the renewed appeal for information.

Laureen was last known to be at her Merrimack Street home in Manchester, New Hampshire, on April 27, 1980. Authorities report that she left behind her personal belongings, including clothing and money, and there were no signs of a struggle at the scene.

The FBI’s Boston Division has provided an age-progressed image of Laureen Rahn, illustrating how she may appear now. (FBI Boston)

Authorities believe she may have left voluntarily, possibly with someone she knew, intending to return.

According to the New Hampshire State Police, on Sunday, April 27, 1980, at 3:45 a.m., the Manchester Police responded to reports of the missing teen.

Laureen’s mother told authorities that she had gone out of town with her friend and that Laureen asked to remain home in Manchester. Her mother also said that when she arrived home at about 1:15 a.m., she noticed the back door of their apartment was open, and the front door was unsecured.

Upon checking the apartment, she found Laureen’s friend sleeping in Laureen’s bed, and that Laureen was not in the apartment.

Laureen’s friend told the police that she and Laureen had been drinking and that Laureen had been in bed but left the bedroom, taking a pillow and blanket to sleep on the couch. Laureen may have left the apartment willingly with the intent of returning momentarily, as she did not take any clothing, money or personal items with her, police said.

Laureen has not been seen or heard from since.

Laureen Rahn was 14-years-old when she was reported missing from her Manchester, New Hampshire home on April 27, 1980. (New Hampshire Department of Justice)

Officials say the New Hampshire Cold Case Unit and Manchester police are now leveraging modern forensic tools unavailable at the time, including advanced DNA testing and new evidence analysis techniques.

“Laureen was just 14 years old, and her family has endured 46 years of unanswered questions,” said Senior Assistant Attorney General R. Christopher Knowles, who leads the state’s Cold Case Unit. “Our commitment to bringing Laureen home remains steadfast.”

Knowles said investigators believe someone still has critical information.

“We know that relationships and loyalties change over four decades,” he said. “We urge anyone who has been holding onto information to come forward.”

Anyone with information is asked to contact the Cold Case Unit tip line at (603) 271-2663, email coldcaseunit@dos.nh.gov, or submit a tip online. (New Hampshire State Police)

Authorities are particularly seeking information from:

• People who lived near 289 Merrimack St. in April 1980
• Classmates or peers who knew or spent time with Laureen

Anyone with information is asked to contact the Cold Case Unit tip line at (603) 271-2663, email coldcaseunit@dos.nh.gov, or submit a tip online.

<!–>

CHICAGO – Early Sunday morning, a portion of the Eisenhower Expressway was closed following a shooting and fatal accident on the city’s West Side, as reported by Illinois State Police.

Authorities received a call around 11:20 p.m. on Saturday, dispatching troopers to the westbound lanes of Interstate 290 near California Avenue. This location is in proximity to Chicago’s Near West Side and Lawndale neighborhoods.

ABC7 Chicago is now streaming 24/7. Click here to watch

According to the Illinois State Police, a motorcyclist sustained gunshot wounds resulting in a crash. The individual was rushed to a nearby hospital, though their condition remains undisclosed.

All traffic lanes were temporarily closed during the police investigation but were reopened by approximately 5:30 a.m. on Sunday, according to the state police.

Troopers also responded to a location just east of the incident, at Ashland Avenue on westbound I-290, around 3 a.m. on Sunday.

ISP said traffic was slowed or stopped when a car rear-ended another vehicle, causing a chain-reaction crash.

The crash involved four vehicles total, and eight people were hospitalized, ISP said. One of those injured was pronounced dead at local hospital.

ISP said the right lane and several ramps are shut down as officials investigate the crash. Video captured a large police presence near Ashland Avenue.

Authorities did not immediately provide further information.

The video in the player above is from a previous report.

INTERACTIVE SAFETY TRACKER Track crime and safety in your neighborhood