The Fall of the House of Crosskill

Writer Colin Grant guides us through a nuanced story of cannabis use... and abuse. As he states at the beginning of the series, Colin carries ‘no lawyer’s brief for marijuana’. In previous programmes, he has explored how it helped his epileptic brother and also how he believes it has provided a form of social service to subsistence communities. But in this essay, Colin explores one of the negative consequences; the role it might have played in the tragic demise of former editor and respected BBC World Service journalist, Hugh Crosskill. With decriminalisation increasing and cannabis use continuing to grow globally, Colin feels it’s a story that may have implications for us all. The warning it carries is not perhaps the one we might expect, but one far more connected with the perils of how little we really know about the drug in its 21st-century form. Producer: Kirsty Pope A Far Shoreline production for BBC Radio 3