A crucial clue that links so many killings

THE heartbreaking death of respected police officer Matiu Ratana has rightly caused much grief and concern. But once again, one of the most crucial facts of modern life, quite possibly involved here, has been pushed to one side in absurd speculation about the supposed terrorist links of the suspect, as it was after the stabbings in a Reading park last June.

In both cases I had no need to wait long to find that there were allegations the suspect had been a user of marijuana, a drug whose use is increasingly correlated with mental illness and violent crime.

As it happened, I had also been looking into another case in a major UK city I will not for the moment name, of a young marijuana user. This person, well known to neighbours and police for increasingly erratic and violent behaviour, has also been found in possession of the drug.

And there is little doubt that he is a long-term user. In fact, neighbours recall his transformation from a pleasant and likeable boy into the miserable husk he has now become, after he began using a drug which is absurdly promoted as mild and harmless (see my item on the BBC’s new dramas, left).

I begin to think we shall not wake up to this until the time to act has passed.