Victim: Gemma Moss died in her bedroom after smoking half a joint (Picture: BNPS)

A mother of three has become the first woman in Britain ruled to have been poisoned to death by smoking cannabis.

Gemma Moss collapsed in her bedroom after smoking half a joint to help her sleep, an inquest heard.

Doctors found nothing wrong with her vital organs but ‘moderate to heavy’ levels of the drug in her blood.

The coroner agreed with a pathologist that cannabis was to blame for her death, possibly triggering a heart attack.


Ms Moss, 31, was described as a devout churchgoer who slumped into depression after a relationship break-up and her teenage son’s exclusion from school.



Her mother Kim Furness said Ms Moss used to smoke cannabis every day before giving up two years ago, only to recently resume the habit.

Friend Zara Hill said the pair had smoked £20 worth of cannabis together the week before Ms Moss’s death in Boscombe, Bournemouth.

Lucy Dawe, from anti-drugs group Cannabis Skunk Sense, said: ‘People think because cannabis is a plant it won’t be dangerous, but it gives people a false sense of security.’

However, pro-legalisation campaigner Peter Reynolds said: ‘It is pretty unbelievable that anyone’s death could be directly attributable to cannabis.’