Father pleads for upgrade of cannabis after daughter's killing

The father of a young woman who was murdered by a drugusing student today demanded the Government reinstate cannabis as a class B drug.

Former Harrow School master Jason Braham said that upgrading cannabis from a class C drug was vital to "put out a message" to young people and their parents that it can cause mental illness such as schizophrenia. His daughter Lucy Braham, 25, was stabbed 66 times by Oxford undergraduate William Jaggs in 2006 after becoming sexually obsessed with her.

He was a schizophrenic who had been a regular cannabis user since the age of 13. Jaggs, 23, the son of another master at Harrow and who was a former pupil there, pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of Miss Braham. In July last year he was detained under the Mental Health Act and told he may never be freed.

Miss Braham, a graduate of the London College of Fashion, was alone at home when Jaggs broke in. They had known each other for 20 years. Mr Braham, the director of art at Harrow, said of Jaggs: "He had, in common with a number of other savage killers whose cases were reported within a 12-month period, a background of cannabis use.

"It is not of overriding importance to me whether the effect of cannabis on the developing mind had caused their psychoses, precipitated a disorder to which they were vulnerable or merely worsened the course of a disorder they already had."

Mr Braham's comments come after the Government's advisory council last week defied Gordon Brown, who wanted to upgrade cannabis, concluding there is no case for reclassification.