A California man has been extradited to the U.K. to face manslaughter  charges over the death of a woman at his 2016 slapping therapy workshop. 

An investigation was opened in October, 2016 when 71-year-old Danielle Carr-Gomm was found dead in her hotel room at Cleeve House in Seend, Wiltshire. Carr-Gomm had recently attended a paida lajin retreat, which is a form of therapy from China wherein a person vigorously slaps certain parts of the body in order to expel certain toxins from the blood. 

60-year-old Hongchi Xiao, a man from California who was in Australia at the time of his extradition, was held and questioned in the U.K. in 2016 along with two other men in relation to Carr-Gomm’s death.

“Hongchi Xiao, 60, of Cloudbreak, California, returned to the United Kingdom from Australia on an extradition warrant and has been taken to Gablecross custody in Swindon where he was charged. This relates to the death of Danielle Carr-Gomm, 71, at Cleeve House in Seend in October 2016,” said local police to the Guardian. 

According to a BBC article on the subject of paida lajin, the head and joint areas of the patient are repeatedly slapped until they turn red or bruised. This is based around the ancient Chinese belief in “sha,” meaning that “toxins” from the blood vessels which appear during the course of paida lajin therapy in the form of redness or bruising at the slapping site are a sign of latent disease. Critics of this practice have pointed out, somewhat redundantly, that this is just the result of blood vessels breaking and skin bruising. 

According to ABC Australia, Xiao was previously investigated over the 2015 death of a seven-year-old diabetic boy in Sydney, Australia who had previously attended one of his workshops. Xiao received a 10-year sentence for his involvement in the boy’s death in 2019. An investigation revealed he told the boy’s parents that the boy would not need insulin or medical treatment for his diabetes if he attended the slapping therapy.

An Australian news outlet reported in 2022 that Xiao’s charges had been overturned after he appealed his case on the grounds that the evidence presented was inconsistent. He had served six years of his 10-year sentence at the time, and was out of jail a little over a year-and-a-half before his extradition 

Matthew Carr-Gomm, Danielle’s son, told the Guardian that his mother was diabetic but had difficulty injecting her insulin due to a fear of needles, thus leading her to seek holistic methods to treat her ailments. 

“She was always keen to try and find alternative methods of treating and dealing with her diabetes and was very interested in alternative and holistic medicine and therapies. I know she was desperate to try and cure herself of this disease. She always maintained a healthy lifestyle and was adamant that nothing would stop her from living a full life,” Matthew said. “In recent years, mum was in a great place with a partner, a lovely home, and was traveling the world. She had a lot of life left in her.”

A BBC reporter with a knee injury actually reported on her firsthand experience attending a paida lajin workshop in 2015, though she was actually beaten with bamboo sticks instead of slapped. 

“He felt around my knee for where he thought the “little clots” were and without warning, forcefully whacked my knee. He aimed for exactly the same spot each time. It was excruciating. I yelled in surprise. The bruises turned purple quickly and minutes later, I had to halt the blows,” said BBC reporter Pamela Koh. “The beating needed to continue for at least 20 minutes to be effective, I was told. I gritted my teeth between the sharp, swift blows but I had to tell him to stop. He resumed until it became unbearable again and I tried to sit through the full 20 minutes of pain.”

Incidentally, Koh reported that her knee eventually did get better but that the bruises took weeks to heal properly and she was unsure if her knee got better because of the therapy or because of the body’s natural ability to heal. A video of Xiao demonstrating paida lajin therapy can be found at this handy dandy little hyperlink. He was charged with manslaughter by gross negligence upon his return to the U.K. It was not immediately clear how much prison time he faced if convicted. 

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In early 2022 Dutch health authorities issued a warning about MDMA-laced champagne circulating throughout parts of Europe that hospitalized several people and killed one. An arrest has been made in connection with the case almost two years later, but authorities said there’s no way to know if additional bottles are still in circulation.

According to Dutch media outlet RTL Nieuws, police arrested a 35-year-old man last week in the German town of Weiden on drug trafficking and manslaughter charges in relation to MDMA-laced champagne bottles, the consumption of which reportedly hospitalized just under a dozen people and led to the death of a 52-year-old German man. MDMA, better known as “Molly” or “Ecstasy” is shorthand for 3,4-Methyl​enedioxy​methamphetamine, a drug which induces feelings of euphoria in the user for several hours. 

According to RTL Nieuws, the Polish man, whose name was not released, was arrested due to a tip from Dutch authorities. He allegedly stored the laced champagne bottles in the Netherlands and was also involved with their distribution, though not much other information about the man was released. A German news report said that the prosecutor’s office accused the man of  “gang-like trafficking in narcotics in large quantities, negligent bodily harm and negligent homicide.” Authorities said more arrests could be forthcoming as well. 

The Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA) issued a warning about the champagne bottles, specifically 3-liter bottles of Moët and Chandon Ice Impérial, in February of 2022. A press release from the NVWA said the following:

“The Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority warns consumers to be very careful with 3-liter champagne bottles from the Moët & Chandon Ice Impérial brand. Recently, a bottle of that size appeared to be filled with the hard drug MDMA (also known as ecstasy) in both Germany and the Netherlands,” said a press release from the NVWA. “Touching and/or drinking the contents of the bottles is life-threatening. This has led to seven very serious cases of illness and one death in Germany. According to the producer, there were four cases of illness in the Netherlands. In both cases, the bottles in question were purchased via a previously unknown website.”

The NVWA clarified that it was somewhat easy to spot which bottles were potentially tainted with MDMA because the liquid did not come out carbonated as champagne does. The liquid did not fizz when poured, it came out a reddish brown color which darkened over time and also gave off a smell of the anise plant, which according to Google has similarities to the smells of licorice, fennel and tarragon. 

“The NVWA calls on people to be alert to 3 liter bottles of Moët & Chandon Ice Impérial with lot code LAJ7QAB6780004 and LAK5SAA6490005. This code can be found on the label on the back of the bottle,” the press release said.” Leave the bottle untouched if the contents differ from what is usual for champagne. Bottles filled with MDMA are indistinguishable on the outside from bottles filled with champagne. However, when pouring there is a clear difference.”

According to the NVWA, there’s no way to be sure how many more bottles, if any, were laced with MDMA and there’s no way to know if these bottles are still available in stores without checking the lot code on the back, as mentioned above. The health authority stressed that anyone who buys that brand of champagne should be on high alert, call emergency services if the liquid is ingested and call the police if anything seems off about a bottle. 

“It is not known how the MDMA ended up in these bottles. The NVWA cannot therefore estimate whether there are more of these bottles containing the hazardous substance in circulation, the press release said. “It cannot be ruled out that there are other bottles of the same brand in circulation that also contain MDMA”

According to the aforementioned German news report, the seven people who were hospitalized were out having a celebratory dinner with friends when they bought the tainted champagne. The report described everyone fainting at the table after the champagne was brought out. The 52-year-old who died had reportedly drank more of the champagne than the others, who had only sipped it. All seven people reportedly made full recoveries and attended a memorial for their deceased friend in February. 

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Prosecutors in Perugia, Italy are now trying to decide how to charge both owners and managers in a horrific industrial accident that killed two people and seriously injured two others. The incident occurred when a “laboratory,” which was set up to create “Cannabis Lite” from high THC cannabis, exploded.

Beyond the strange specifics, this kind of incident is certainly an anomaly in Europe—and not just because of the existence of cannabinoids in this process, but also what the manufacturers were trying to do to it. Not to mention how.

If this case sounds like Colorado, circa 2014, you would be right. In the first summer of state legalization, the Denver Department of Environmental Health ordered a recall from a manufacturer who had made hash in their washing machine to be sold commercially and “legally.” Thankfully, nobody died, and the owners displayed an ignorance that what they were doing was against public health guidelines.

Beyond this incident however, the danger of BHO extractions are an increasing menace in U.S. states where recreational cannabis is now legal. Inexperienced operators are using butane to make hash oil—and horrific accidents and explosions are on the rise.

This case in Italy seems to be a macabre copycat spinoff. What makes this even stranger is the supposed intent of the “manufacturer.”

Criminal Liability and Intent in Italy

In this case, prosecutors are trying to determine how to charge both the managers and owners of the business. It appears that they face, at minimum, charges of gross negligence for failing to warn and train employees about the dangers of what they were doing.

They could end up being charged with either manslaughter or murder.

Here is why. Ultrasonic “washing machines” had been set up to bathe cannabis in pentane to lower the level of THC in the same and thus enable the company to sell the products as “Cannabis Lite.” Further, as described by prosecutors, the method had been both “invented” by one of the partners in the business and further was “devoid of any technical and scientific knowledge and used outside of any authorization.”

Ultrasonic washing machines are commercially available even online. They are mostly used in combination with either water or a non-flammable solvent, to clean items including jewellery, medical instruments, watches, and electronics. They can also be used to clean clothes by removing contaminants and killing bacteria.

This is hardly a process that should be utilized for cannabis destined for human consumption.

Beyond this, their tanks should never be filled with any liquid that is flammable, because it will vaporize causing explosions, fire, or, at minimum, release hazardous gases into the workspace.

Pentane, the solvent used in this case, is a chemical commonly used in the production of polystyrene foam. It is also highly flammable.

For this reason, according to the prosecutor’s office, beyond the danger posed by the “innovation,” the processing was objectively dangerous.

Further, the pentane was not being stored in accordance with regulations, nor was any machinery installed in the lab that could have ameliorated the risks involved with using the solvent for processing.

The Many Odd Circumstances

There are several bizarre aspects to this story—starting with this one: Who would take high THC cannabis and subject it to a chemical solvent and a “cleaning” machine clearly not designed for plants that will be ingested by humans? Further, who would do this to high THC cannabis when there is plenty of hemp available in the country?

Beyond these facts, it is clear that this was not an “invention” as much as an accident waiting to happen.

This tragic incident in Italy is also a warning shot across the bow to others who might be tempted to engage in similar acts of so-called innovation in the future. That said, with the advent of multi-stage recreational reform, it is almost certain that there will be more of them until the entire supply chain for cannabis flowers and the manufacturing processes used to create extracts are fully legitimized and properly overseen.

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