An aristocrat has called for a war on drugs after his son became hooked on potent skunk cannabis and killed himself.
Lord Monson said the NHS had also "turned its back" on Rupert Green, 21, who was so psychotic he had vowed to end his life.
The death is the second tragedy to hit the author, whose older son Alexander Monson, 28, died from what the family believe was a beating in police custody in Kenya in 2012.
Lord Monson said: "After Alexander I thought I had another son who would blossom and fulfil his dreams. Now he’s gone as well. I am probably the only person who now has two inquests running into the deaths of two children."
The father of three said he wanted to warn of the dangers of skunk, which is associated with an increased risk of psychotic illnesses including schizophrenia.
The 60-year-old is calling for the decriminalisation of certain forms of cannabis while leaving the skunk variety illegal.
"My son was an art scholar, a very talented and kind boy who looked after his friends and he got wrapped up in this skunk and he thought it was like any other cannabis," he said.
But it isn’t.
He took industrial quantities of this stuff and it’s like playing Russian roulette with your health, with him it turned him psychotic, into someone who wanted to kill themselves."
The writer and hotelier said he is now ‘on a mission’ to crackdown on its use, saying: "We are in a war now – a war against skunk. It has shattered all our lives." Pictures on Facebook show a smiling, athletic Rupert at independent Lord Wandsworth College in Hampshire.
But while studying biology at Essex University he became addicted to skunk, locking himself in his room for days as he "got blasted" and refusing to speak to his father for months.
When he did call it was clear he was "paranoid, aggressive’ and ‘quite clearly disengaged from reality" – telling his worried father he had failed his exams because spies had broken into his computer.
The youngster underwent psychiatric treatment and was later sectioned for two weeks under the Mental Health Act.
Read:
Also read:
His parents took him out of university and cared for him at home in Surrey, where his psychotic episodes continued as he imagined spies were coming out of the television. Three months later, Rupert texted his father to say he was going to kill himself.
A mental health nurse who assessed him said he needed to go into hospital but no bed was available at any psychiatric unit in the county.
Just 72 hours later, crazed from the drug which made him think he was being chased by demons and spies, he made an attempt on his life. He died in hospital on January 23 after five days on life-support.
Hitting out at NHS bosses for "turning their back" on his son, Lord Monson said: "The system failed us. It breaks my heart that he would still be here if he had been given a bed.
Florence Nightingale wouldn’t have turned away an injured man."
Lord Monson has asked Essex University to hold a skunk awareness day and demanded it change welfare policies to allow parents to be told if students are suffering mental health issues.
He claims users will be safer if less dangerous varieties of cannabis are made legal. Rupert’s mother, Karen Green, whose relationship with Lord Monson ended years ago, is also supporting calls for a change in the law.
Lord Monson succeeded to the title of 12th Baron Monson in 2011 following the sudden death of his father.
The following year he lost his eldest son Alexander, who died from a blow to his head while in police custody in Kenya. The Kenyan authorities are still conducting an inquest into the death of the 28-year-old.
Police originally claimed he died of a drug overdose. But a toxicology report found no trace of drugs and said there was evidence of head injuries consistent with a beating.