ABU DHABI // A man who became unconscious after taking psychotropic pills had his heels cut with a razor blade by a friend in a bid to revive him, a court heard yesterday.
"This is a practice between people who consume drugs to detox their bodies of the affected blood when they lose consciousness," the defence lawyer, Hadeya Al Hammadi, told the Criminal Court.
However, F, 40, an Emirati, remained unconscious so his friend called an ambulance.
He was taken to the intensive care unit and when he woke he was told that police had taken a blood sample that was found to contain traces of hashish.
Mrs Al Hammadi said it was illegal to take a sample without a person's knowledge.
F denied consuming psychotropic pills and hashish.
Mrs Al Hammadi said her client was prescribed six types of psychotropic pills for psychological issues and painkillers for a problem with his leg.
These had caused him to lose consciousness during a visit to a friend in Shahama who tried to wake him by making the cuts in his heel, said the lawyer.
Mrs Al Hammadi asked that the sample be brought to court and tested to ascertain if it belonged to F. "If the sample was found missing or empty then there is no case," she said.
The case was adjourned until September 23.
