Kanye West’s Insurance Claims Weed Caused Last Year’s Massive Meltdown

2016 was a weird year for us all. It was much weirder for Kanye West.

There he was, chained to a floating stage, flying across America during the Saint Pablo tour—the “greatest rap tour of all time,” as the Daily Dot gushed—Yeezus literally hovering over massive crowds packing the country’s biggest arenas.

And then there he was, standing on a floating stage, supporting Donald Trump’s border wall and endorsing Donald Trump—that is, had Kanye bothered to vote—and standing up fans in L.A., canceling a make-up show a few hours before it was set to begin and walking out of a show in Sacramento after just a half hour, most of which was spent yelling about Jay Z, Beyonce, Obama, Hillary—whoever, whatever.

For the good of everyone involved, that was the end of the Saint Pablo tour, cut short six weeks early, with 21 shows across the U.S. canceled.

Kanye checked himself into a psychiatric ward in Los Angeles.

Maybe it was the stress of being Kanye West, emotionally exhausted after masked intruders broke into Kim Kardashian’s hotel room in Paris. (A few weeks later, Kanye visited Trump Tower to check in with the president-elect.) Bad! Sad! The whole thing. And comes now the legal wrangling—and the claim, from Kanye West’s backers, that the whole unraveling was caused by marijuana.

Of course.

Like any rare jewel, Kanye is insured. In his case, the Saint Pablo tour was guaranteed by Lloyd’s of London, the legendary insurance giant. Kanye wants to be paid for the missed shows and is asking Lloyd’s for $10 million.

Lloyd’s is saying absolutely not, and, according to court filings, says marijuana use caused Kanye’s breakdown.

UK tabloid the Sun was the first with the news on the looming lawsuit between the two parties.

According to a court filing from West’s attorney, Lloyd’s is “implying Kanye’s use of marijuana may provide them with the basis to deny the claim”—an “unsupportable contention,” according to attorney Howard King.

Lloyd’s has so far refused to offer comment and has yet to offer a response in court. But come on. Kanye isn’t exactly well-versed in the weed world. (As it is, Wiz Khalifa, the seer of such things, thinks Kanye could stand to smoke some weed and chill out.)

And the experts. The expert. What does he think?

What happened on the day Ye’ came apart? We just don’t know, and attributing it all to one cause—like weed—will be difficult. 

Scientists aren’t at all convinced that cannabis causes psychotic breaks, though some people who appear prone to breaks may be triggered by marijuana use. 

And this is Kanye West. He’s always been on something else—something much more powerful than weed. 

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