contaminated cannabis

[MrSpliffy]

Re: CONTAMINATED WEED

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WARNING: FIBRE-GLASS LACED BUD IN THE UK
There's always been bad quality cannabis around under probihibtion, in almost every country of the world. Of course, when it's illgeal, there's no consumer protection - and unless you know well the supplier, it may be impossible to even take it back.
There's been "soap bar" and "squiggy black" about for years, containing who-knows-what - set the article below to see the sort of abnoxious and dangerous substances greedy suppliers have been putting into it.
That sort of cheaps resin may well destroy the health and it's unlikley to give anyone a real cannabis "high". It's a fraud.
BUT NOW the siutaution has deteriorated and there's a real risk of serious damage to the lungs from inhaling some sort of fibre-glass spray put on to quite good-looking bud.
THIS STUFF CAN KILL YOU: when you shake the bud the sandy, gritty, glassy bits that fall out are precisely that - sand and grit and glass, not THC crystals.
Don't be fooled.
The ONLY way to stop this is to tell your dealer and REFUSE TO BUY BAD QUALITY

SMOKING SOAP = SMOKING POISON

A few years ago, RED EYE EXPRESS magazine highlighted the DANGERS of smoking bad quality hash, some of which contains very little cannabis at all. We refer to both "Soap" and the soft black gunk often referred to as "Squiggy Black", "Affy Black" or "Pakki Black". The article explained that even the better soap bars weighing about 250 grams contain less than 10 grams of cannabis pollen (resin glands) and up to 200 grams of ground-up shade leaf, along with various noxious substances like glue to bind it, and colouring agents.
Here are some of the other substances found in this bad quality cannabis sold by rip-off dealers:
beeswax, boot polish, animal turds, turpentine, henna, ground coffee, milk powder, pine resin, barbiturates, ketamine, aspirin, glues & dyes, Carcinogenic solvents such as Toluene and Benzene and many other unidentified and possibly DEADLY chemicals.
These SOAP bars are not available from coffee shops in Holland or from farms in Morocco. They are often made in Spain or England.
SOAP bar costs about £1,500 a kilo in the UK, that's £1.50 a gram: that's £5.25 an EIGHTH
If you buy it you are allowing yourself to be RIPPED OFF by unscrupulous dealers who either do not know or do not care about you and your health and may be interested only in the HUGE PROFITS they make.
SOAP is poisonous - it is a danger to health and it gives real cannabis a bad name. It should always remain illegal.
The ONLY way to stop this is to tell your dealer and REFUSE TO BUY BAD QUALITY
The following is taken from RED EYE EXPRESS issue NINE Many other and more dangerous substances can be added during the preparation of this so-called hash. The reason why it is made and why it is sold is profit. Those who pollute and destroy real cannabis in this way are turning a highly beneficial and natural plant product into a health-destroying bad substance. You may get a 'hit' out of it, but it is not cannabis.
Those who sell such substances are either ignorant of real cannabis and its effects or they guilty of selling you poisons, ripping you off, and giving cannabis a bad name. Those people should be avoided - it is better to smoke nothing than to smoke the bad soap bars. After legalisation, those people will be prosecuted and may be put out of business in the same way as a publican who sells beer with dog's urine added to it.
In the meantime it is up to the customers to avoid these unscrupulous and ignorant suppliers
From RED EYE EXPRE
MAKING SOAP BAR IN YORKSHIRE
While reading Robert Connell Clarke's excellent book, Hashish, we came across a section on low-grade export quality Moroccan hash, known in the UK as Soap Bar. It seems that soap is made from only a very small percentage of resin glands (referred to as pollen), and up to 90% non-resin cannabis plant material which is bound together with bee's wax or pine resin and condensed milk as the mixture is too dry and powdery to be bound any other way. As the mixture is very green due to the high percentage of plant material, it is then coloured with instant coffee or henna to give it that sandy brown colour! In order to give it a slightly resinous look, turpentine is then added, which also disguises the taste!
Well, as growers with an abundance of leaf material left over from a crop, we couldn't help ourselves. We had to give it a try!
We sieved off 10 grams of resin glands (pollen), crushed up 200 grams of dried leaf and ran it through a sieve to reduce it to a very fine powder. We then heated this mixture in a bowl over boiling water and added 5 grams of bee's wax, five teaspoons of condensed milk powder, one teaspoon of turpentine, and a couple of pinches of instant coffee powder for colour. We continued to knead the heated mixture into a dough-like form, then pressed it under pressure and allowed it to cool. It bonded well into rock hard lumps, just like Soap Bar! To our delight, when we tested it with a flame, immediately we were treated with that old familiar smell of grade 'A' genuine Soap Bar! Crumpled like it too! Although there was virtually no resin glands in this so-called hash, we gave some to a friend and he had no complaints!!
By T. & K.
NOTE:
We have heard of many other substances that have been added to boost profits, help the bonding, increase the 'effect'. Change the colour etc, and most are far worse than those added above. They include ground up aspirin, tranquillisers and other pills, glues, benzene, toluene and other carcinogenic solvents, boot polish, dye, ketamine and other dangerous drugs, animal excrement, other vegetable matter - a nightmare of dangerous compounds.
The soft so-called Pakistani or Afghanis hash ("Squidgy black", "Affy", "Pakki Black") can be even worse.
These versions of cannabis do not appear on the markets of Holland or Switzerland, where there is plenty of good quality grass and bud, or in Germany or Scandinavia where people pay more for better quality.
Think about it - "SOAP" is now cheaper than it has been since the seventies, at least in kilo prices - it is available in bulk for less that £1.5 a gram (less than £3 a teenth). So not only are buyers being ripped off in terms if quality but also the dealers must be doubling their money!
The solution to this situation, brought about by GREEDY DEALERS under PROHIBITION, is to spread this message and stop buying it.


MrSpliffy

[MrSpliffy]

I know there's been warnings posted here and there on various cannabis sites but I'm posting this link again because this stuff is still in circulation.

Last night I was offered an oz of what looked liked amazing weed, dense buds...shiney with crystals. BUT on closer examination the crystals were gritty and when I tasted it, felt like sand in my mouth.

Needless to say I tore strips off the bastard and bought nothing....never will again either.

Here's the January article from the Guardian...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/drugs/Stor...988627,00.html

Warning issued over cannabis adulterated with glass beads


James Randerson, science correspondent
Friday January 12, 2007
The Guardian

Drug campaigners have warned that a batch of cannabis adulterated with tiny glass beads which they say could pose a risk to health has flooded the UK market. Anecdotal reports suggest it is being sold in almost every part of the country.
The charity Drugscope is issuing a warning. "We want to make people aware of it from a public health point of view. If you are smoking this stuff and taking it into your lungs it's not good news."

The fact that "grit weed", as it is being called, is so widespread suggests that contamination is happening at an early stage in the production process. "It seems to be being done on an industrial scale," said Harry Shapiro of Drugscope.

The dealers' motivation seems to be to bump up the weight of their product. They appear to be doing this by spraying plants with the reflective element from the paint used on road lines. The tiny reflective glass beads become imbedded in the leaves.

"It looks perfectly normal. In fact it looks good quality," said Derek Williams of UK Cannabis Internet Activists, which campaigns against cannabis prohibition.

Contributors to its internet forum have said the contaminated leaves can be identified by rubbing them between wetted fingers. The residue will feel gritty if chewed.

The first reports of grit weed circulated in late summer, but the groups have only recently received pictures of the beads taken with an electron microscope by an anonymous scientist. There have been rumours of users experiencing a tight chest for days after smoking grit weed, but a spokesperson for the British Thoracic Society said that the contamination was unlikely to be dangerous because the particles are too big to be inhaled into the lungs.

An analysis carried out by the French Observatory of Drugs and Drug Addiction found that the glass particles are between 0.02 and 0.3 millimetres across. But Richard Russell, a consultant at Imperial College London, said few particles above 0.015 millimetres would be able to pass into the lungs because they are too big.

"It is likely that they will deposit in the mouth or the throat," said Dr Russell. Here they would most likely pass harmlessly through the system. Using a filter would stop them entering the mouth.

Dr Russell said that smokers should be aware that cannabis smoke causes emphysema, lung inflammation and cancer. "You are likely to do more damage from the marijuana than these particles."

Mr Williams said that the widespread contamination highlighted the problems which stem from cannabis prohibition. "Cannabis is called a controlled drug, but there is no control over the supply side. It's a completely underground product," he said.


MrSpliffy

[dopefiend]

I was amazed when I recently smoked a joint with a friend and found that his weed had grit in it too- I'd thought all the warnings had done their work and this stuff had gone, but it's still very much around.

Thanks Mr Spliffy for posting these warnings again!

[Pothead]

i got some uk weed for the first time in about a year the other week and it didn't look to bad at first but end story it had been heavily sprayed with sugar:mad:


peace

[wegface]

Sugar is easy to confirm coz it burns in a volcano.
That silica glass is moody crap, dont believe the doctor who says you do more harm with cannabis. He's the sort of person who thinks we all schizophrenic coz we use it.

The situation with "drug dealer" weed in the uk has got beyond a joke, but in some ways im glad because it showed me the righteous path. I wont buy there gangsta vibed weed, i wont line the pockets of criminals, and i wont put my health at risk. This is a sacred herb and deserves to be treated & used as such.

The government push against "skunk" cannabis is a direct reaction to people going off the government endorsed soap bar. They dont want us with free thinking minds they want us hooked on donkey shit and turps.

[Steeldiehard]

Greed...not much more to say about it. :(

I say pick a closet, get a small light, some dirt, and some seeds (or go (grow) outdoor). Tough to pick the lesser of two evils within the limits of the law. Death or Prison...the choices suck IMO.

Peace,

Steel