SOMETHING STINKS

Today I read another story about how cannabis is destroying the world. Not that I support any drug use, but there seems to be more than cannabis being smoked by the staff at NOW which in this week's magazine has blamed the death of a 22-year-old on cannabis, because he went through a phase of smoking in his teens. To get him off, the doctor gave him drugs which caused him to gain weight. He ended up a stay at home loner and decided to kick the bucket.
Sad story, and it may well be his addiction in his teens led him to this, but the evidence points to a number of other factors, the most recent being the use of a dangerous but legally prescribed drug. Many journalists do not have the courage or brains to take on the large pharmaceutical industry, so they blame it all on cannabis.
Funny, I did not find a single story about how alcohol kills, or a call to reclassify alcohol. Or monitor drug companies. Or implement regulation in the press.

BEWARE OF KILLER WEED

Whilst this site is really about hemp, I will on this occasion foray into a discussion about the strain of Cannabis sativa known as weed, marijuana, skunk, pot, dope, or whatever you want to call it. Not being a smoker I am not up on the latest term. However, a friend of mine who is told me some disturbing news about the weed that is on the market here in the UK, where, for some reason, there has been a drought of it since late summer 2006.

He tells me the weed is shinier now, which at first turned people on to it, as a natural shine develops when the resin spills out of the trichomes and imparts a shine. OK, enough technical stuff, suffice it so say it gets a shine, but the shine on the pot now has proven to be from deliberate spraying of some sort. It is now known that it comes from such sources as ground glass, which mixed with oil, and does harm to the lungs; it is believed some have perforated lungs or may have died from this. Another way of shining the dope is to break a fluorescent light bulb and let the gassy mix settle on the weed. This adds weight to the dope, and is being driven by the increase in the price of skunk which has gone from £3,000 per kilo to £4,000 per kilo. Another way to add weight is to use fibreglass.

So what is the solution? I guess it is to either quit or grow your own. (This advice void where prohibited by law...). Or, thirdly, stop dealing with dodgy, greedy dealers.

Just thought I'd post this as a public health service. It is reminiscent of the late '70s when paraquat was sprayed on cannabis fields, and tokers got lung poisoning from this. Some say there is a move to limit the supply of dope so as to force people on to crack and heroin, the supply of which can be more controlled and the top dealers benefit. Funny how after the US invasion of southeast Asia in the '60s the heroin suppply increased, and how after the US invasion of Central Asia the same thing happened.