UK: WARNING: THERE'S GLASS IN YOUR GRASS
Source: Glasgow Daily Record
Date: March 5 2007
Author: Amy Devine
---
A DODGY batch of cannabis sprayed with particles of glass is at the centre of a
police health warning.
It's thought unscrupulous criminals are adding potentially dangerous silicone
beads to herbal cannabis to bump up the weight and increase profits.
And drug busters yesterday urged smokers to be vigilant after the adulterated
cannabis was discovered in Scotland.
The tiny reflective beads - usually used to frost glass - are less than a
millimetre across and become embedded in the leaves.
Several smokers fell ill in England last week after puffing on the contaminated
grass, dubbed "grit weed".
They complained of chesty coughs, mouth ulcers and sore throats.
Detective Superintendent Jill Wood, of the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement
Agency, warned that the drug posed a "heightened risk" to the health
of users.
She said: "We have seen this in Scotland in limited amounts and would
advise users to be vigilant.
"It highlights the message that when you take illegal drugs you don't know
what the ingredients actually are, and that goes for all illegal drugs."
Pressure group Legalise Cannabis Alliance have also posted a warning on their
website.
And a spokesman yesterday warned Scots to be vigilant.
He said: "There have been reports of people coughing up blood and goodness
knows what other effects there could be.
"If people think they have been sold some of this then the way to test it
is to dab a bit of it onto a finger and test a piece of the grit between their
teeth.
"People shouldn't smoke it and dealers should not sell it. Glass is not
grass."
Student Thomas Corser, from Edinburgh, spoke out yesterday after he discovered
he'd bought a bag of the dodgy drug.
Thomas, 20, said: "To adulterate cannabis like this is such a malicious
and deceitful thing to do."
He added: "This stuff was sold to me as high quality cannabis.
"I smoked some of it but it wasn't until I saw it in the cold light of day
that I noticed something wasn't right about it.
"When you rub it between your fingers the particles become obvious.
"It was a big fright to discover what this stuff was.
"I examined my ashtray afterwards and found quite a lot of the little
beads, so hopefully I've not inhaled much of it.
"I have been feeling a bit queasy ever since and it's safe to say I won't
be smoking anything for a while."
Experts say the glass particles are unlikely to pass into the lower parts of
the lung, where serious disease is caused, because they are too big.
Ken Donaldson, professor of respiratory toxicology at Edinburgh University,
said: "The particles are likely to become caught in big airways at the
back of the throat or mouth.
"The particles are 1000 times bigger than those which enter the lower
parts of the lungs."
He added that people should be more concerned about the effects of smoking.
Cannabis use is so common police in Scotland made 19,000 seizures of the class
C drug last year.
It is believed as many as half of 16 to 25 year olds regularly smoke cannabis.
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/