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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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UK: Openly sold on the street, and 10 times strength it was in seventies
David Cohen Evening Standard, London
Monday 16 Jan 2006 Cannabis sold openly on the streets of London is up to 10 times stronger than that typically sold in the Seventies and Eighties, an Evening Standard investigation can reveal. Three samples of the drug acquired by a reporter at three London locations popular with teenagers were immediately bagged and sent to a forensic science laboratory for testing. The results reveal that in two of the three locations, Brixton and Charing Cross Road, the reporter had purchased "cannabis female flowering heads", commonly known as "skunk". The THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) concentrations - the chemical that gets you stoned by raising dopamine levels in your brain - were eight per cent and 11.4 per cent respectively. Cannabis sold in the Seventies and Eighties typically had a THC content of only one per cent. Even more worryingly, the laboratory which tested the samples revealed it had examined cannabis with THC levels above 20 per cent in the past year. For only £10 our reporter acquired about 750 milligrams of skunk, enough to make five potent joints. Crucially, each one was equivalent to up to 10 joints of old-style cannabis leaf. An unsuspecting teenager naively believing the cannabis he had acquired was harmless could end up 10 times more stoned than a typical user of earlier decades. The Standard set out to conduct this test before reports that Home Secretary Charles Clarke is not expected to reverse the downgrading of the drug from class B to C by David Blunkett. It had previously been believed that Mr Clarke would reclassify the drug upwards again. This had been trailed by frank admissions that the Government had "misunderstood" the potency of today's cannabis and because of overwhelming expert evidence citing strong links between cannabis use among teenagers and schizophrenia. One such long-term study, by Professor Robin Murray of the Institute of Psychiatry in London, shows teenagers who have smoked cannabis only three times by age 15 are 4.5 times more likely than non-users to suffer serious mental problems, including schizophrenia, by their mid-twenties. About 40 per cent of 15-year-olds in Britain have used cannabis, the highest proportion in Europe. The extreme potency is partly due to the burgeoning home-grown market, where cannabis is cultivated indoors using sophisticated hydroponics equipment. Fiona Coope, a forensic scientist at Scientifics Limited who analysed our cannabis samples, said it was probably cured in Britain in a warehouse and that the lab results accurately represented what was typically sold on the streets today. "Cannabis does not come with labels, so people have little idea of the strength of the stuff they are getting," she said. "But in three quarters of cases it will be significantly stronger than that which we used to test back in the Eighties. "Our results in the past year show that half of the cannabis samples we have tested had THC levels of between five and 10 per cent. A quarter had levels above 10 per cent, with some samples registering up to 22 per cent THC." The story of our reporter's journey to acquire three samples of cannabis in one afternoon highlights the ease with which such deals are done in London, as well as the apparent ignorance of dealers as to its potency. Within minutes of our reporter emerging from Brixton Tube station, he found himself propositioned by half a dozen dealers openly commandeering the bus shelters, crammed at that hour with schoolchildren. "Skunk? Weed?" they asked. "How much you want?" one asked, pulling a large plastic bag from his jacket pocket. Despite Brixton police having recently announced a reversal of their softly-softly approach on cannabis, there was not an officer in sight. Children as young as 12 were brushing by his elbow, chatting to each other and to parents. It took just a few seconds for the exchange to be completed. "Good skunk, very strong," the dealer said. When we asked what the THC content was, the dealer looked mystified. "THC, what's that? The way you tell how strong it is - you smoke it." At Camden Tube station our reporter again saw open dealing and paid £20 for 930 milligrams of cannabis leaf that, tests revealed, had a THC content of only one per cent. "Rip-off gear" was the verdict of the forensic scientists. Dealers with a discerning clientele would discard the leaf and only sell the flowering heads because that is where the potency and value is. But the third venue, Charing Cross Road, was the source of cannabis with a THC concentration of 11.4 per cent. Unfortunately, it is teenagers experimenting with drugs, rather than regular users who may have a relationship with a dealer, who are likely to end up buying skunk on the street. Marjorie Wallace, chief executive of mental health charity Sane says many who supported liberalisation of cannabis laws do not realise how strong it has become. Skunk is 10 times stronger than "grass". She says: "Although for 90 per cent of users there is no ill effect, it is impossible to tell who are the 10 per cent for whom it will trigger severe psychotic breakdown and sometimes violent behaviour." Alun Buffry of the Legalise Cannabis Alliance said: "While home-grown is much stronger today than it was in the Seventies, it is not much stronger than that which was imported from countries such as Thailand and Jamaica and which accounted for 80 per cent of supplies back then. "We accept cannabis can be dangerous to some teenagers but nevertheless we are for cannabis being completely declassified. "If there are mental health risks associated with its use, it's best if it is dealt with under a legal regime, just like alcohol."
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