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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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UK: WARNING: THERE'S GLASS IN YOUR GRASS
Amy Devine Glasgow Record
Monday 05 Mar 2007 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/
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