lets have an economic revolution and replace downing street with a huge vapouriser which constantley breathes the finest cheese all over london whilst establishing hydroponic modules in the curriculum. imagine if bush and blair sat down and got stoned with the mugs in the G8 summits and amsterdam became a modern day mecca for a new religion of stoners :)

yes...ive seen the same thing on all my dealer weed for months now from very different parts of country too...its everywhere, there is a huge drought and has been for months..it appears to be silica sand...so pissed off...will it ever get better or is this it now? If its not this it will be something even more sneaky next time...as they say, grow your own, its just looking too risky these days, the good old days are gone I reckon, this is big business now, and less scrupulous boys have gotten involved. There was a time in the late 80s early 90s when you could still get good hash easily, but by mid 90s that was changing to what we have ten years later which is virtually no such thing as real hash on the street. Very sad :(

I sent this to the home office feedback@drugs.gov.uk

>>
Sir

I'm the forum moderator for the website UKCIA where we are hearing a lot of reports of contaminated herbal cannabis. This has been happening since the summer following the police action against grow-ops and would seem to be a consequence of that action. It seems the resulting shortage caused by the police raids has been at least partly filled by badly contaminated supplies.

From the reports we've heard there seems to be a fine sand or grit like material held on the plant surface by some kind of glue.

What is the precise nature of this contamination and what are the health risks of it?

I am aware of the government's position on cannabis, which clearly I do not agree with. This is, of course, a classic example of prohibition creating new and unnecessary harms.

I look forward to your reply.
>>

Bet they don't reply, or if they do, they'llnot be able toanswer the question.

Derek

Webteam UKCIA

Yep, this all seems so applicable to the recent score we just purchased, a lapse in the drought thats so prevelent at the mo, an oz for £120.
Apparently it came from London to Manchester then to us in North Yorkshire.

The 1st sign of something unusual was the sheer amount of dust on fingers and in the bag. Brushing this off we smoked as usual not really considering it at first. After a night of smoking and drinking I had an unusually strong headache in my sinus'.
The next day we realised that this "dust" was particulary gritty and unlike good scores in the past was not sticky at all. It doesn't roll into a ball and has a distinctive shimmer when inspected closely, also just like previous posters gritty and hard when chewed.

We mulled over the idea and considered sugar, salt, baking soda... Thought about checking the net and remembered this excellent website I used to frequent :)

As previous posters have mentioned I think its ironic that the police crack down on weed has produced something more dangerous than the actual drug they are trying to prevent.
As you have said I feel the only alternative is to grow your own or live in dam, or quit ofc...!

The prospect that this shit could be involved with terroism is worrying to say the least, the only upside I guess is that it may lead to fast action by the police, if we brought this to their attention it may lead to legalisation! lol

On a serious note; the best thing we can do short term is to discuss ways of seperating this shit from the weed, for anyone whos lumbered with it,also find some info on the health risks of smoking this shit.

Its nice to see a community where we talk about this stuff openly and hopefully make a differnce.

Thanks for the info!

PS: Woah, the plot thickens, after some research and scaning the net... We have an opimistic and pesimistic view... One its a harmful adulterate used to increase weight... by terrroists...
Two its a hydroponics substance not harmful to health called Brix+.
Ok, so now the impotant question is how do we tell the difference? Anyone out there who has used this Brix+? Does it do this to the finsished bud?

Thanks again



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/19/2006 01:51PM by Wongfeihung.

REPORTS OF A GRIT CANNABIS RELATED DEATH HAS OCCURED PEOPLE AND THIS IS JUST THE BEGGINING..

THE GRIT IS VERY DANGEROUS AND BURNS A WHOLE INSIDE YOUR LUNGS WHICH EITHER RESULTS IN YOUR LUNG COLLAPSING OR YOU DIEING

I AM A CHRONIC CANNABIS SMOKER AND CANT GO DAY IN DAY OUT WITHOUT A JOINT AND TO BE HONEST SINCE I REALISED ABOUT THE SHITTY GRITTY ON THE SCENE I HAVENT PUT ANOTHER JOINT OF THAT SHIT PASSED MY LIPS.... THERE IS STILL DECENT DRAW ABOUT YOU JUST NEED TO EXTEND YOUR RESOURCES, I HAVE BEEN SMOKING VERY EXCELLENT GRADE SKUNK DURING THIS WHOLE DROUGHT PERIOD, IF SOMEONE HAS A PENNY FOR 25 TAKE IT AND DEFINANTLY BUY AS MUCH HOMEGROWN AS U CAN, I HAVE BEEN FORTUNATE ENOUGH TO SMOKE "WHITE RHINO" & "ISSOLATOR" LOADS OF "POLLEN" "ORANGE BUD" "CHEESE" SO BELIEVE ME PEOPLE ITS THERE, I AM CURRENTLY SMOKING A CLEAN JOINT WHILST TYPIN THIS SO IT IS OUT THERE U JUST NEED TO SEARCH FOR IT, THERES LOADS IN FINCHLEY PPL SO GET YOUR ARSES DOWN HERE AND ASK AROUND MAN, U R SURE TO SMELL THE CHRONIC ON OUR STREETS :)


IF I GET ANYMORE DEATAILS FROM MY SOURCE ABOUT THE GRIT RELATED DEATH I WILL RE POST A TOPIC

I SMOKE NEARLY A QUARTER A DAY AND SO DOES MY MISSES SO BETWEEN US THAT WOULD BE A LOT OF GRIT OR GLASS OR SAND IN OUR BODIES AND THAT CANT BE A GOOD THING...

REPORTS HAVE IT THAT THE TURKISH MAFIA HAS BOUGHT UP THE UK SUPPLY OF SKUNK AND THEY ARE SPRAYING THE BUD WITH THIS SILICA SAND AND WE ARE BUYING BY THE TRUCK LOAD, A LOT OF DEALERS DONT SMOKE ANYMORE SO WHEN THEY PURCHASE FROM THERE SUPPLIERS THEY ARE JUST LOOKING FOR PRESENTATION AND NOT NECESSERILY FOR GRIT AND OTHER CONTAMINATIONS.....

BEST THING TO DO IS SAY NO AND STOP THE SHIT CROP!!!!!!! IF WE STOP THE PURCHASE AND SAY NO TO OUR DEALER FRIEND THEN THEY WILL SEND THE MESSAGE DOWN THE CHAIN....


IF THE PEOPLE RESPONSIBLE CANT SHIFT THE PRODUCT THEY WILL GIVE UP ON SPRAYING IT BECAUSE EVENTUALLY THEY WILL REALISE THAT US BRITS AINT THAT STUPID AND WE DONT HAVE TO BUY THERE SHIT GRIT, TRUST ME 1 IN 10 OF YOUR SMOKER FRIENDS NOW HAVE THERE OWN LITTLE CROP WETHER IT BE BIG OR SMALL THAT IS THE ONLY WAY FORWARD.....

GOOD LUCK PEOPLE IN THE SEARCH FOR THE GOOD BUD, HOPEFULLY YOUR JOURNEY WONT BE TO FAR.....(OR U COULD ALWAYS FLY TO AMSTERDAM AND NEVER RETURN) LOL...........


PEACE TO U ALL

RHYTHM MASTER aka SKUNK MASTER

The man from the capital with the capitals is pretty much right on the money. I think terrorists is taking things too far-(previous posts) the only real terrorist threat is our government in the first place - don't believe THEIR hype!...but regarding who controls what in the big smoke at the mo...he's about right. The answer...just say no- and tell 'em so, or grow your own blow.
Rice and peace.x.

just got some sandy weed here in the NW, everybodys selling it....errrr! also, there was a tea bag in with it! im really pissed off...paid top price for it aswell!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/20/2006 09:21PM by josswaite.

I've just sent this to my local paper, the Evening News in Norwich, and a couple of others have posted something similar to their local paper - we need to get as many people as possible to do the same:

Sirs, There's been much talk about the risk of smoking cannabis, and every cannabis smoker knows the risk of being busted, but there's a far more serious risk involved with buying illegal cannabis. That of quality - the only control is that exercises sometimes by dealers.

Over the years, there has been more and more obnoxious cannabis products containing who-knows-what, on the streets, often relatively inexpensive.

We've seen "soap bar" (supposedly Moroccan) containing everything from wax to animal turds; we've had "Squiggy Black" (supposedly from Pakistan) that I wouldn't like to even think about, and now we have cannabis "bud" containing some sort of ground up grit, sand or glass.

Cannabis, as we know, is outside of the control of the law so little can be done.

The health risks from contaminates are doubtless greater than those for pure cannabis - whether or not some smokers are at risk from strong bud, certainly everyone who smokes that contaminated rubbish is at serious risk.

People need to be warned - and I hope I can use your letters page to do it.

WE cannot just sit and wait for the Government to legalise this popular plant and allow some sort of consumer protection and taxation on profits - we need to warn people now.

Alun Buffry
Legalise Cannabis Alliance
[www.lca-uk.org]

I posted this to the EDP forum (The EDP is the regional paper for the Norfolk/Suffolk area). Please feel free to respond to it!

Derek

--------------------------------

In the thread "30 arrests in Norwich burglary crackdown" Keith Gerrad wrote:


keith gerrard wrote:

>>
Small scale producers have tried to fill this gap, the first results of this are that there is now a huge quantity of dangerous drugs being sold. Some has salt or modeling clay in it, some more dangerous additives.

USERS SHOULD BE VERY CAREFULL.
>>

As I've mentioned before, I help run a cannabis law reform website known as UKCIA. Since mid summer, we began hearing of a shortage of cannabis on the streets and it soon became clear that the police had been shutting down large scale gro-ops. This was months before the EDP and just about every other "news outlet" carried the police story of a crack-down incidently.

Many of these grow ops were linked to criminal networks so perhaps it wasn't a bad thing, but of course, this is a demand lead market and that shortage wasn't going to last.

We are now hearing reports of something we've never heard of before and indeed used to think was impossible. All over the UK from the West Country to Scotland we're hearing reports of herbal cannabis which is highly contaminated. It seems the plant material has been sprayed with or dipped in some kind of glue which contains a grit or sand type substance.

This can't have come from lots of small scale suppliers because it’s all the same everywhere.

I suspect what's happening is cannabis is being covered with glue containing this grit in order to increase weight. Because the police raids caused a big shortage, the price of cannabis went up making the profits also go up and these people are greedy. It's fairly typical of what prohibition does to be honest - it adds unknown dangers whilst increasing profits.

We have no idea what the glue is, but the sand seems to be fairly inert from what we've heard, although people have questioned what the effect of breathing in tiny particles of hot grit would be on the lungs. Of course, we don't know it's inert for sure.

I've contacted the Home Office drugs unit with this information asking them what the extent and nature of this contamination is, but I don't think they'll tell me simply because, of course, they don't know and have no way of knowing. Again, such is prohibition.

But Keith’s warning is correct. Drug users are now being put at an increased and unknown risk (which is in addition to any risk cannabis use as such may pose) because of the effects of the police enforcement. I know of no other law which puts consumers at a greater risk than they need be at, but prohibition certainly does and it uses this increased risk as a measure of success.

Of course, this crack down - like all the others - is reported without criticism by the press. Why is that?

Derek

Webteam UKCIA

thought I would tell you about my experiences with the sand shite. I bought an 0z back in august, noticed the grit in the teeth immediately and after grinding it (metal grinder) it had scoured it clean!

so, went through the whole oz, grinding, putting thru a tea strainer and collected it all up - 8 grams of sand!

when I took it back, my mate was gobsmacked (and sorted me another 8g of clean bud straight away) but has kept an eye out since and won't buy it.

last couple of days I couldn't get anything so last night went to a friend of a friend etc. Noticed the grit taste again but not nearly as bad this time. strange thing the bud seems greasy! leaves a shine on your fingertips and you can hear it sizzle as it burns if you hold it too your ear (not too close now!). Also doesn't burn good (not suprisingly). There was also a small piece of bud which was brown, also fatty,greasy and smelt it - chocolate (bad quality chocolate too!) what on earth???

I feel gutted as it's my birthday tommorow and I wanna good smoke. Just wasted hard cash on a Q and now I have to go score again if I can get some. I can't wait to hit the himalayas after xmas and get some decent Parvati cream - Jai parvati-maa!

a tea bag??????

another way of making up the weight lol!....(not very sneaky)



an expensive cuppa m8 !!

Ok this is my first post here. I found you guys after searching for Contaminated skunk. I heard on a UK music forum about this and I have also purchased some by mistake. I work in the chemical industy and beleive the contamination to be Glass Micro Spheres. They are are used for reflective road signs and reflective paint.

I am not sure of the health risks of smoking it but this fine reflective powder is easy to get and cheap. I have heard on another forum of someone being admitted to hospital after smoking an Oz of contaminated skunk within a week. Doctors found glass in his Mucas. That information is third hand but for anyone who enjoys the taste of good skunk this stuff tastes wrong and is best avoided.

If you have to smoke it then please use a cigarette filter at least.

Quote:

jamos
Ok this is my first post here. I found you guys after searching for Contaminated skunk. I heard on a UK music forum about this and I have also purchased some by mistake. I work in the chemical industy and beleive the contamination to be Glass Micro Spheres. They are are used for reflective road signs and reflective paint.

Having looked at some through a microscope, I'd agree with you about what it is.
You can easily see the spheres are not the same size at trichomes, nor are they carried on a stem.
As for the amount of damage that can be done by smoking them.... Who knows?

[/quote]Having looked at some through a microscope, I'd agree with you about what it is. You can easily see the spheres are not the same size at trichomes, nor are they carried on a stem. As for the amount of damage that can be done by smoking them.... Who knows?[/quote]

I would assume that microscopic glass shards inhaled or digested are extremely dangerous. As for whos doing it I would put my finger on foreign gangs. The government are not going to benifit from poisoning thousands of people.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/22/2006 04:54PM by jamos.

Higfis

Any chance of getting a photo of this?

Derek

Webteam UKCIA

i posted this exact same message in another thread but check it ... my views on the contamination....


IM from North London Enfield area and this is the deal at the moment ..

50 - 70% of n e type of green your gonna get round here is gritted up. The only green that seems to be getting left alone is the Hazey skunks. so basically every single day me and a group of friends r ringin about 2 see if there is n e un-touched green about.

The problem is only affecting skunk so all you weed and hash smokers have not got much to worry about , its the skunkheads that r having the piss taken out of them.

Ive been told be someone that the problem lies within the uk... ive read a post on another forum where a guy states that its the dutch doing it and then shippin it to the uk... From what ive been told the problem is quite the opposite.
As most of you smokers will have been well aware of is that the uk market for skunk was booming we had so many homegrowers growing really good quality stuff ( in london we have had alot of chinese / vietnamese growers setting up whole houses for growing) that the dutch wernt able to compete with the prices the homegrowers were giving. So now they started to cut down there export to the uk as were doing fine ourselves, which was all good until... say about Sep06 when big droughts hit south east england due to police raids. Ive read a fair few reports in the papers about raids between sep and oct, one paper reported of over 450!!
It was from this time that the sandy draw which was about in very small quantities before got to flood the market, as most of the uk facories had been raided, and the guys who r sandying up the skunk have a monopoly on the market.

Remember these are just my thoughts im not saying this is defo the reason.

My next thought i think is "Its against the morals of a smoker to do that to your own bud" these guys that r doing this r totally shameless and might not even smoke themselves.. There fucking up ppl's daily routines.. I know so many ppl who like to finish work and smoke a good spliff, which just isnt that possible atm. There even endangering our health as from wat ive read across the net no1 realy knows wat it is, there are so many explanations.



WE HAVE 2 STOP THIS NOW ANY SMOKER WHO KNOWS OF ANYONE DOING THIS TO THERE BUD REALLY NEED TO LET THEM KNOW THEY HAVE 2 STOP NOW. ITS NOT ON. NO1 ENJOYS SMOKING IT AND AS SOON AS THE FACTORIES THAT HAVE BEEN HIT GET BK INTO BUISSNESS THERE GONNA BE OUT OF BUISNESS. FUCKING CUNTS

hazeskunk is cool?? no??

HAZE man.... sativa bud... u know wat i mean ... gives a very deep thick succulent smoke i find it alot better than the normal ungritted skunk.. gives a better high i find ...

its around enfield alot.. atm i know of 2 baches flying about, also heard rumors of some Diesel soon to be about 2 ... but still the ammount of grit thats about is by far outweighing the good shit...

A FEW THOUGHTS OCCUR:

1) I HAVE YET TO SEE A NEWS REPORT STATING THAT "ANYONE" HAS BEEN HOSPITALISED BY THIS GRIT-SHIT. BEST NOT TO TAKE ANY CHANCES THOUGH.

2) THIS IS ALMOST DEFINITELY A SILICA BASED SAND, WHICH IF TRUE DOES NOT BURN OR GIVE OFF ANY TOXINS. AGAIN I AM NOT SURE OF THE EFFECTS ON THE LUNGS.

3) AT LEAST 90% OF CANNABIS SOLD IN THE U.K IS GROWN IN THE U.K SOME B*STARDS OVER HERE ARE TO BLAME FOR THIS SHIT. [I BLAME CRACK DEALERS BUT IT SEEMS EVERYONE HAS THEIR PRIME SUSPECTS].

4) THE SOLUTION IS AS SIMPLE AS NOT BUYING ANY GRIT-SHIT AND IF YOU HAVE A REGULAR DEALER MAKE NOISE TO THEM ABOUT IT. [NO ONE WANTS TO LOOSE MONEY].

AND FINALLY, AS SOMEONE WHO HAS SMOKED CONSTANTLY FOR OVER TEN YEARS LET ME SAY THIS...

THERE ARE NO DROUGHTS, EVER, JUST LAZY POTHEADS TOO WASTED TO HUNT OUT THE THING THEY CLAIM TO LOVE. EVERY TIME THERE'S A RAID PEOPLE GET PARANOID AND SIT ON THEIR SUPPLY OR GET GREEDY AND UP THEIR PRICES AND CLAIM A DROUGHT'S HIT. PEOPLE DON'T BE FOOLED, JUST BE CHOOSEY AND DON'T BUY THE FIRST SHIT YOU STUMBLE ACROSS. ONE OR TWO NIGHTS SOBER MAKES FINDING THE GOOD SHIT SO MUCH MORE ENJOYABLE. IF WE WERE ALL A LITTLE MORE SELECTIVE THIS SIMPLY WOULD NOT BE AN ISSUE.

LOVE TO ALL, SORRY FOR SHOUTING....

I HAVE JUST OBTAINED A RELATIVELY PURE SAMPLE OF THIS GRIT [PLUS SOME ASH] USING BASIC SCHOOLBOY CHEMISTRY. FIRST I BURNED A SAMPLE OF CONTAMINATED WEED TILL THERE WAS ONLY ASH LEFT. THEN I GROUND DOWN THE ASHES TO AS FINE A POWDER AS I COULD GET. I THEN POURED THESE ASHES INTO A GLASS OF WATER ALLOWING THE PARTICLES TO SEPARATE. AFTER A FEW MOMENTS I POURED OUT THE WATER CAREFULLY LEAVING THE SLUDGE AT THE BOTTOM BEHIND. I THEN TOPPED UP THE WATER IN THE GLASS AND REPEATED THE PROCESS SEVERAL TIMES TILL NO FLOATING PARTICLES REMAINED IN THE GLASS. I THEN THEN POURED THE SLUDGE ONTO SOME KITCHEN TOWEL AND THE SAMPLE IS CURRENTLY DRYING IN FRONT OF MY ELECTRIC HEATER. I WILL DO WHAT I CAN TO TEST THIS AND MAYBE EVEN TRY TO GET SOME MAGNIFIED PICS UP. IN THE MEAN TIME TRY IT OUT FOR YOURSELF AND HAVE A LOOK UNDER A MAGNIFIER OR MICROSCOPE. IT IS ALMOST CERTAINLY SILICA SAND NOT FIBER GLASS.