Warning: include(../ukciaheader.php) [function.include]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/content/u/k/c/ukciawww/html/library/contam/default.php on line 33 Warning: include() [function.include]: Failed opening '../ukciaheader.php' for inclusion (include_path='.:/usr/local/php5/lib/php') in /home/content/u/k/c/ukciawww/html/library/contam/default.php on line 33 You are in Library Cannabis contamination Soft Secrets magazine report Processed weed The original forum thread How we came to hear of the problem First images from November 2006 (scroll down the page) 26th December 2006 update (first analysis) Cannaprag press release 1st January 2007 5th January 2007 Update (electron microscope images) Cannaprag press release 7th January 2007 Article in the EDP newspaper 2nd January 2007 Guardian Newspaper report 12th January 2007 French studies 10th January 2007 Dept of Health warning 16th January 2007 January 2007 The story which dominated the end of 2006 and the first few weeks of 2007 was the issue of contamination of herbal cannabis with microscopic glass beads. We first began hearing of this back in late summer 2006. Following "Operation Keymer" - a series of high profile raids against cannabis grow-ops - there was a widespread shortage of cannabis all over the country for the first time in a good few years. No doubt this was the simplistic aim of the police raids and to that extent they were very successful. However, within a couple of weeks of the raids, we began hearing of herbal cannabis which seemed to contain "sand" or "grit", it became known as "Grit weed". At first we thought this was fairly benign, the sand was being added to increase the weigh, making the cannabis more expensive but otherwise it wasn't thought to be a serious problem. We don't think that anymore. Posts to our forum identified this "grit" as being small pieces of glass. We then began getting photographs of this "grit", which was very good at reflecting light and so showed up well in flash photos (first images November 2006). On Christmas day we received the first solid evidence of what this contamination was (see 26th December update). It was shown to be small glass beads used for sandblasting and reflective road marking paint which had been sprayed onto the bud, penetrating deep into it ITV Wales - Wales this Week - report January 2007 Part 1 Part 2 A press release was issued by UKCIA's sister campaign site "cannaprag" on 1st January, which resulted in an article in the Eastern Daily Press paper. On January 5th we received another analysis - this time using a scanning electron microscope. This revealed some of the particles were 10 micron or less. This is very bad news, these particles are small enough to penetrate deep into the lungs where they could cause enormous damage. Electron microscope image of the glass beads sprayed into the cananbis bud A further press release from Cannaprag on 7th January resulted in an item in the Guardian and on 10th January by research from France confirming the contamination - and the fact that the French government were at least monitoring the situation if nothnig else since at least September last year. These analysis results confirm the research posted here. It also indicates other forms of contamination involving sand and "glass wool" An alert was finally issued by the British dept of health on 16th January   Warning: include(../ukciafooter.php) [function.include]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/content/u/k/c/ukciawww/html/library/contam/default.php on line 189 Warning: include() [function.include]: Failed opening '../ukciafooter.php' for inclusion (include_path='.:/usr/local/php5/lib/php') in /home/content/u/k/c/ukciawww/html/library/contam/default.php on line 189