<p>Couple of years ago, we had this big story about “candy meth” (meth that was being flavored and colored for kids.) DEA pushed the story, and local enforcement in different parts of the country picked it up, it made ABC news, and even our lieutenant governor was making speeches about it.</p>
<p>Turned out there was one single report (in Nevada), and, when asked to produce the evidence, local police couldn’t “find” it. It was all a hoax made up by an overzealous Nevada sheriff.</p>
<p>livelyone: I’d put good money on your being a regular poster who decided that posting something incredibly stupid like this would be too embarrassing under your normal name (this suspicion is very much heightened by your knowing that I’m not American, which no new poster on this forum would necessarily know right off the bat, since it’s not listed in my location). I will be reporting your post to a moderator and asking them to use the IP-checking features that this board is equipped with to see if you are in fact an otherwise regular poster. However, I will leave that aside for the moment and answer the suggestion in your post:</p>
<p>No, I don’t think the authorities would find my posting such information interesting. First, the information I have posted is readily available on websites, both government-hosted and otherwise. Second, posting information about drugs is not and never has been an illegal activity. Third, my being non-American would have nothing to do with its legality, even if it were even close to questionably legal. Fourth, knowing things about drugs does not necessarily imply having used those drugs or being presently involved in any illegal activity, despite your subtle suggestion otherwise - mini being an excellent example of a poster who knows a lot about the current state of affairs without being involved in any illicit activity.</p>
<p>As for why I gather information, it is because I find the issue of drugs and its sociological implications interesting. I find the phenomenon of widespread misinformation equally, if not more interesting, and the two are very interrelated.</p>
<p>mini: That’s interesting about the candy meth. One of the things I stumbled across in my research on the DEA website were reports of cocaine that had been flavored and colored - but in this case, there was actual documentary evidence (pictures and so forth). Think that might be a case of some drug pushers seeing a good idea? ;)</p>
<p>It’s come and gone. Doesn’t exist and never did, though the Carson City Sheriff got a big bang out of it.</p>
<p>Here you go, 1of42 (the answer to the request you emailed me):</p>
<p>In ONE SECOND I found two documents on the web, They are not necessarily the best out there, but my point remains consistent. What I am sharing is THE NORM (the mainstream view of drugs, the position of TRAINED, EDUCATED health professionals).</p>
<p>Nothing I have said is an original thought on this topic. All of my views on drugs come from very bright people who have advanced degrees in psychology or psychiatry and much clinical experience to go along with them. My knowledge was learned through meetings, presentations, and the like. But since you like to challenge everything, I just wanted you to see that in a matter of moments you can find all of the very same things online (and there is lots more for you to read if you don’t like the links I just posted - it’s all just a click away). </p>
<p>[Basic</a> Facts About Drugs: Marijuana](<a href=“http://www.acde.org/common/Marijana.htm]Basic”>Basic Facts About Drugs: Marijuana - American Council for Drug Education - ACDE)
Quote : “Marijuana and other cannabis products are usually smoked, sometimes in a pipe or water pipe, but most often in loosely rolled cigarettes known as “joints.” Some users will slice open and hollow out cigars, replacing the tobacco with marijuana, to make what are called “blunts.” Joints and blunts may be laced with other substances, including crack cocaine and the potent hallucinogen phencyclidine (PCP), substantially altering effects of the drug.”</p>
<p>[Marijuana</a> | CESAR](<a href=“http://www.cesar.umd.edu/cesar/drugs/marijuana.asp]Marijuana”>http://www.cesar.umd.edu/cesar/drugs/marijuana.asp)
Quote: One of the dangers of smoking marijuana is the possibility that it has been laced with another, more dangerous substance such as cocaine, crack, PCP, or even embalming fluid. Dealers have been known to sell joints, blunts, or cigarettes dipped in embalming fluid and laced with PCP. Though reports of laced marijuana are infrequent, and most lacing of marijuana is done at user-level, it is important to remember that with unregulated drugs such as marijuana, the user has no way of knowing what other types of substances have been added.
When individual users lace marijuana, they may sprinkle powdered cocaine or crack into a joint or blunt, combining the stimulant effects of cocaine with the depressant and hallucinogenic effects of cannabis. This can be very dangerous, especially for a person with not tolerance to cocaine. Users have also been known to snowcap bowlfuls of marijuana with powdered opium or heroin, in addition to cocaine and crack. Again, combining other drugs with marijuana can be extremely dangerous.
Smoking a joint that has been dipped in embalming fluid or formaldehyde has effects similar to those of a joint laced with PCP - a drug that causes hallucinations, euphoria, and often times, panic or rage. Having a negative reaction is even more likely if the user is expecting only the normal marijuana high. In addition to these psychological dangers, marijuana that has been laced is also extremely unhealthy. Formaldehyde is a known carcinogen linked to nasal and lung cancer, with possible links to brain cancer and leukemia, and should not be smoked or ingested in any way.</p>
<p>I have no idea how often marijuana is laced with something else. I certainly would not want to take the risk. I don’t think I am sticking my neck out too much here when I state that drug dealers are usually not the most trustworthy folks.</p>
<p>I recently read “Tweak” by Nic Sheff. He talks about selling meth that he cut in order to make a profit. Even if drugs are being cut with things that don’t get you high, do you really want to trust a dealer with what goes into your body? Most dealers are using, and people who are using are often not very moral about the way they conduct their drug dealing business.</p>
<p>Wasn’t it you, 1of42, who recommended EROWID? Here is a quick story from someone who had a better experience than buying a doctored product, but still ended up ingesting heroin through laced weed at a party (same outcome, though - he got weed + heroin when he thought he was getting just weed). As I keep saying, it just isn’t worth the risk:</p>
<p>[Erowid</a> Experience Vaults: Heroin, Alcohol & Cannabis - Tasting Paradise. - 20864](<a href=“http://www.erowid.org/experiences/exp.php?ID=20864]Erowid”>Heroin, Alcohol & Cannabis - Erowid Exp - 'Tasting Paradise.')</p>
<p>"So I was at a friend’s birthday party having a genuinely good time (on my 9th drink I’m guessing, and smoking cigs like hickory) when I see my friend’s brother with his buddies tokin some bud. (I’d seen them a few times at the old pub, friendly chaps). I couldn’t help but want to have a taste, so I joined in the discussion. Little time passed before I was handed the joint. I sucked in three huge open lung hauls (with the J a bit away from my lips to let <em>some</em> air through). I noticed a somewhat pleasant metallic taste, but thought nothing of it. </p>
<p>As the thick smoke from my final exhalation gave way, the clearing fog produced an unsung chorus of open jawed wide eyes (yes it’s possible). ‘What’s the matter, can’t handle a little weed?’. No one laughed. I saw only concerned looks, and almost guilt from the person who had produced the J. I thought to myself ‘This might not be bad, but it probably won’t be good.’ Rough French to English translation: 'Dude, we thought you knew. That **** is laced with heroin."</p>
<p>I have also heard, with my own ears, the stories of many drug addicts who had highs which went awry when they ended up taking something other than what they originally wanted (even if they never found out what exactly it was for sure that they were given).</p>
<p>(and BTW, what is the point that no one mentioned heroin or cocaine-tainted weed at some meetings during a specific time period in Seattle?)</p>
<p>You know, this debate on illicit drugs is not fun anymore. It’s like shooting fish in a barrel. I’m done, 1of42. You get to have the last word. Go for it.</p>
<p>spideygirl: So your best souce for your assertions of widely doctored marijuana (despite the DEA’s, NIDA’s and mini’s assertions that there are no data to support your opinion) is a single Erowid post where a guy was given marijuana that his friends had laced with heroin to get a different high? That’s the best you can do?</p>
<p>You’re right, this is indeed a bit like shooting fish in a barrel, except that the fish are your arguments based on sketchy, flimsy third-hand stories.</p>
<p>"Basic Facts About Drugs: Marijuana</p>
<p>Spideygirl - you did notice that the ACDE site you quoted is dated 1999, and uses survey data from 1994, didn’t you?</p>
<p>“Though reports of laced marijuana are infrequent, and most lacing of marijuana is done at user-level, it is important to remember that with unregulated drugs such as marijuana, the user has no way of knowing what other types of substances have been added.”</p>
<p>In other words, they are unable to cite a single source for the sale of “laced” marijuana. (which doesn’t surprise me, since, and this kind of data is what I do for a living, I can’t either, for my state since 1997, and that was with formaldehyde.)</p>
<p>“(and BTW, what is the point that no one mentioned heroin or cocaine-tainted weed at some meetings during a specific time period in Seattle?)”</p>
<p>The point is that I meet with officials from the DEA, local law enforcement, local treatment providers, community youth workers, local poison control center, and researchers every six months to actually LOOK for such reports. I have been doing this every six months since 2000. Such meetings are held every six months in 21 major metropolitan areas, and the results are peer-reviewed and published. You’d think that, if it was happening, we’d have at least ONE such report (even one). Nope. (and we get lots of other crazy stuff!)</p>
<p>Mini -</p>
<p>Thank you for at least looking at what I posted, which in this case was three quick hits from Google. </p>
<p>Since then I have found more, such as a news story from '06 involving Hell’s Angels gang members selling meth laced pot. I also found a story about a bunch of people in Germany poisoned with lead-tainted pot, and kids getting caught smoking heroin laced cigarettes at school.</p>
<p>There are so many slang words for pot mixed with other drugs. Kids are smoking weed mixed with all sorts of things, particularly when the weed is low quality. They are not always doing it on purpose.</p>
<p>Let’s put aside the examples that I mentioned. What if the notion of marijuana being mixed with hard drugs was 100% urban myth (which it isn’t), sold by addiction professionals and the government to nervous parents like me? It wouldn’t change the fact that the only way you can KNOW what you are smoking when you buy illegal pot is to study it in a lab or grow it yourself. That is the BIG PICTURE. </p>
<p>I’d like to encourage kids not to smoke pot. There is ample evidence that it is not good for them. </p>
<p>By the way, I also meet with law enforcement, treatment providers who are often psychiatrists, and researchers (as often as once a month). I find that the people who work with addicts every day, the folks in the trenches so to speak, to be the most knowledgeable about who is using what.</p>
<p>I’d also like to see links to places where I can read about the NIDA and DEA assertions that there is no data to support the possibility of laced marijuana.</p>
<p>The Erowid thing was a bit of a joke that I included because it was cited previously here (to prove the opposite position to mine)</p>
<p>I cited something above from the American Council On Drug Education and the Center For Drug Abuse Research at the University of Maryland.</p>
<p>It is hard for me to imagine, Mini, that if as you say you would have heard about ANY cases of laced marijuana (because you go to so many meetings with experts in the Seattle area) that you would have missed the Kelowna story. Here is the link, BTW:</p>
<p>[Hells</a> Angels control booming crystal meth: report](<a href=“http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2006/04/19/bc_crystal-meth20060419.html]Hells”>http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2006/04/19/bc_crystal-meth20060419.html)</p>
<p>“The report says drugs such as ecstasy, ketamine and marijuana are being laced with crystal meth to create a generation of instant addicts.” </p>
<p>The BC and Seattle drug markets are very connected.</p>