The prohibition of Cannabis has had disastrous consequences for public health. Like with alcohol, this prohibition has in some cases made the substance far more dangerous for the consumer due to lack of regulation. A medical marijuana patient in my community recently brought me a sample of his medicine for examination. He suspected something was amiss with his cannabis because he felt ill after consumption and felt it damaged his lungs. Unfortunately, medical cannabis dispensaries are not available in this state, therefore some patients with chronic illnesses, such as the aforementioned patient, have to resort to the black market for their medical needs.
I examined the buds carefully under the microscope. Something stood out about many of the trichomes (crystalline particles present in cannabis buds), many looked almost metallic and far different than typical trichomes. I knew I had found some sort of contaminate so I began to ask questions: Is this natural or artificial? and If it's artificial why is it there? I had to have these answers.
With some research I discovered images online with identical contamination present in the buds. Micro grit contaminates consisting of silicon dioxide or silica micro particles. These particles act much in the same way that sand does in absorbing water. Growers would spray this contaminate on their still wet buds, the buds would then suck in the particles in throughout itself and weighing down the product. This silica contaminate can be compared to fiber glass and can be very harmful if smoked. This grower corrupted this medicine to make money! I was disgusted.
After preforming more tests, such as rubbing the trichomes against a CD to look for scratch marks, I knew for sure that this was silica micro contaminates. I got ahold of the patient that had given me the buds and other members of the medical marijuana community to warn them. Many were skeptical, claiming they knew their dealers very well, but after they brought in their cannabis for inspection and saw for themselves, they accepted this unfortunate truth. To describe some signature qualities of this bud I found it to always be unusually dry and very mind smelling while looking very crystally due to the silica particles.
These patients had a variety of different dealers. I felt inclined to contact all of them to inform them that the product they were selling had been contaminated. To my surprise, I was met with immediate understanding by one who had suspected something was odd with the cannabis and he agreed to stop selling it, in return I suggested an extraction method that would allow the cannabinoids present in the buds to be put to good use. Other dealers however were much more hostile. I explained how they too could test their marijuana and I even offered to examine their product, none took up this offer however.
Weeks later I got a call from one of the hostile dealers. He tells me that he got a lung infection and only then did he realize there might be some truth to what I was saying. After conducting his own research he had come to the same conclusion I had. He agreed to meet me to further discuss the issue.
I was very apprehensive the entire way to the meeting, I had never met the guy and I didn't know what to expect. When I arrived at his place, I noticed many guns and equipment for hashish making. I ask about how he makes his hashish and extracts. He explained his procedures which I must say are very dangerous and flawed. He tells me he once had a kitchen set ablaze while making butane honey oil in his oven. NEVER HEAT VOLATILE FLAMMABLE SOLVENTS IN AN OVEN ESPECIALLY WITHOUT VENTILATION!
He tells me he confronted his source which grew the cannabis who eventually owned up to having sprayed micro contaminates to increase his profits. I was told he recently departed to Laos and the dealer I was talking to got out of the business after being tipped off that the DEA had a large file investigating him and his partners.
This problem was not unique to my area, other parts of the United States have reported similar contaminations in some areas. The United Kingdom had a big problem with this starting about 5 years ago and many articles have been written about it in England. This is why we must legalize marijuana, at the very least for medicinal use. It's a crime to deny these patients with terminal illnesses their medicine and force them to pursue a black market alternative for their medical needs.
No comments:
Post a Comment