DM - Mental health toll of skunk cannabis: Number of users admitted to hospital ....

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edgarshade

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Mental health toll of skunk cannabis: Number of users admitted to hospital after smoking drug soars 50% in three years
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By Jack Doyle
PUBLISHED: 00:49, 13 June 2013

With reader comments

  • Campaigners warned young people are damaging their mental health
  • Skunk on Britain’s streets is around five times as potent as traditional weed

Growing numbers of cannabis users are needing hospital treatment for ‘mental disorders’ after smoking super-strength skunk, drugs campaigners warned last night. In just three years, the number admitted for treatment has increased by 50 per cent - as the chemically enhanced danger drug has flooded the streets. Last night drugs campaigners warned young people were severely damaging their mental health, and blamed permissive policing, including the use of cautions and spot fines.

Mary Brett, a trustee of Cannabis Skunk Sense said: ‘This worrying trend was entirely predictable, as a growing proportion of the cannabis on sale in Britain is now extremely potent skunk. ‘This rising potency would seem to coincide with the numbers going into hospital, as more children are using this dangerous drug. ‘We need an end to the authorities turning a blind eye to cannabis as if it is a harmless substance, as these figures show it clearly is not.’

Skunk sold on Britain’s streets is mostly grown in this country and is around five times as potent as traditional weed. Recent years have seen its prevalence surge compared to imported cannabis resin. Figures released by the Department of Health show hospital admissions linked to cannabis use have increased by half in three years.
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More: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/a...ted-hospital-smoking-drug-soars-50-years.html
 
Same old bullshit, when will they get over this nonsense. They just love trying to frame it as something SO different to what the older generations smoked so they don't feel like hypocrites for hating on it, total bullshit. I find it particualrly funny that in the second half of the article where they are talking about the increased likelihood of mental problems associated with cannabis they only refer to people under 18. Ofcourse minors shouldn't be smoking cannabis, but personally I believe legalisation would make it harder for them to get access, as it is selling weed is selling weed and it is a crime, but if it were legal but harsh penalties applied to those who supplied minors then there would be no incentive to do so.

Personally I think that more young people taking the drug is a lot more likely to be responsible for the increased hospitalisations than an increase in potency of the drug. Also, I have to wonder how many of those hospitalisations were inexperienced people who had a panic attack and didn't really need hospital at all...
 
"Skunk" in addition to being an actual strain of weed, used to be a general term people used when referring to any high quality bud without seeds....I find it hard to believe that this idiot is talking about a specific strain of weed....There's so many of them, and in certain places there are strains that are more popular...In NYC, it's supposedly "Sour Diesel". I remember when I lived in California a few years back it was "White Rhino", but there's such a proliferation of high quality pot out there, how can you blame one particular strain?..Of course, "skunk" is a very old strain and might be the only one a lot of old people that have been out of the pot loop for years has ever heard of...Maybe that's why this guy is calling it all "skunk"?

And then he just throws in something about it being "chemically enhanced", which makes you think that "Skunk" might be referring to some kind of synthetic cannabinoid, but he never really goes onto explain exactly what the fuck he means by that, and judging by the rest of the article it seems like he's pretty much just trying to pull some vague story out of his ass in the whole "pot is 20x stronger than it used to be" vein of bullshit! What a shit writer!

Also, what cannabis samples are they testing that are coming back 45% THC?! As far as I know, some of the strongest buds there are can get up into the high %20s, but 45 fucking percent? Did I miss something here or is this as fucking ridiculous as it seems?
 
First off almost none of these people need to go to the hospital unless they are suicidal. Most of these people are just having panic attack. I think the main problems with skunk is that its often used in large quantities by young people. I think that a mentally stable 40 year old has very little to worry about.
 
BlueHues said:
Also, what cannabis samples are they testing that are coming back 45% THC?! As far as I know, some of the strongest buds there are can get up into the high %20s, but 45 fucking percent? Did I miss something here or is this as fucking ridiculous as it seems?
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What do the percentages mean? Does it mean that if I have 30% THC weed, then smoking 1 joint will deliver about 500 mg of THC? Because that's a huge dose!
 
23536 said:
What do the percentages mean? Does it mean that if I have 30% THC weed, then smoking 1 joint will deliver about 500 mg of THC? Because that's a huge dose!
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^Yeah, well, 30% would be 300mg per gram...so, it would take a damn near 2 gram joint, but it's possible!

If you go on a seed website...or google different strains of weed, you'll find different profiles for different strains which usually includes an average THC percentage, but even 17% THC packs a punch....THC isn't everything either...

The other difference is, you don't have to smoke joint after joint after joint like people did 30 years ago and the price really prevents a lot of people from doing that with the weed that's around now...Also, you adjust to whatever's around
 
^It still sounds really excessive. I took a 10 mg Marinol once and it gave me a nice high. About the same as smoking two bowls of regular weed.

What I'm saying is I don't believe typical doses are in the hundreds of milligrams, and so I'm not sure what the percentages refer to.
 
^A lot of those higher strains don't really lend themselves to smoking excessive amounts of it....A lot of them are very harsh because of the amount of tar in the buds....I've had a few of the supposedly really high THC strains and I believe that they do really have that much in them...."AK-47" is one of those notorious strains....really harsh to smoke and 2-3 hits and you were done for hours! I'm sure vaping them would be better, but I've never been much into that...

anyway, there's no way that the majority of the weed floating around on the streets anywhere in the world is %20+ weed, and I'm pretty sure 45% weed doesn't even exist! I bet a lot of it out there these days is in the 8-15% range, which is still a lot stronger than most of the old regs used to be...

In any case, this journalist is completely full of bullshit and needs to go chase down a real story!
 
Ho-Chi-Minh said:
Ugh the authors claims don't seem that extraordinary.
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You don't think claiming skunk weed is 5 times more potent than "traditional weed" is extraordinary? I mean it isn't surprising since they have been spouting that one (or at least 3-4 times more potent anyway) for years. Doesn't mean it isn't a completely bullshit claim. Not to mention it is ridiculous to frame increased cannabis potency as a negative thing because it simply means one has to inhale less smoke for the same effect.

They also claim to have seized samples of cannabis that was 45 percent THC, I am not saying that is a lie in fact I am certain they would of seized some BHO or some other home made concentrate that was of this potency. It is still incredibly misleading to put that in the article and not clarify that this would be an absolute minority of the overall cannabis seized. The article also lists average potency as 16%, so really 45% THC is not even triple the average, and when you consider that cannabis concentrates are NOT skunk then it becomes even more misleading...

I agree that the rest of the claims aren't really extraordinary, but that doesn't mean they aren't being put forward in a misleading way to make an argument that the facts don't support.
 
If someone went to the trouble of soaking buds in hash oil, 45% THC is quite easily achievable (assume 60-80% THC for fresh BHO, soak 1gm of bud in 1gm of oil. It'll be a nasty tarry mess... but 45% THC.)
Naturally, though, I think the highest %cannabinoids I've seen is in the low 30's - and that's like super medical weed. Not exactly your export crop.
 
I don't touch the stuff anymore because of the problems it gave me but even I think this article is stupid.

If you want to talk about the negatives of weed at least do it properly rather than propaganda like this which just makes people smoke it more.
 
"as more children are using this dangerous drug."

OMG why won't you pot heads think of the children!!?

anyway, what the "drug x user ended up being diagnosed with a mental illness, so it must cause mental illnesses" argument misses out is that people with mental illnesses are highly likely to turn to drug use. someone should publish a similar story about how people treated with antidepressants are often diagnosed with a severe mental disorder and that we should therefore ban antidepressants to show how backwards the logic is.
 
really eye opening stuff here, its about time somebody exposed the true dangers of cannabis abuse. i used to think it was safe but not anymore
 
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