UKCIA has been warning about contaminated cannabis for over a year now. Back in December 2006 we were a alerted to the “Grit weed” problem – herbal cannabis containing microscopic glass beads. Things, it seems, have just taken a turn for the worse – much worse.
The April 10th issue of the New England Journal of Medicine has reported that herbal cannabis in Europe has been found to be contaminated with lead shot which has produced casualties. Read the report here
The report states “Recently, during a period of 3 to 4 months, 29 patients (16 to 33 years of age) were admitted to four different hospitals in the greater Leipzig area (population, approximately 650,000) with classic signs and symptoms of lead intoxication. Twenty of these patients were admitted to our hospital (University Hospital Leipzig), 16 on an emergency basis (Table 1). The patients presented with abdominal cramps, nausea, anemia of varying severity, and fatigue. Most patients had basophilic stippling and a “Burton’s line,” and some had neurologic symptoms. In other hospitals, one patient had severe encephalopathy with hallucinations and peripheral neuropathy with permanent extensor palsy in the forearm, and another patient underwent exploratory laparoscopy.
The cause was traced to contaminated cannabis which these people had smoked. Lead is being added because it not only increases weight, but is all but invisible by virtue of its colour.
“The current working hypothesis of the police is that because of its high specific gravity and inconspicuous grayish color, lead was used to increase the weight of street marijuana sold by the gram and thereby to maximize profits among dealers. In the material that was obtained, the lead content on average was 10% by weight, which translates into a profit increase of approximately €1,000 ($1,500.00) per kilogram of marijuana. Lead particles smoked in a joint, which can have a core temperature of 1200°C,2 are very effectively absorbed in the respiratory tract. The medical community, including pediatricians,3 should consider adulterated marijuana as a potential source of lead intoxication.”
There is every reason to assume cannabis in this country will also be contaminated in this way. As we discovered a year ago, the glass bead scam was observed all over Europe, it was happening on a massive scale. Such is the nature of the illegal cannabis trade.
Indeed, the UKCIA forum is awash with reports of suspect cannabis, so we have every reason treat this situation as urgent.
As we have said many times, illegal cannabis is not a controlled drug, because of its illegality it is a totally unregulated product. Just as with moonshine during American alcohol prohibition the illegal trade is producing a product of great uncertainty and which is capable of doing far more harm to the users than the pure drug ever could.
We will, of course, attempt to draw the British government’s attention to this situation, but in all honesty they probably already know. The fact they are not issuing a warning is disturbing to put it mildly, but of course to do so would draw attention to the dangers the policy of prohibition causes, just at the time when the politicians want to sound tough by tinkering with the classification of cannabis. Returning cannabis to class B is, of course, not going to help solve this problem.
UKCIA advice is to be very careful if you buy or sell cannabis which you cannot be sure was grown by someone you can trust. As of now we know of no way to test for this contamination and there is certainly no way to clean the sample.
Thanks to the Transform blog for alerting UKCIA to this situation.
oh my god, lead you say this just goes to show cannabis cannot be smoked now. i have recently given up after 5 long stoned years.
its not hard people just give it up at least until this contamination is over.
if u cant grow your own just leave it alone!! its worth it dont kill yourself.
i have done it now u can to, just quit buying weed this problem may never go away. if we dont we could all suffer on a mass scale
if u need help quiting ask me and ill try to help as much as i can. if u cant quit or dont want to then im sorry u have to grow your own or suffer the consequences of this reality
All part of Tony BLiar, George Bush, and the UN’s plan to get rid of the non-conformists one way or another! No one that should care IS going to, so users are going to have to deal with the situation themselves – politicians are letting the untrammeled free market control the drug trade (they make more money that way), so what would the free market allow people to do to deal with this?
Don’t buy from strangers and tell the Americans that dealers who do this are drug terrorists. Or just extraordinary rendition them yourself.
Ive had some stuff recently that had been sprayed with some sort of adhesive, it was unnaturally sticky and did my lungs some damage. Not good.
the government should do more but lets get real if its not legalised then they wont lift a finger. until it is then how can u ever trust a source ever? i have contaminated sources which are virtually undectable. i have to stop smoking or i risk major risks which to be honest is not worth it. as ganja gav would say PLANT A SEED SAVE A NATION!! or continue to suffer with contaminents!!!! end of the matter
That this problem exists is entirely down to the government’s policy for sure, they are aware of it and consider it a part of the price to pay.
Because cannabis is illegal and the law says people shouldn’t use cannabis, the government allows itself to deliberately harm a section of the population.
Prohibition as a policy is unique amongst policies because it uses as a measure of success higher levels of danger and harm. Polluted, unreliable supplies are actually used as a measure of “success”.
Dyme1, you are right to advise people to lay off if they can’t be sure of their supply. Can’t see it happening when the “no use” message is so entwined with prohibition though.
has any one seen salt weed
taste the weed to see
when it burns the ask is solid
and its hard to smoke
vrey odd
any ideas
fckin cops r contaminatin our weed
wen tey bust ppl 4 delin tey cntamnatin it cannabis n puttin it back on the streets
by 2010 it has bin estamatd that 70% of pll smokin weed wil becum seriously ill or basicaly fuckd (lungs)
so yea dnt smoke n e sand blast 2 cheack if clean gt thc (crystals) on finger n rub on teeth n try 2 chew if gritty dnt smoke
its all the foreigners coming over and setting up and adding weight n e way they can 2 make big bucks chek ur product when u buy u can tell easily whether its been sprayed an if it has dont touch it and they’ll soon stop doin it or lose alot of money
Hey guys – try to spell eh?
For the record there is no evidence at all that “foreigners coming over” are responsible for this contamination problem, nor, for that matter the idea that it’s being done by the police!
Sadly we can grow our own criminals and ruthless people in this country who just want a quick buck.
Of course, country boundaries are no restriction on organised crime.
we need to form a “cannabis union”
if you get contaminated weed take it to the police
or a scientist to do tests.
It would be good if we could have some kind of testing facility, but at present it’s simply illegal and we can’t do it.
It’s needed urgently in fact.
The whole strategy against cannabis users as a minority is divide and rule. The only way to beat the dodegy dealers/producers or the ignorant politicians is to dictate to them with our mass. If enough people take it on themselves to put good product out there the market will change. In Holland it worked because people worked together on this – we need to organise more and for some of us maybe smoke a little less.
Don’t buy crap – if you have been ripped off don’t confront the guy but make sure all your mates know about it. Maybe we could inform to the police (anonymously) on people selling crap and let them deal with it – that way everyone is happy and selling contaminated products will seem less appealing.
Lastly buy a vaporiser ! – it makes the good stuff go alot further and is much healthier for you.
My parner and I went from using 35 grammes per week in pure joints (no tobacco) to less than 10 grammes a week in the vaporizer. That reduces the market by a factor of three and makes it easier to be selective about what you buy!
Im pretty sure id notice little black bits in my weed before i smoked it, maybe its just me but that looks vry obvious. Its unfortunate that cannabis is being sold contaminated but it is fairly easy to spot if you actually look at your weed.
Also, phrtao is right constantly look for new dealers until you find one you can trust or if you can grow your own, its a much more satisfying stone since its grown by your own hands.
I’ll smoke anything. Bring it on!
>>
I’ll smoke anything. Bring it on!
>>
Sadly so will an awful lot of people and because people like you do smoke any old rubbish there are other people willing to provide it for you.
Silly person.
Its a shame Gordon Brown is such an asshole.
I think I’m gonna quit….My mothers dying of a non smoking related lung disease , and I dont want to do the same, just so that some fucktard can make a quick buck.
One day I might grow my own….Thats what we should be doing .
I THINK ITS UNBELIEVABLY PATHETIC HOW LITTLE THE GOVERNMENT HELPS AND ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY…. ALSO COVERAGE ON THE WHOLE CONTAMINATION SEEMS MINIMAL EVEN THOUGH THE ISSUE EFFECTS SUCH A LARGE AMOUNT OF THE POPULATION.
I STARTED SMOKING AT 11…. SOAP BAR WAS SMOKED BY EVERYONE AND WE DIDNT KNOW IT WAS BAD. ME AND HALF MY GENERATION GREW UP SMOKING COPIOUS AMOUNTS OF THAT TOXIC SHIT. …….. THEN TEN YEARS LATER THE SAME GENERATION IS EXPOSED TO THIS GRIT WEED. AND HEARING THE SCARE STORIES OF WHAT SILICA CAN DO TO YOU AND HOW SICK MYSELF AND MANY PEOPLE GOT FROM SMOKING THAT STUFF IT DOES MAKE YOU THINK A LOT OF PEOPLE ARE GOING TO GET ILL.
MAFIAS MAKE AN EXTRA BUCK AT OUR EXPENSE BECAUSE THE GOVERNMENT EFFECTIVELY LETS THEM. IN MORE WAYS THAN ONE. . .
i got sum nice lookin stuff until i rolled one up and it smelt like saw dust.after a closer look it seems my stuff was coverd in pencil shavings!! to all my smokers out there be careful.
Its a sad thing that people and the government are willing to put lives at risk in order to make a little bit more profit. I think this has reached a point now where steps are urgently needed before a few major health problems will ruin it for everyone and move us even further from seeing weed legalised.
It seems very unfair to be punished by the government for a situation they have created themselves, by forcing growers to go to extremes and inducing fear of tougher policing people are being supplied with a sub-standard product which then causes the government to crack down. This cycle is degrading weed and turning something we all love into a potential poison…
All a bit sad really.
Someone mentioned weed terrorism…. well i second that.
I was brought down to a shivering wreck off some glass weed 2 years a go, totally bed ridden and delirious. Saw the doc and he said i had a problem with my left lung and obviously had a major chest infection.
The thing that genuinely upsets me; 14-17 yr olds are buying this day after day, and not in 8’s, in 10 bags and guess what, its not even a full 10’s. These kids have started out their cannabis lifestyle at the worst time, they’ve never seen a bag of top erb, and they have never seen a full deal.
I’ve given advice to all the tokers i know, and this has paid off as a few people have actually come to me with their purchase and asked my opinion, on all occasions the bags gone down the drain in an instant, and the dealer is never used again.
We all know the government isnt gonna help – so lets help each other out, tell everyone you know about any bad baggies you come across and we’ll get rid of these bastards eventually ; )
bottom line, grow it
i have smoked herb for 8 years now and im a huge enthuthiast, although for some strange reason i have only heard of this epidemic in the past couple of days.
i got a good ammount of herb at the turn of 2008 which was slightly damp but still had weight, i didnt think anything off it… get this though, when you smoke it it joints the ash is ROCK solid, you have to snap the ash to get it to fall basically and the j constantly goes out. the wierd thing is i starte smoking this in bongs because it was easier to smoke, the ash again turns solid but if you leave it for 30min+ it then gets damp. YES the ash gets damp and if yourub it in your hands its like boot polish…. Also i sat it on a radiator for 2 days in feb when my heating was on full blast and it dried out more, but when i took it off a day later is was damp again…very strange… unfortunatley i smoked quite a bit of this for about a peroid of 2 months, i hope the fact i dont smoke alot of js and mainly through a bong might of helped my body… but im still very worried.
i recently got some amazing looking stuff, the driest i have ever seen up here for a long time, alot of chromes and pollen etc.. coating the leaves, looks amazing smells amazing, smokes really well. but i found a lump that is almost like plastic, solid, but you can crack peices of with your hand, its mixed in with smush. One side is totally dusted in some bright white stuff although this white stuff is not visible on any buds. i also noticed that the stems, where they have been cut have some of this plastic like stuff, although its a very thing layer. You can knock it off just by touching it.
their is an odd glint of light reflecting in the bud amongst the chromes and what not, im suspicous this may be something untoward although it could be just be good herb.
i am defintly not smoking anymore of the first dry stuff, i just hope i havent damaged too much of myself. But the second very dry stuff, im trying to stop but as i have a bit left, its hard it just looks soooooo tasty.
After this i am stopping smoking street level herb and only on sources i am 100% about, i mean i eat all organic food because im worried about genetically modified ingredients, i drink filtered/distilled water to avoid all the chemicals the government adds to our water (industrial sodium fluoride, chlorine etc..) and then i find out ive been un-suspectingly smoking this stuff for god knows how long, im not happy.
i blame myself for being so blind, cognitive dissidence got the better of me i never imagined anyone whould put anything on the herb, i heard of people doing things to increase weight etc… but nothing like this, i just thout they would of made soap bar out of it and made more money by melting down tires and tubs of coffee.
well, ive totally cut down im just stuggling not to touch the dry type of herb i still have, it looks gorgerous as i said before but im just freaked out and paranoid now about this ‘grit-weed’. Its a shame because to me, it feels almost like an end of a chapter of my life.
i have never wanted to move out of the UK more than i do now, not only because of this, this is just like the cherry on top. The whole country is going down the pan. I mean our government approved creating cross-species chimeras last month, i mean WTF? Granted they have been doing this for over 10 years according to reports they are now being open about it, and the media doesnt even tell you about the dangers of splicing animal/plant/human genes together in unlimited combinations they just make you think its the scientists who know better against the religious zealots who dont agree on moral grounds, they dont tell you their is a whole scientific community with peer reviewd research that shows that creating these mutants can harm us in many ways including providing a spring board for animal diseases to jump over to the human species, but dont worry the government has ‘regulations’ to keep us all safe, just like the regulations that leak out foot & mouth every so often from government labs (BBC, mainstream news).
im a very cynical person, i feel that all this is related. If you research people like Betrand Russell, THomas Malthus and such elitist scum then youll learn that the ruling elite, the rich bankers that own the money (no i dont mean the guy from the halifax advert…google rothchilds if you want a starting point) want to dumb you down and keep you subjicated as much as possible.
a good document people might want to read is this: The Protocols Of The Learned Elders Of Zion
now this is written as if its by the jewish elite, although this is to discredit it. The ruling elite know how to push our buttons and how to plan ahead just read it and remember that they want you to think that this was written by the jewish elite but is actually by the plain old ruling elite which from my research consists of peolple from all religions, even ones youve probably never heard of. Anyway, it makes everything that happens in this society make so much sense.
anyway, sorry for this looong post. I needed to vent, im just sick fed up of contaminants in everything from out food, water, air (chemtrails… dont call me crazy just google ‘passive & non passive aerosol programe’ and read about what our governments are spraying on everything via massive aeroplane spraying proggrames usually carried out by university related institutions, even the uni of east anglia are in on it!!!)
silica and lead on the herb, man what a joke….
Don’t buy any more weed unless you’re buying it direct from a grower you can trust. I know I won’t be.
Have a look around on this wonderful new tool out there called the internet. There is a wealth of information regarding the growing of cannabis, and growing it in small, discreet spaces.
It can be grown in garden centre compost, under energy saving light bulbs which can be bought for as little as one pound, even if not on special offer. I am lucky in that I have a dealer I can trust, but if he ever stops his grows, I will be forced to grow my own. I will NOT buy from anyone else as the weights are bad, the strength is low, and it’s probably contaminated. I’ve had people try to sell me weed before with some oil in it, probably cooking oil, grit weed, and salt weed (very hard ash)
And now it’s lead.. whatever next?
As i say, grow your own. It’s a rewarding and immensely interesting experience, it’s a staggering amount cheaper, it gives you pure product, and if grown well, it is stronger.
It only goes to further the evidence that prohibition does more harm than good. This product would not exist if cannabis was de-criminalized and regulated.
Someone in power needs to stand up abe counted and say “no” to the harm that this kind of product is doing to the to the voting public. Almost 10% of the electoral role smoke cannabis. How can our leader put us in so much danger.
Pease pudding
Sorry to hear about people who have bought weed and now fear how much the contaminants have damaged them. But please remember many British users add their own dangerous contaminant to weed – Tobacco !! Deeply inhaling tobacco can cause breathing problems and can bring on paranoia and panic attacks plus the longer term effects of cancer. (tobacco from cigarettes is the worst – it is not intended to be used without that filter – so you inhale even more chemicals with this!!).
Smoke pure if you must smoke or better still cook it or Vaporise it if you must use cannabis at all.
HARM REDUCTION AT ALL TIMES
whenever there’s a batch of bad heroine or other class A drugs then the problems are reported in the media and people are warned to be careful of what they are using,how come no one in power seems interested in helping to stop this problem with the contaminated weed?,seems strange since if it does harm a users health it will eventually cost the goverment and nhs money in the future,i feel sorry for the people who have to endure smoking such crap,find a reiable source i say.
you sad cunts. i’ll still be smoking. dyme1 stop stealing my oxygen, please.
iv tasted grade that tastes like its chilli! all the hard ash is mix pack, some buds are blessed and some are hard ash, and at this moment in time, theres a drought in london and over most of the uk, so all the grade going round is covered so i would recommend nobody buys off anyone they dont trust, if someone has sold you good stuff before and you trust them, stick to the one person, smoke easy people, (JUST GO TO AMSTERDAM ONCE A MONTH)
there is no evidence to suggest its the “dodgy foreigners” to blame except the fact that they hav that shit goin off in their own country and they come here and find that this country has a cannabis market and they know how to fuck it up and not only that but this whole thing started around the same year that our country was awash with asylum seekers and foreigners and has gotten worse n worse since that time. stop being so politically correct cus that phase dont actually mean anything, whatabout free speach, i aint a racist but i aint stupid either.
just a thought: why dont someone set up a space on the net where disgruntled customers can name and shame people annonymously
name of dickead dealer:
area in which he or she opperates:
what contamination:
bam!
need it to b top ten on a google and people will hav knowledge!
every one is talking bout the sticky weed thats ash is like rock .i am nearly 100% certin its wallpaper paste .have a decorator taste and smoke it and im sure u will get the same answer.the salty shit is also paste just watered down a notch
PHRTAO got closest to it by mentioning tobacco. The habit of mixing with tobacco and smoking hot joints guarantees a loss of ability to taste the difference when there is something wrong with the herb.
Having been the the U.S. for 3 decades I can verify I have not once had a problem with bad riefer. When I was in Berlin in the 70’s there was opium in some of the hashish (dark, hard material in the ash which should be soft and white; didn’t taste good; didn’t burn easily). Maybe the Mexicans and Canadians are more trustworthy than Pakistanis and Moroccans?
Please get busy educating everyone about the vapouriser and the single-toke utensil (so small you can put in one toke at a time, not mixed with tobacco).
we wont ever get rid of this fucked weed,people actualy love it! not the people on here like u and me but i have seen people offered clean or dirty they go for dirty cos they think it looks better, when given clean they complain.when people get this dirtyness they seem to tell their mates who ask for that “amazing bud my mate got”.it does smell good but u dont have to look close to relise its shit.
when i have seen this i couldnt say anything coz people would get annoyed. too many mugs it not gonna end ever!!!
WHAT THE FUCK!
I just became aware of this contamination in bud being widespread while on youtube yesterday.Why the fuck has this not been all over the news.I haven’t heard nothing about it but now I’ve done a bit of research I see there has been reports of contaminated weed as far back as 2006.
It is fucking criminal this has not been publisized better.
I instantly remembered when my friend was working down in London (2007) and he came back up to Scotland for the weekend,he was round at my house and sold me a quarter of bud.This bud looked good,ALOT of crystals, smelt alright although slightly damp.
Anyway when smoking it had a weird taste,went out after 1 draw all the time,gave you a sore throat and the ash was rock hard.I didn’t buy any more of him as I new it had been sprayed with something dodgy at the time.
Im worried that i’ve been smoking other contaminated bud which is harder to detect.
I keep my options open and have a few dealers I see,now I am just gonna see the one I no grows his own and doesn’t fuck with it.The weed is only there for about 2 weeks every 3 months so I will need to buy enough to do me the 3 months or go with out at some point.
And I am not going back to smoking that camel shit (soapbar,solid) either if theres no bud! Fuck that
i agree with al about publicity, for a while now i have been pissed with franks patronising “get a new spew stopper brain” how many smokers puke(sounds more like an anti alcohol ad), if i did it wouldnt be the bud!it is uninforming propaganda paid for with goverment(our)money.
surely an add showing the varios tpse of harmfull, if not potentialy deadly cannabis that have been flooding in (non stop)would be beneficial to smokers and put off people like the goverment wants.
a better use of our money.
maybe they want us gone quicker?
they issued warnings to hospitals and doctors,if the peaple knew they wouldnt end up in hospital.
maybe the goverment are ashamed of a situation caused purely by themselves and dont wish to publicise it… ie a measure of goverment and police sucsesss they use in the crack down on drugs is how much cannabis is contaminated and by how much, if it rises the authorities are doing well and a couple of milloin uk people start endangering themselves,succses, ha.. a twisted world and all this is for our benefit paid for with our money.
i worry cos i like weed smokers they are good peaple and dont deserve the new fashionable witch hunt.
a modern day “reefer madness”
i really beleive this stuff will kill good people!!!! look up sillicosis what u smoke now could kill 5,10,15 later like asbestos. u will know this as your here but the poor fuckers who dont know, dont have a choice.
grow your own or worry a lot!
the goverment are trying to ban seeds and lights, it has just happened in south australia.
if this happens contamination will get out of control,
make the most of now
grow or worry a lot!
Hi Ive regularly smoked herbal cannabis for just on17years, and i feel deeply concerned about this gritweed which is in circulation
Ive noticed that this gritweed has been prevalent for round about 2 years, I am extremely critical about the negligence thats been displayed by both the government and the local police forces. My wish is that the serious nature of this problem is granted more exposure,as their are many smokers who are completely unaware of this contaminant.
The market has been flooded with this gritweed, and i would urge anyone who has been sold this to immediately discard it. I feel strongly that the government and the police forces should be more vigilant and pro-active in tackling this problem by permitting at least one, licensed and taxable retail outlet in major cities with stringent restrictions regarding purchase and usage. (These policies have been in operation in Amsterdam and Hamburg for many years).
The reason this gritweed epidemic has flourished is mainly due to many Uk cannabis farms being raided, and as result of these raids we now have a serious problem.If this problem is not immediately addressed, then we will have a generation of teens with serious respiratory illness. The resin which is sold on the streets in the Uk, has been contaminated for around 15 years and the authorities have continually turned a blind eye to the quality of the product, thereby people who have recieved a police caution over the last 15 years for possesion of cannabis resin, will have a unlawful indictment which is completely unjustified.(as its not even cannabis)
The contaminants for herbal cannabis range from sand to silica with people mentioning sugar as well, the contaminants for cannabis resin have long been known, these range from boot polish to slivers of plastic.
So once again i would like to re-iterate my concern for the alleged purity of cannabis that is sold on the streets , and feel the government and local police forces, as a direct result of their crackdown on cannabis cultivation should have a moral obligation to ensure that, even if they refuse to endorse a licensed cannabis outlet to operate lawfully, at least take a firmer stance on contaminated cannabis which is being peddled on the streets.
Need more research: does lead (or do other toxins) require a temperature, such as 600 F. or 800 F. to vapourise off in the ‘smoke’, in which case, if you get rid of the 1000 F. hot-burning cigaret papers, stop “rolling joints”, and substitute a vapouriser set at 385 F., some adulterated herb could turn out to be safe to use?
I just got skanked. A mate who has grown had some (good shit) and had some told me. I rubbed it between my fingers and a felt to hard and the paper it was on felt sandy/gritty. It looked and smelt good. The man said he’d take it back and said had no complaints.
UK gov should take there heads out of the sand
Youz Brits got some F’ed up sh*t goin on there. Lead in the budz is crazy, WTF? Yall need to come to Caifornia, we gots the prime mover, no bunk. And yeah, I know our terrorist government is more screwed up than yours, but whatcha gonna do?
I’m glad there are growing numbers of people becoming aware of what is going on. Way back in 2000 I got kicked off a talk-radio phone-in one night because I asked LIVE on air WHY the govmnt allow this to not only happen, but to persist. The most common inclusion in ALL bars I’ve EVER looked in, is, PLASTIC! The wrapper(s) that seperate the good stuff before it gets chucked into an industrial food mincer ARE LEFT IN !! (The gangsters that make it are too lazy to remove it, (and it increases weight)). These get churned/ripped up and distributed throughout the mix. This is before the ‘cattlefeed’ is added and the ‘plasticiser’ that is the ‘binding agent’ to hold the resultant ‘stuff’ together. It is ONLY made to ORDER for BRITISH gangsters and no-one in europe entertains the stuff!!!
Soapbar = Asaprob
asa BIG prob !
If the government want people to stop why do they keep banging on about ‘Skunk…the new form of Cannabis’, which anyone can research and subsequently find the argument to be pretty much fabrication. Why not tell the truth, its much scarier than any reefer madness tales….I suppose the problem for the Government is that lying becomes addictive; someone should ban lying, but thats too hard to enforce isn’t it.
it’s about time there was a SERIOUS study into cannabis. Not a biased one. Simply can’t understand why cannabis is forbidden and alcohol is not while the latter is far more dangerous to consumer and his surrounding.
the solution to this problem is not to all just quit smoking, you just have to be able to turn it down when you see it’s contaminated. lets be honest, most of us have bought contam knowing it was contam just because we couldn’t find anything else, it’s easily distinguishable from natural cannabis flowers. in that situation we need to just turn it down and wait for some good stuff to come back, or indeed, just grow it yourself if you are able to 🙂
oh, and that weed that leaves the hard black, oily ash is contaminated with silicone. the stuff that wont dry out and has hard ash is sprayed with some sort of etchant spray for frosting windows apparently, which contains silicone also. i had some once, smoked about 1.5 grams with my mate and we both had a bad chest, soar throat, the whole lot the next day, but once you’ve seen it you will easily recognise it again, it looks and feels slightly waxy. total shite. i have a couple reliable dealers now though, they wont touch the contam stuff 🙂