Smoking Grit Weed : Alleged Health Implications

Cannabis users on the UKCIA website and other such dedicated forums who claim to have tried the contaminated weed report of mouth ulcers, sore throats as well as chesty coughs.

According to the Belfast Telegraph on-line newspaper, the organisation Crosscare has had around 20 calls from concerned cannabis users and is warning that the adulterated cannabis can cause severe chest infections and discomfort.

The most serious alleged health implications seem associated with the industrial etchant type contaminants which appear to contain silicate abrasives.  The concern is that these silica particles can infiltrate the lungs causing siliconosis, a terminal lung condition.  Silica in crystalline form is toxic to the lining of the lungs. When the two come into contact, a strong inflammatory reaction occurs.  Over time this inflammation causes the lung tissue to become irreversibly thickened and scarred - a condition known as fibrosis.

In the most common form of the disease, chronic silicosis, these symptoms develop over many years of exposure, as the lung tissue becomes irreversibly damaged by fibrosis and is replaced with solid nodules of scar tissue.  In the rarer form, acute silicosis, the symptoms develop quickly after only a short period of exposure to high levels of silica dust. Sufferers of this acute form usually die within a year.