How natural are Irish highs?
Mar 7th, 2008 | By Editorial Team | Category: FeaturesOur intrepid reporter Debbie Tierney examines what exactly goes into the most popular form of relaxation in Ireland.
Car tyres, animal excrement, beeswax, turpentine, milk powder, ketamine
(horse tranquiliser), boot polish, henna, pine resin, aspirin, ground
coffee, barbiturates, glues and dyes. These are just some of the contaminants thought to be found within the
low grade cannabis, commonly referred to as ’soap bar’ hash.
Risks faced by young people using huge amounts of poor-quality cannabis to get high are being
overlooked, because of focus being placed on links between full strength cannabis and users suffering
mental health problems, according to a Scottish drugs forum.
While analysis is being carried out regularly on the harmful effects of
smoking full strength cannabis, hardly any has been conducted on the
effects of contaminated soap bar, the most popular type of cannabis
smoked in Ireland and the UK over the last two decades.
A recent research study by the Edinburgh University Cannabis Resin
Impurity Study Project (Crisp) discovered soap bar to be between 80 and
90 percent impure. Because most batches of the drug only containing up to 10 percent
cannabis resin the remaining 90 percent could be made up of any number
of lethal mixtures.
Anti-prohibition cannabis activist, Sean Scott feels there should be
more research conducted into soap bar, “Recent press articles have
highlighted herbal cannabis how strong it is and how it is causing
severe mental health problems amongst young people.”
“Yet herbal cannabis is not a drug commonly used by most ordinary young
people — they are opting for soapbar because they can’t afford the
higher quality and more expensive herbal cannabis, which costs between
Thank goodness that someone in the media is addressing this huge
problem, with all it’s possible severe health implications in a cool,
rational manner.
Well done!
So this is your government trying to protect you…deisel has to be
worse for people than canna! Why not allow low potency/unpoisoned
herbal canna to be sold to adults at a low (but still taxed) price?
This would cause the bottom to fall out of the market for other more
harmful versions.
Canna will be smoked by all who want it regardless, prohibitionists are only fooling themselves…
Thank goodness that someone in the media is addressing this huge
problem, with all it’s possible severe health implications in a cool,
rational manner.
Well done!
Great article! A very important issue that many people don’t think enough about.
Between 120/160 per Oz? Its far more than that. In fact, two-three
times that at deal price. Which is also quite ridiculous. A stupid
ammount of money to be spending on just a plant- not a plant, a weed
that coulod grow almost anywhere.