UK - Skunk: “Kids think the strong stuff is the best stuff”

[cannabis-sam]

Skunk: “Kids think the strong stuff is the best stuff”

As the row over smoking skunk by British teenagers grows, we trace the history of super-potent cannabis and its effects

There was a furore last week when the novelist Julie Myerson wrote about evicting her teenage son for his “skunk addiction”. She justified it by saying that Britain needed to wake up to the “emergency out there called skunk”.

Myerson's outburst may have seemed slightly hysterical to anyone whose rite of passage included smoking a joint at some hazy point in the past, yet everything about skunk is more powerful than what came before. Its strength and its pervasiveness were cited by the Government as its reasons for raising cannabis back to a Class B drug in January.

Skunk has created a new domestic drugs industry, making millions for illegal farmers - mainly Vietnamese immigrants - on Britain's industrial estates, and it has done so in an astonishingly short time. Police seizures show that it accounted for barely 10 per cent of the cannabis sold here in the late 1990s; last year it was 80 per cent.

What struck me, talking to teenagers in the course of writing this piece, was the sheer rapidity of this transformation. I'm in my thirties, yet what young people now regard as “normal” cannabis was unheard of in this country a decade ago. “Skunk is horribly strong - you can practically feel your brain cells knocking off,” says Ben, a 19-year-old student. “But it wasn't that we asked for it. Growing up in rural Herefordshire, it was all we could get.”

Say the word “skunk” to teenagers and they may nod their heads, while politicians will shake their heads. Only a few brave ones will then whisper: “What exactly is skunk?” One public health study tried to ask teenagers about their skunk use but concluded that “it was unclear what people surveyed understood the term skunk to mean ... it is a confusing picture”.

To see that picture clearly through the fug, it is necessary to rewind the clock several decades.

In the 1970s there was a moral panic in America over teenagers smoking pot. At the time, the majority was imported Mexican Cannabis sativa plants, so, during the summer of 1975, blue-and-white American helicopters buzzed low over the Mexican marijuana fields, destroying the crops with toxic salt. At the time, President Ford thought that he had found a clever way to stop American teenagers from smoking “wacky baccy”. Moral panic over.

Yet that giant weedkilling operation didn't have quite the effect that the President was hoping for.

When the US Government sprayed the Mexican marijuana fields, imports dropped almost overnight. This, coupled with ever-increasing border controls, meant that dealers had to look to home-grown plants. But there was a problem: Cannabis sativa cannot withstand frost and won't flower reliably north of the 30th parallel. Furthermore, the plants are tall and hence difficult to conceal from the police.

The breakthrough for pot-smokers came when enterprising hippies returned from their travels with seeds from the variety of cannabis native to Afghanistan and India, Cannabis indica. Previously, few people had cared for the taste of Cannabis indica, but it was hardy and small. When Cannabis sativa was crossed with Cannabis indica, the industrial-scale home-grown market was born. And so, too, was skunk.

Steven Hager, a Sixties counterculture survivor and former editor-in-chief of High Times, a New York-based magazine that strongly advocates legalising cannabis, says that the new hybrid cannabis was nicknamed skunk because of its unmistakably pungent smell: “The first seed company to breed indica into sativa was the Sacred Seed Company of northern California. Its most popular strain was called Skunk#1 - it is still one of the most circulated strains in the world.”

Since then, the production of hybrid cannabis has become a high-tech industry and, with estimated earnings of almost $50 billion (£36 billion) a year, easily America's biggest cash crop. This is what the British refer to as skunk. It has been the norm in America since the 1980s, although Americans refer to it by a variety of other names.

In the past, Britain's cannabis market was dominated by cannabis resin (“hash”) smuggled in mainly from the wild-growing cannabis sativa in Morocco. With the rising risk and cost of smuggling through ever-tighter border controls, though, by the late 1990s British criminals were copying the booming American industry: growing the “Cannabis sativa x indica” themselves.

Whatever worries people may have about skunk, air miles is not one of them - most of our cannabis is now grown here, mainly by Vietnamese gangs.

“Indoor cultivation has spread to the UK and other parts of Europe, which is why cannabis flowers are becoming more prevalent than hash in many places,” says Hager. “Indoor growing can be very profitable, since cannabis grows on trees and sells for the price of gold.”

In Britain this new type of cannabis - dry, mossy, green buds - was called skunk to distinguish it from the dark blocks of resin that came before. This is what the one in five 16 to 24-year-olds who smoke marijuana are almost certainly smoking.

Growers are now focused on increasing the strength of the “high”, which depends on the concentration of a chemical called tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). One way to do this is to select plants that are naturally more potent; another is to use lights to mimic the effect of autumn on the female plant. This causes it to produce more resin in a last-ditch attempt to pollinate itself before winter - and the resin is what makes it stronger.

David Crane, founder of the cannabis campaign organisation The Hempire, describes this trend as “largely demand-led”. He adds: “Inexperienced kids think that strong stuff is the best stuff. They want to prove themselves. There is no one they trust to say ‘no, the gentler stuff is nicer'. And it takes a certain type of confidence to say to a dealer ‘This isn't really working'.”

Boys, it seems, are particularly keen on trying to outdo each other by coping with greater strengths of the drug - as they might with alcohol or curry. “Boys like to boast about the strength of their skunk,” says 18-year-old Katie.

Duncan, 27, a part-time drug dealer for two years, also characterises skunk use as a male-dominated pastime. “It suddenly became more available in 1999 or 2000. It was what everyone wanted,” he says. “The side-effects weren't really seen as a downside back then.

“For a lot of people it's about the strength. It was older brothers and mates' older brothers who introduced us - it's that way for everyone. I was 13. Smoking it is definitely a boy thing, I don't really know why. It goes hand-in-hand with computer games and sitting around.

“Skunk is definitely a young thing, too. I deal to people of my own age and everyone now is specifically asking not for skunk. They are people with kids and jobs who just want to have a smoke. Once you're out of uni and have to hold down a job, you get sick of it - and you need to be able to get out of bed in the morning.”

Another incentive for dealers is cost. “An ounce of hash or weed sells for about £40,” says Barry, a 28-year-old dealer. “An ounce of good-quality home-grown skunk will fetch anything between £180 and £200.”

The strength has certainly increased, but not as much as some media reports have suggested. In an analysis of drugs seized in Britain last year, Home Office scientists found that the old-fashioned Moroccan resin had a mean THC concentration of 6 per cent, while skunk was 16 per cent - rather like drinking a large glass of wine rather than a small glass of sherry. Its potency, they said, was not increasing year on year.

Some, like Steven Hager, argue that the stronger cannabis is, the healthier it is “because it means you'll smoke less and have fewer health issues due to inhaling smoke”. Whether teenagers regulate their intake in that way is unclear.

Finally, the scientists also found that British skunk had, compared with resin, very low levels of a chemical called cannabidiol. This has sedative properties, and experts such as Professor Robin Murray, a consultant psychiatrist at the Institute of Psychiatry and leading researcher into the effects of cannabis on mental health, have suggested that it could even work as an antipsychotic.

“We know that there is an increased risk of psychosis in people who use the old-fashioned type of cannabis,” he says, “but no study has yet taken into account the change in cannabis composition. Our clinical impression is that our patients choose to use the stronger varieties, in the same way that a typical alcoholic is not drinking shandy but prefers vodka or whisky. The average psychotic cannabis user is more likely to use skunk.”

One preliminary study compared cannabis users with just THC in their hair samples - typical of skunk use - and those with both CBD and THC, which showed that they were smoking old-fashioned cannabis. Those with just THC were more likely to show psychotic symptoms. Another preliminary study showed that CBD seemed to have some effect when given as an antipsychotic, and could even block the effects of THC.

“Probably CBD is not harmful and may actually ameliorate the effects of THC,” says Professor Murray. “The problem is that the general population's interest in this goes far beyond any funded research.”

It is not yet entirely clear what effect high does of TCH without the restraining effect of CBD will have on a generation of British teenagers. If this is the last unknown, it is the most worrying one.

What would you do if you found your child was smoking skunk?

Dr Marta DiForti

MD MRCPsych, psychiatrist at the Institute of Psychiatry

“If I found out my child was smoking skunk instead of cannabis, I would worry in the same way that I would if I discovered they were drinking whisky instead of beer. We know about the risks of cannabis - the effect on cognitive performance, learning and memory, and liability to psychotic experiences and becoming very suspicious and paranoid. It is likely that skunk has the same effects, but worse. But cannabis is not a monster. Like cigarettes, it is issues of frequency, duration and potency. It's a matter of public education.”

Martin Barnes

chief executive, Drugscope

“Parents or carers should inform themselves about the drug and try to keep the lines of communication open. While it's important not to overstate fears about skunk, all forms of cannabis are harmful and pose risks to physical and mental health. Its harm to mental health has been widely reported, and sometimes exaggerated, in the media. But there has been less attention drawn to other more common problems that cannabis use may cause for young people, such as the lethargic feeling. While cannabis is a harmful drug, it is important to recognise, without being complacent, that most users do not come to any significant harm."

David Potter CBiol MIBiol

CMIOSH, botanist and cannabis expert

“Skunk is no way as damaging as many of the other drugs out there, such as cocaine and the hallucinogenics, but I would be concerned, especially about a young person smoking it. There is the health risk but also the effect that it has on lifestyle, the apathy it seems to induce. It takes away their motivation, which will be a concern for a child's education. The message I get is that it helps you to relax and feel chilled, but young people have also said that they sit on their own smoking it and play their Nintendos.”

Dr Paul Broks

MSc, DPhil, CPsychol,neuropsychologist

“I would err on the side of caution. There is still not enough known about skunk but the evidence suggests that it can trigger psychotic symptoms in susceptible individuals. Before skunk came on the scene lots of people were cavalier about cannabis, me included. Now there are signs that the active ingredient, THC, may be intrinsically harmful, raising suspicions about milder forms of the drug. I'd be concerned if my children were heavy skunk users.”

Dr Tim Williams

MB ChB, MRCPsych, clinical lecturer in addiction psychiatry, University of Bristol

“Don't panic. If you look at the areas we use to measure addiction, such as control over use, desire, tolerance and withdrawal, skunk is not addictive. There is also no hard evidence that it is a ‘gateway' drug - so it doesn't mean they will move on to harder drugs. It's a peculiarity of the UK that cannabis is smoked with tobacco. The risks associated with that are well documented. I would ask the young person lots of questions about it - what they are using, how, in what environments, and what they get out of it. Drug users can block out all the negatives of what they do, and you can use the conversation to get them to see them.”

March 16, 2009
Helen Rumbelow and Chloe Lambert
http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/l...cle5904049.ece

[Nature Boy]

Peh, Julie Myerson is a glorified hack at best. Whatever way she alienates her son due to whichever of her failings as a parent has nothing to do with this debate. That debate being the exhausting discussion about the magical potency of 'skunk' these days. How bloody amazing it is (yet it displays no higher THC level than cannabis oil which has been available for decades). I feel sorry for that kid. Whatever agenda she has, it certainly has nothing to do with wellbeing of her son. Ah well, maybe he'll write a bitter memoir in her honour some day.

[cannabis-sam]

from UKCIA

It’s not what you know, it’s who you know. That old Cliche has been shown to be so true this week as the Guardian newspaper - normally one of the more trustworthy of the bunch - demonstrated in style with it’s continued coverage of the Julie Myerson book “The Lost Child”.
Somewhat stung by the generally bad reception this book has received elsewhere in the media, the Guardian allowed itself to be used as a free publicity organ by not only Julie Myerson, but also her husband amongst others.
Unless you’ve been in some kind of skunked out haze this past week, you can’t have failed to miss the hype surrounding Myerson’s book, but if you have managed to for some reason, here’s a summary:
Middle class mother, a regular contributor to the Guardian, spends years writing about her child and the problems of “Living with a teenager”. Said child smokes the “deadly addictive killer skunk” form of cannabis, parents throw him out then mother writes a book about it all, identifying the kid who’s now aged 20 and articulate enough to answer back in - of all places - the Daily Mail. Honestly, you couldn’t make this up.
The old cliche was demonstrated in all it’s ugliness on Tuesday when Jonathon Myerson - the husband of Julie and Father of Jake the kid (following it ok?) was granted the best bit of a page worth of the Guardian “Comment and features” section to write what can only be described as a load of opinionated rubbish in defence of his wife’s new book. Now, Jonathon Myerson is also a regular contributor to the Guardian and so was in a good position to get his views published. Clearly he can write his articles without the hassle of getting them past any kind of editorial process that might check for such boring details as factual accuracy - a case of “who you know” indeed.
What got up most peoples noses is the way Julie Myerson has exploited her son in order to make money from the book. This widespread revulsion seems to have caught them by surprise, but hey, any publicity is good publicity and as the Guardian told us in yet another article the publication date has been brought forward to cash in on the “unexpected” publicity.
As this is a cannabis news blog, we will concentrate on the issue these people claim to be wanting to raise and the way they are making it, rather than the way they’ve been willing to exploit their own flash and blood to do it.
Jonathon’s article was full of errors and untrue statements, way too many to go into detail about, but it is worth highlighting just a few if the myths he presents as fact:
Describing why the use of “skunk” cannabis is in his view so much worse than drinking gin he writes

“… skunk gets you as high as gin but has psychotropic effects to boot.”

As if gin doesn’t have psychotropic effects? For the benefit of Jonathon Myerson who clearly doesn’t know what “psychotropic effects” mean, Answers.com defines it as

Having an altering effect on perception, emotion, or behavior. Used especially of a drug.

Gin does that sort of thing, Jonathon, it does it big time.
He claims:

“Skunk is GM cannabis.”

No it is not. Genetic modification is a product of genetic engineering, which is defined as

Scientific alteration of the structure of genetic material in a living organism.

That has never been done to cannabis. What has been done is selective breeding, an entirely different process and something farmers have been doing for thousands of years. It is frankly mind boggling that a supposedly professional writer would confuse those two terms unless it was in order to deliberately mislead. He isn’t alone in this however, more later.
About “skunk”, he claims:

“Evidence from the Forensic Science Service suggests that skunk cannabis (otherwise known as sinsemilla) is remarkably stronger than ever before.”

Oh dear oh dear. “Skunk” is a cross-strain of cannabis, whereas sensi - or “sinsemilla” is you must - is produced by growing female plants alone, without males. They are not alternative words for the same thing. You can, if you like, grow sensi hemp - almost totally devoid of THC, or non-sensi skunk complete with seeds.
There has always been strong cannabis and there is no evidence to suggest that sensi skunk is “remarkably stronger than ever before.” So is this plain ignorance or deliberate misrepresentation? Only Jonathon Myserson knows for sure, but I suspect he isn’t that stupid.
However, if you can bear to read through all this misinformation, Joanthon eventually gets to the heart of the issue he claims to be so concerned about

The Department of Health figures (one in five will have tried cannabis by the age of 15) insist use is falling in Britain. That’s not how it feels in south London - or, presumably, south Manchester or south Glasgow. Here, it feels like everyone has had a toke by the age of 15.

Now here we have a statement of undeniable truth, it’s not just in the big cities either, all over the country kids are getting their hands on cannabis.
Where UKCIA differs from the claims made by the myerson’s is that the problem isn’t “skunk” so much as a general lowering of the age of initiation to cannabis use. Skunk isn’t the issue, the issue is kids are using cannabis - and other drugs, but mostly cannabis. Skunk hasn’t caused this to happen; prohibition has.
The Myerson’s seem to be claiming that if kids were using the “old skool” hash of days gone by that would be OK. Would it? Would it really? I beg to differ. Or perhaps they’re claiming that if skunk hadn’t come along, kids wouldn’t have been ensnared by the illegal trade? Again, unlikely at best.
The fact that ever younger kids are getting involved in the illegal drugs trade - because that is what’s happening - should send shivers down all of our spines, whatever kind of cannabis they’re using. If anything is a symptom of the failure of prohibition stoned children are surely it.
By making these claims of a “skunk panic” - claiming we have some new GM version of addictive cannabis, these people are distracting attention from the real issue which society needs to face up to, it is their motivation for doing that which UKCIA questions because far from highlighting the real problem and the obvious cause of it, the Myerson’s are using all this to support calls for more prohibition.
The very real issue of child protection is created by the prohibition of a massively popular drug which is supplied by an unregulated and uncontrolled black market which cares nothing for age limits or the protection of any vulnerable minority.
Perhaps there is an issue of concern around high potency cannabis, but it’s a complicated issue as this blog investigated a few weeks ago. If there is a need to improve the THC/CBD balance in cannabis, then we need to control the supply side. Again, it’s an argument for legalisation, not prohibition.
So today, Sunday 15th, the Observer (The Guardian on Sunday) carries the story further with “The families torn apart by teenage skunk epedemic“. Basing the story around the Julie Myerson book, the observer builds on the skunk panic, almost entirely missing the real concern of young kids under 15 getting involved in the cananbis culture. It interviews Debra Bell - the creator of the fact-free “Talking about cannabis” website (read it’s facts about cannabis page and weep) who also focuses on the “skunk addiction”, deflecting attention again from the child protection issue. To be fair, Debra Bell does say

Our generation smoked, but here and there. Everybody did it – but children didn’t smoke it, children whose brains were still developing.

Indeed. Child protection, we need it. But again, Debra Bell supports prohibition and opposes the idea of control and regulation.
Once again the lie is told by the writer of this article:

… cannabis as somehow the healthy herb despite its genetically modified new form.

Misinformation, repeat it often enough and it becomes the truth.
Not everyone supports the likes of Bell and Myerson though. Hellen Sello was also quoted. Sello is someone well known to UKCIA and other cannabis forums as a mental health activist who has debated the issue long and hard with us over the years. Her son developed schizophrenia at the time he was smoking cannabis. Sello’s argument is far better informed. She says

I support legalisation, not because I think young people take a great deal of notice of the law – they don’t – but because I think that with legalisation comes control. Give people more information: vulnerable young people need to know what this drug can do. If anything makes me really angry it is that this is such a polarised debate, an immature debate. It’s either that cannabis is good or it’s bad.”

Perhaps all this hype will eventually open up the debate a bit because we need to focus on the real problems, not on some imagined issues based on misinformation, distortion and outright lies. But it certainly hasn’t been a good week for the Guardian’s reputation as an honest and objective source of information.
One last thought. All of this hype has not only distracted from the issue of child protection, it’s also obscured what by right should have been the big story. This week the UN passed it’s policy toward drugs for the next 10 years, which is more of the same. It wasn’t passed with any great fanfare though, instead something of an air of acceptance that it’s all failed rather badly. All this is covered quite nicely over on the Transform blog
It’s best to bury bad news, eh?

cannabis-sam added 3 Minutes and 7 Seconds later...

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/vid...tegory=UK+News

and here is an interview with her

cannabis-sam added 2 Minutes and 49 Seconds later...

Damn I wanted her to be some fat ugly grainne kenny look alike, but she's actually quite sexy. Oh dear it's Sabine Batzinger all over again. SWIM is a pervert