Anti-drug chief: Marijuana is no longer a soft drug

Written by Czech News Agency

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1960s pot is to current version like light beer is to whisky, expert claims

Prague, Aug 28 (ČTK) — Marijuana has been widely considered a natural soft drug, but those who illegally grow cannabis inside buildings turned it into a much harder drug adding chemicals to it, Prague Anti-Drug Police chief Jaromír Badin told today's issue of daily Právo.

The marijuana used by hippies in the 1960s had about 2 to 3 percent of the delta 9 THC, the drug's main psychoactive ingredient, and the joints smoked then were almost without any chemistry, while now it is quite common that marijuana contains 25 percent of THC, Badin said.

He said the difference is great, such as “between a light beer and a bottle of whisky.”
When marijuana with 7 percent of THC appeared in the Czech Republic in the 1990s, experts in the laboratory said such quality was surely coming from the Netherlands, Baldin said.

“But hemp growing has become science and tough business,” he said about the current situation.
“Illegal growers buy feminized cannabis seeds in special shops to have only female plants. They have a precise regime of lighting (in the interior spaces) and, above all, they put lots of chemistry in the plants. Really terrible things get in the plant. Marijuana is not a natural drug anymore,” Badin said.

Marijuana is the third-most used drug in the Czech Republic, after legal alcohol and tobacco. It is the most often used illegal drug in Europe and Czechs use it more than people in most of the other European countries, Právo writes.



Many people consider marijuana the least harmful drug, but this is no longer true and it may have effects similar to hard drugs on inexperienced users.
“Neither psychologists nor drug experts can estimate what and how strong reactions the current marijuana will cause,” Badin told the paper.

Especially young people had shocking reactions after using marijuana in combination with alcohol or another drug, such as aggressive behavior and hallucinations leading to suicidal tendencies, he said.
Badin said smart drugs sold on the Internet were another trouble.

“A skilful chemist creates an absolutely new drug that has the same effects as marijuana or pervitin, but the drug is new, which means that it is not banned. It takes some time to get the new drug listed among the illegal substances. When this happens, the chemist alters the drug's composition and changes its name from F1 to F2, and the drug can again be sold and distributed legally,” Badin said.

He said the most dangerous thing is that the possible effects of such a pill are totally unpredictable. “It is like a chemical Russian roulette,” he added.
Fortunately, the smart drugs are not very popular in the Czech Republic, Badin said.