[berndi]

I'm sad to say its anything but scaremongering.

I don't know about the US, but in Germany its common practice to spray either legal CBD weed or regular weed with synthetic cannabinoids and sell it as "Haze". The same goes for hash.

This practice has been widely publicized and is regularly confirmed through tests (see drug checking websites). A quick Google search will demonstrate the abundant availability of the raw materials (fake hash, legal CBD weed, synthetic cannabinoids, fake packaging). Besides this objective evidence, it is both my personal experience and common knowledge on Germany's streets that laced weed is the norm at this point.

Its obvious that this would happen when there is no regulation but strong financial incentives to produce this crap. Many customers don't care or explicitly look for the much stronger high that these laced products provide.

[dr_dshiv]

Germans gotta stand up for rational drug policy, yo. It's insane.

All it takes is one state: Berlin, Bremen, Hamburg — come on people!

----- Edit: Bremen has a famous digital debt clock showing how much money the state owes. Perhaps there should be a similar clock showing how much money the state loses due to the illegality of cannabis (combination of criminal justice costs and expected tax receipts). That might spur the conservative rationalists.

[collaborative]

Is this synthetic stuff what is called "spice" in the UK? I read horror stories about the effects of spice and saw it first hand while volunteering at the homeless shelter

[detritus]

Actually, Spice proper used a fairly benign synthetic cannabinoid. It was only after the market showed promise and after they were banned that slew of cheaper knock-offs that became commonly known as 'Spice' (despite having different brand names) came onto the illicit market, using other synthetics that were cheaper/easier to produce, but far-less tested, and deployed and sold in higher strengths by people who were far more cynical.

[quickthrowman]

There’s so much weed in the US due to legal states providing cover for black market grow ops that it just isn’t worth it to adulterate weed.