Pubdate: Mon, 16 Mar 2009
Source: Times, The (UK)
Copyright: 2009 Times Newspapers Ltd
Contact:  http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/454
Author: Helen Rumbelow, and Chloe Lambert

SKUNK: "KIDS THINK THE STRONG STUFF IS THE BEST STUFF"

As The Row Over Skunk Use By British Teenagers Grows, We Trace The 
History Of Super-Potent Cannabis

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 (UKP 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 UKP 40," says Barry, a 28-year-old dealer. "An ounce 
of good-quality home-grown skunk will fetch anything between UKP 180 
and UKP 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."
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MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart