wow, never thought you guys would have that shit in the US. I thought only the British were getting ripped off by the Dutch with it. As for the abundance of diesel, its like in the UK here its all fucking 'cheese' or amnesia.
Hi,
It's incredibly common in France since a few years now on the black market.
When I lived there (2001-2005), I would get my hands on top-notch indoor buds (mostly from Holland), super high quality, mostly "coffee-shop" quality gear. However the last year (2005), I witnessed a severe decline: weed cut with flour or crushed seeds. I think everything started to spread around that year, certainly before that... A friend in the UK found crushed glass in his bud, and had a sore throat for 2 days, around the same time too.
I have a few friends there that still buy some to this day (occasional users), despite my numerous warnings.
When smoked, the hash becomes rock hard, wet, leaves some kind of "grease", the smaoke has no smell, no taste, and does not get you high: yep, that's this bullshit grit weed. Fresh buds under a bright light is very sparkly. Normal fresh weed will do that too but not on EVERY trichomes. Also, grit weed is often wet/damp. (So basically you're mostly buying water, adulterant chemicals and resin-less pot).
I encountered it *once* here in Switzerland, some friend came to me saying he could get some apparently super dank stuff, from a friend of his. The weed looked great inside the bag, great color, nice orange hairs, very crystalized.
I proceed to open the bag and there is a vague chemical skunk smell coming out, but green looking this good should be super stinky!
So I inspect it more closely under a bright light and I recognize this weird sparkling effect ... We proceed to grind a big bud, and found tons of a beige powder that would just fall off so easily. We could easily separate the plant material from that dust.
I tried putting a small bud in a glass of water: 30 minutes later, I can see the same beige powder on the bottom of the glass. It was only a few grams, but each time I opened the bag, that fake chemical skunk smell would just disgust me: smelled like weed, but not really.
My friend was studying at a science university at that time and was able to inspect it under a microscope. He found really small silica balls, "well-shaped", that would only burn at a very high temperature. He said it was everywhere in the plant material (sugar leaves, buds, stems, pistils...just everywhere and in large quantities), as it was sprayed under high pressure.
There is ONE test you can easily do if you suspect grit weed: take the bag and shake it vigorously for a few seconds.
If you see a beige/off-white residue in excessive amounts, then there it is, grit weed. Even super dry and frosty weed won't leave so much glands.
I've read somewhere (can't remember where exactly) about marijuana illegally exported from Holland.
The "customer" can buy weed with a certain amount of adulterants. The interviewed dealer was saying it was very common, flooding the black market in other european countries. They even do it locally now. Of course, I'm not saying all weed coming out Holland is cut, but there's a market for grit weed and I guess most low-key dealer don't give a shit about the quality and just want an appealing product at a cheap price ... Yes, it's usually cheaper or priced as the regular weed.
Don't smoke that crap. Spread the word, because it's already a serious public health problem for a few years now and will only bring more bad reputation to marijuana.
Just grow your own.
subdub.