What Are the Dangers of Laced Marijuana?

What Are the Dangers of Laced Weed?

Because laced weed usually consists of a variety of harder drug compounds, your overdose risk increases substantially, especially if it contains drugs like fentanyl. Because of its potency, even a small amount of fentanyl can lead to an overdose.

Fentanyl isn’t the only danger. Even weed containing nonintoxicating compounds can damage your body. Some substance-specific dangers include:

• Synthetic cannabinoids – May cause paranoia, hallucination, or extreme lethargy.
• Cocaine – Marijuana laced with cocaine may lead to varied dangerous side effects, including unintentional addiction to cocaine.
• LSD – When you drop LSD after smoking weed, it creates potent hallucinogenic effects that may eventually turn into paranoia and suicidal thoughts.
• PCP – PCP-laced weed is extremely dangerous and can lead to hallucinations, delusions, aggression, suicidal and risky behaviors.
• Methamphetamine – When marijuana contains methamphetamine, it can cause seizures, hallucinations, and delusions.
• Heroin – Marijuana laced with heroin can cause shallow heart and breathing rates, which can be fatal.
• Ketamine – Marijuana laced with ketamine can create extreme dissociative and sedative effects. Additional dangers include overheating and dehydration.
• Embalming fluid – Smoking weed laced with embalming fluid may cause memory loss, neurological damage, and even death.
• Laundry detergent – May cause nausea, sore throat, and difficulty breathing.
• Glass – Smoking or ingesting glass-laced weed or edibles can cause significant respiratory distress.
• Fentanyl – Fentanyl is much more potent than heroin. Mixing both of these depressant drugs can intensify the effects and increase your risk of life-threatening complications or overdose.

The interaction between weed and other substances can lead to fatal outcomes. Laced weed often contains harmful additives that are unknown until it’s too late.

How to Avoid Laced Marijuana

The only way to completely avoid laced weed is not to use it. If you feel like you can’t cut down or stop weed use, it could be a sign of a cannabis use disorder (addiction). A cannabis use disorder is continued use despite significant negative consequences like the risk of laced weed.

Myths About Weed

While regulations are relaxing more about marijuana use, there is still a real risk of addiction. Many myths about marijuana use are misleading at best and dangerous at worst. Here are some of the most common myths about cannabis:

• “You can’t become addicted to cannabis.” – Approximately 9 percent of people who smoke marijuana will become addicted.
• “Everyone smokes weed.” – Although 50% of people say they have tried marijuana at some point, only 17 percent smoke regularly.
• “It’s okay to smoke weed while driving.” – There is a correlation between high THC blood concentration levels and the risk of car crashes. It is never safe to smoke weed and drive.
• “Marijuana is safe to use while pregnant.” – Marijuana is not recommended during pregnancy or while breastfeeding. Research suggests that weed use during pregnancy can lead to a variety of problems, including low birth weight.
• “You can’t overdose on marijuana.” – Although there is currently no scientific evidence that supports the risk of overdosing from smoking unadulterated cannabis, there is a risk for overdose if it contains another substance, especially fentanyl.