Brit Police Claim Odor Of Cannabis Plants Causes Cancer
By Steve Elliott of Toke of the Town
Think American cops are dumb? From time to time, police in other countries step up to the plate and prove that they can make statements every bit as stupid as those from their American brothers in blue.
Case in point: After a “drugs factory” (what the Harborough Mail chose to call a pot patch) was raided, local yokel police passed on this dire admonition to a wide-eyed public:
Police are warning that when cannabis plants reach the final stages of maturity the odour they release has carcinogenic properties … Officers who deal with the plants use ventilation masks and protective suits and people who have plants in their home, especially anyone with young children, may be exposing their family to a health risk.
Yep, and remember you read it here, first, folks: Just smelling one of those horrible cannabis plants can give you cancer!
Of course, that’s complete horse shit, and anybody who’d believe it either hasn’t looked into the subject or is a damn fool… or likely both of the above, in the case of most police officers.
Those who have bothered to actually look into the topic before making fools of themselves in public — unlike the Corby Police force — know that cannabis has proven anti-cancer, tumor-shrinking qualities.
And just to set the record completely straight on the smell of cannabis, the terpenes, which are distinctive for marijuana’s distinctive odors, are in fact anti-cancer agents. Effects of terpenes when ingested include the anti-cancer properties of Limonene, one of the most abundant terpenes in cannabis.
Limonene is currently in trials, as a matter of fact, to study its ability to prevent breast cancer formation. It has also been investigated for its usefulness in reducing or eliminating antidepressant use.
But back to the sadly clueless Harborough Mail; we’re not done with them, yet.
“Pathetic excuse for journalism,” commenter “Blunt Man” responded on the newspaper’s website. “You should be ashamed for printing such lies and perpetuating reefer madness.
“I am a licensed medical marijuana patient and I am offended,” Blunt Man wrote. “I am subject to much discrimination from ignorant people and your rag has only made matters worse. You have become a viral joke.”
?”Something like 80% of the ‘facts’ relating to drugs in general and cannabis in particular are complete nonsense,” added commenter “phils.” “I think we have just seen the creation of another one.
“I expect the Daily Mail will be shrieking in moral outrage about cancer-causing cannabis odours killing Our Childrenâ„¢,” phils wrote.
“How did you ever expect to get away with sheer fiction like this?” commenter “TokenMaWeed” rightly asked. “This is the type of reporting that you just know the person behind the story didn’t get an education and hasn’t really a clue about his or her job.”
“This sort of trash reporting is what fuels the public’s misconceptions of cannabis,” added commenter “Isaac Redeye Facebook Me.” “If you see a story like this in the press please don’t swallow it as gospel truth, after all previous reports about cannabis stated that it was meant to send you crazy, make you grow breasts and become infertile — all debunked!”
“Just how stupid does the local police think the local population are?” asked commenter Philip Walsh.
Such a furor arose, in fact, from the Harborough Mail’s laughably inept coverage, that it’s now to the point of recrimination and finger-pointing.
Somebody reported the newspaper to the Press Complaints Commission (PCC), and now the Mail is claiming they got the story from another newspaper, the Northants Evening Telegraph. Readers have searched the Telegraph for the story and haven’t been able to find it. (The Mail probably needn’t worry about the PCC; it’s being shut down as a result of a recent hacker scandal.)
The laughably earnest coverage came after a drugs sweep in Cottingham, one of three carried out in the Corby area late last month.
Police raided a house in Cottingham on February 20, and a 45-year-old man from the village was arrested on suspicion of “drugs offences.” Ninety marijuana plants, “with a street value of between £20,000 and £30,000,” were seized from the property.
The man at the residence has been released on bail “pending further enquiries.”
“Everyone in the village is talking about the raid and some people are really stunned,” said Ian Hodge, who lives in Berryfield Road, Cottingham. “I’m not surprised a cannabis factory has been found in Cottingham because, with all the activity to shut down drugs houses in Corby, the problem is likely to move outside the town. There’s a lot of money to be made and people won’t give it up.”
“The latest arrests are the continuation of our mission to tackle drugs in our community,” said Inspector Gary Williams of the Corby Police, apparently unaware that the drugs, after being tackled, had gotten up and scored a touchdown.
“Once again, we were able to act following some useful information we received from members of the public,” Inspector Williams said. “We are committed to dealing with drugs offences and information from the public is invaluable.”
Say, since they value “information from the public” so highly, would someone in Cottingham please tell these annoyingly clueless jackasses that the scent of cannabis doesn’t cause cancer? Thanks!
Article From Toke of the Town and republished with special permission.
