PDEA on alert vs seedless marijuana

The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) is on the lookout for a new and more potent variety of marijuana, which authorities think may have found its way into the country.

The agency is yet to confirm whether or not sensemilia, the seedless variety, is already in the market although they have been receiving reports about it.

PDEA Drug Museum curator Gerry Magpoc said the new variety is more dangerous because it is “seven times more potent” than the so-called “buntot pusa” variety.

He explained that sensemilia carries a higher tetrahydrocannabinol content, one of the active ingredients of marijuana leaves that come from the cannabis sativa plant.

Research shows that marijuana’s psychological effects at recreational doses include relaxation, euphoria, relaxed inhibitions, sense of well-being, disorientation, altered time and space perception, lack of concentration, impaired learning and memory, alterations in thought formation and expression, drowsiness, sedation, mood changes such as panic reactions and paranoia, and a more vivid sense of taste, sight, smell, and hearing.

Stronger doses, on the other hand, intensify reactions and may cause fluctuating emotions, flights of fragmentary thoughts with disturbed associations, a dulling of attention despite an illusion of heightened insight, image distortion, and psychosis.

Marijuana’s most common physiological effects include increased heart rate, reddening of the eyes, dry mouth and throat, increased appetite, and vasodilatation.

Magpoc revealed to The STAR the existence of the sensemilia type of marijuana plants during a tour of the PDEA’s drug museum, located beside the office of Maj. Ferdinand Marcelino at the PDEA complex in Quezon City. It was put up to educate the younger generation about illegal drugs.

The museum features a collection of photographs as well as real tools used to manufacture methamphetamine hydrochloride, commonly known as shabu.

Magpoc said the agency had to secure special court orders to be allowed to display such items because all the things that can found inside the room, except for the pictures, were actual evidence seized from different drug raids.

Visitors will be able to see and even touch tools used in making shabu – like mixing, filtration, and hydrogenation equipment – that can be found in illegal drug laboratories.

One particular instrument stands out – a hydrogenation tool made of stainless steel, the latest kind being used for manufacturing illegal drugs.

There are also actual samples of marijuana, opium poppies, ecstasy and shabu in a shelf along with various drug paraphernalia.

One shelf features the story of how illegal drugs were smuggled into the country the old-fashioned way, by concealing it inside the soles of shoes or inside huge books.

Magpoc said shabu used to be referred to as the “poor man’s cocaine” but it is now very expensive.

“One gram of gold is around P900 but one gram of shabu now reaches P9,000 to P10,000,” he said.

Sitting at a corner of the PDEA museum is a copy of Republic Act 6425, the old law on illegal drugs, alongside a copy of the new RA 9165 enacted in 2002.