Laced Weed: Definition, Looks & Serious Side Effects

Marijuana is one of the most commonly used recreational drugs across the nation. Far from having killed anyone, cannabis use has helped millions deal with chronic pain, muscle spasms, and depression. Yet, laced weed is a whole different story.

Combining cannabis with other drugs, either intentionally or unknowingly, can cause all sorts of problems ranging from physical and mental issues to a severe case of addiction.

Can you tell if your weed has been tainted? Do you know what to do if it has?

Not to worry. We got you. In this article, we’ll tell you all you need to know about how to recognize laced pot, which drugs are most commonly used, and how to detox the right way. 

What Is Laced Weed?

Lacing weed refers to a cannabis flower that has been combined with other substances, such as drugs, additives, and inorganic materials, to increase or diminish some of the effects of the drug. 

In other words, people are capable of putting the strangest things in their weed, like detergent or embalming fluid, to get a high better and faster or to come down from other drugs.

How Common Is Lacing Weed? 

Luckily, coming across a laced pot is a pretty rare occurrence. There have been some cases of fentanyl-laced marijuana or weed spiked with heroin or PCP in the US and Canada. While it isn’t so common, the consequences are grave. 

Laced pot tends to come up in pockets. Someone will experiment or buy spiked marijuana and tell their friends about it, who then tell their friends, and it quickly becomes a trend. 

But even if you hear all good things about laced weed effects, don’t add other chemicals to your pot! You never know what kind of batch you’ll get.  

In some cases, marijuana itself isn’t laced with anything. Still, users report similar symptoms mostly because they can’t handle the effects of THC. Although not so common among seasoned users, that has been known to happen to newbies.

Lacing Weed and Legalization

The chances of buying tainted weed on the legal market are almost zero. In fact, one of the biggest benefits of legalization is ensuring that users get a clean product free of any additional and potentially dangerous substances. 

How to Tell If Weed Is Laced

The tricky thing about tainted weed is that it might be hard to tell if it’s been laced or not before you smoke it. Once you do, you’ll know. But being able to identify spiked weed beforehand can be next to impossible, especially if it has been mixed with some powerful stuff.

Even investing in a drug testing kit might not do any good as some of the more potent narcotics won’t show up on the test.

That said, there are still some ways to tell whether your weed’s been laced with some organic stuff before taking a puff.

What Does Laced Weed Look Like?

Sometimes too much crystal on your pot might mean that it is tainted with glass, the so-called “grit weed.” 

If you suspect that your weed has been laced with glass, do the CD test, i.e., rub some on the surface of a compact disc, or a similar surface. Scratches appearing on its surface are a tell-tale sign that your pot’s been laced with glass.

Weed adulterated with laundry detergent is easy to identify. All you need to do is pour some water over your pot in a glass and shake it up a bit. Are suds appearing? Then don’t smoke it. 

What Does Laced Marijuana Feel Like?

Roll and squeeze a small bud with your fingers. Trichomes should stick to the bud, and only a little bit will fall off. If you see a lot of dust falling off the flower, there might be something other than natural cannabinoids on your cannabis.

Too powdery is not good, but wet weed is even worse. A pot that looks or feels wet is one of the most definite signs of adulterating it with another liquid drug.

What Does Laced Weed Smell Like? 

If the smell is harsher and even synthetic-like, it’s highly likely that fuel or smell adulterants, like perfume, have been added to give the goods that recognizable skunky smell.

Set a small piece of flower on fire to test if you have bought weed laced with odor adulterants.

Marijuana soaked in fuel will burst into flames immediately, whereas regular weed should spark or pop. The color of smoke might change as well if your cannabis has been laced with perfume or other chemicals.

If you doubt that your weed is laced with other substances, don’t risk it. It might be better to lose some of it than suffer the consequences.

However, not all weed with a stronger smell is laced. Enter loud weed.

What is loud weed? Loud or dank weed refers to strains grown under optimal conditions. In short, loud weed is premium cannabis, one that is extremely potent, gets you really high, and most often than not has a powerful smell to match.

Laced Weed Symptoms

Consumed in normal conditions, marijuana should put you in a state of mild euphoria or deep relaxation.

For a regular pot smoker, an adulterated joint is easy to spot. If you’re feeling anything other than the normal high, you’re probably dealing with tainted weed.

For those who are not used to the short term effects of weed, here are some indications that you’re using marijuana tainted with chemicals:

• Nausea, vomiting or diarrhea, or any other signs of illness. Normal cannabis consumption shouldn’t make you sick, but weed laced with fentanyl or other stuff will.
• Having a feeling of “rolling” euphoria. A sense of happiness and giddiness is more than normal with cannabis use (would people smoke it if it didn’t feel good?), but an increasing and overwhelming feeling of euphoria is a bad sign.
• Extreme hallucinations, delusions, and other psychotic effects, which are rare with normal cannabis consumption.
• Heightened heart rate or blood pressure.
• Being extremely jittery or too hyped up and feeling disoriented or uncoordinated is another sign of laced weed.
• Some strains can create a sudden burst of energy and creativity, although weed is supposed to mellow you out in most cases. If you feel an excess of anxiety, paranoia, anger, or aggression, you might have come into contact with tainted marijuana, usually amphetamines.
• Another sign of marijuana laced with amphetamines is insomnia. Experiencing trouble sleeping after lighting up a joint could also be a sign of laced pot.
• Prolonged headaches and feelings of lethargy, exhaustion, and tiredness.

What Can Weed Be Laced With?

Almost anything can be used to lace weed, but the most common substances include:

• Fentanyl
• Ketamine
• Cocaine
• PCP
• LSD
• Heroin
• Methamphetamine
• Ecstasy
• DMT
• Formaldehyde (or embalming fluid)

Other contaminants can be added to pot, usually to cover up for poor-quality weed, or to add extra weight to the product.

• Glass
• Food
• Laundry detergent
• Food coloring
• Odor adulterants
• Lead or other heavy metals 

Let’s see why you should steer clear of such weed.

Fentanyl-Laced Weed 

A potent synthetic opioid, fentanyl, has similar effects as morphine, but it’s 50 to 100 more powerful. This drug is commonly mixed with heroin and/or cocaine and is one of the synthetic opioids responsible for a huge percentage of overdoses in the US.

The mixture of fentanyl and weed has received much attention lately, both from law enforcement agents warning against potential overdoses and cannabis activists who say that marijuana laced with fentanyl and its effects are nothing more than propaganda and urban myths.

Even though no deaths have been registered due to fentanyl in weed, people have been hospitalized, so this isn’t a mixture to be taken lightly.

Ketamine and Weed

Ketamine is used as an anesthetic in human or veterinary medicine, meaning it has strong sedative effects. It’s not uncommon for people to lace joints with ketamine as the perfect roundoff for this dissociative drug.

On the other hand, ketamine can cause dehydration, vomiting, overheating, and severe disorientation and confusion, which isn’t something most recreational users are after.

Weed Laced with Cocaine

It might seem like a good idea to mix the effect of cocaine, one of the most famous stimulants in the world, with the sedative properties of pot, but this is actually a terrible combination. 

Coke is dangerous by itself (paranoia, nausea, constricted blood vessels…), and mixing it with cannabis only makes using it riskier.

How to find out whether weed has been laced with coke?

Unlaced weed has a few white crystals on the buds. More than a few are a clear indicator that you’re dealing with cocaine-laced weed (although users are usually the ones who spike their pot with coke in the first place). 

On top of that, smoking cocaine and weed will cause a numbing sensation in your mouth (FYI, smoking even the most potent weed doesn’t and shouldn’t cause numbness in your mouth).

Lacing weed with coke can have dangerous consequences. From a racing heartbeat to excessive sweating and feelings of agitation and extremely high energy, pot combined with cocaine can further damage the heart, lungs, and brain. 

Other symptoms include numbness, dry mouth and throat, as well as sleeplessness.

What’s more, weed laced with coke impairs your judgment and perception of time, causing you to take more cocaine than you normally would and in a much shorter time (which is never a good thing). 

Not to mention that it immediately increases the risk of users developing a cocaine addiction.

Weed Laced with PCP

PCP, a.k.a. phencyclidine or angel dust, is a powerful and dangerous hallucinogenic drug that was initially developed as an intravenous anesthetic but discontinued due to its strong neurotoxic side effects. 

Today PCP is classified as a Schedule II controlled substance due to its potential for addiction and abuse.

Marijuana is usually dipped in PCP to enhance the plant’s psychoactive effects. Also called dusted weed, wet weed, fry, and superweed, marijuana laced with PCP  is especially popular among teens and young adults looking for a faster way to get completely stoned.

Sometimes PCP is added without the knowledge of the user. However, in most instances, both sellers and users are aware that the weed has been laced with angel dust.

People who have used weed dipped or laced with PCP usually experience severe hallucinations and delusions, leading to erratic and even extremely violent behavior.

PCP laced weed can cause breathing and respiratory issues too. Your heart races, your blood pressure is up, and breathing becomes difficult, which could potentially result in damage to your heart and lungs.

In cases of prolonged use, “whacko tobacco” can lead to long-lasting neurological conditions, like nerve and brain damage, as well as respiratory failure, coma, and death (including suicide).

Other symptoms include disorientation, numbness, and slurred speech. Not what you would call recreational drug use!

Weed Laced with Acid

LSD (Lysergic acid diethylamide), also known as acid (and a dozen other names), is an extremely powerful psychedelic drug causing an array of effects, such as intensified emotions, thoughts, and sensory perception.

LSD isn’t typically added to joints. Heat breaks down acid, which means that if you simply add LSD to your weed and light it, you won’t feel its effects.

To lace weed with LSD, one needs to dab the end of the joint or pre-roll in acid (or a rainbow joint). Then as the LSD laced weed joint touches the lips, the body will absorb the acid instantly, providing an intense, hallucinatory trip that can last for about 12 hours. 

A common negative consequence of mixing weed and LSD is increased feelings of paranoia and anxiety. 

These effects are typical of both marijuana and acid (which is known to cause schizophrenia and long-term psychotic issues), so combining the two will only enhance these adverse effects among users. 

On top of that, a weed and acid combo can seriously impair judgment, make users lose control over their thoughts and actions, and put themselves and others at risk. 

Weed Laced with Heroin

Of all the substances on the list, heroin is probably the most dangerous and the most addictive.

Users mostly combine these two drugs to reduce some of the rush that heroin induces. The sedative effects of weed combat the high from heroin, so a heroin-weed combination results in lethargy and extreme relaxation. 

Severe effects include reduced breathing and slowed heart rate, and an almost unbearable feeling of confusion and disorientation.

Still, the biggest danger of heroin-laced weed lies in overdosing. As with other drugs, regular use builds tolerance, and cannabis messes with your senses, so one can end up overdosing on heroin more easily.

Another possible risk of mixing heroin and marijuana was revealed by a 2019 study on treatment results between users who inject heroin and those who smoke it with cannabis. 

The study carried out in Africa showed that alternative methods of heroin administration (other than intravenous) increase the chances of relapsing to heroin use after rehabilitation.

Meth Laced Weed

Methamphetamine is a highly potent and addictive stimulant known for its incredibly powerful effects of euphoria and hyperalertness. 

Marijuana isn’t usually laced with meth, as this would be extremely uneconomical. Hardly any dealer would use a more expensive substance to enhance the effects of a cheaper product, like pot. 

Combining meth and cannabis can have different effects on people. For some, taking weed reduces some of the high of meth (although the comedown is a nightmare), while for others, it enhances hyperactivity and paranoia. 

How to know if weed is laced with meth?

If you sense a chemical-like smell when you light up a joint, your pot may have been laced with meth.

What are the dangers of combining meth and weed?

Meth is one of the worst drugs in the world today. This potent central nervous system stimulant is highly addictive. It can cause irreversible changes to the mind and body, such as permanent brain damage and other complications. 

Moreover, meth can increase the risk of heart attack and stroke, it leads to “meth mouth” (mouth and teeth grinding), but most importantly, it is deadly. 

The number of deaths related to methamphetamine use increased by 180% between 2015 and 2019. 

Even though a study has shown that cannabis use can partially shield the brain from the damage caused by methamphetamine, this is not true for teens and adolescents. 

Research has disclosed that combined use of meth and marijuana results in brain dysfunction and psychiatric symptoms in kids and young adults.

Weed Laced with Molly

Molly, MDMA (3,4-Methyl​enedioxy​methamphetamine), E, or ecstasy, is one of the most common drugs used with weed. In fact, 90% of people who use molly also consume marijuana.

The main purpose of combining MDMA with pot is to soften some of the negative comedown effects of molly. Others use it to increase the psychedelic properties of ecstasy or to make them last longer. 

Finally, both are social drugs and are easily available in social settings, like parties and raves, so it makes sense that people would use them together.

Nevertheless, finding laced weed with ecstasy is rare because smoking MDMA doesn’t work so well. Instead, users prefer to take ecstasy in pills and smoke weed afterward.

One negative effect of combining molly and weed is the enhanced feeling of paranoia and anxiety. Sadly, in some cases, this combination has proven to be fatal. 

DMT Laced Weed 

N,N-Dimethyltryptamine, aka DMT or N, N-DMT, is a recreational psychedelic drug that many cultures use as an entheogen (psychoactive substances that induce alterations in mood, perception, or behavior). 

As a Schedule I drug, the “spirit molecule” is a very potent hallucinogen and is often put in joints to increase its psychedelic properties. 

People usually lace their pot with DMT to make the “spirit molecule” go down smoother by sprinkling it into the joint or putting it into a bowl. 

Many users complain of losing consciousness and experiencing a near-death experience when trying DMT laced weed. In fact, some DMT trips can be so realistic that users might not have control over their actions and end up getting injured. 

Moreover, don’t forget about extreme paranoia and hallucinations, or as a person in a study described DMT’s effects: “it feels like dying.”

How to recognize a pot laced with DMT? By its aroma. If your weed is laced with DMT, it will have a strong and unpleasant smell, like burning plastic, even before liting your joint. In addition to that, DMT has a lower burning point than marijuana.

Weed and Embalming Fluid 

It sounds strange, but dipping weed in formaldehyde is pretty common, typically used to make the effects of marijuana seem more powerful.

Even though it sounds harmless, marijuana laced with embalming fluid can result in cognitive issues like memory loss, chest pain, nausea, and diarrhea. 

Laced Weed Side Effects

Tainted marijuana comes with a variety of side effects, depending on what it has been spiked with.

Stimulants increase the feeling of euphoria normal weed provides, making you feel as happy as a kid stuck overnight in a candy store, but the comedown can be brutal.

Combining pot with downers can make you more relaxed and lethargic. Hallucinations and severe delusions are another side effect of mixing psychotics with weed. 

Although glass and other contaminants don’t add to the typical effects of cannabis, they can still cause uncontrollable coughing and sharp pain in the lungs. 

The truth is that trying laced weed is the mother of all bad decisions. Paranoia, hallucinations, and horrible trips are just the tip of the iceberg. 

Combining cannabis with other drugs damages both the body and mind, and some of these effects might be permanent. There is an increased danger of heart attack, stroke, and even premature death.

The addictive power of illegal drugs shouldn’t be underestimated either. Using illicit drugs (aware or unaware) can get you hooked on these substances and increase tolerance, thus making overdosing much easier. 

How to Detox From Laced Pot

Smoking weed laced with other substances, either by accident or intentionally, is dangerous, so it’s important to seek medical attention.

• It’s imperative not to panic, which might be almost impossible if you’ve just smoked two or more euphoric drugs. If you have someone around, that’s excellent. This is not to say that your friend will protect you from the side effects of tainted marijuana, but they can take you to the ER at least. 
• After trying pot laced with fentanyl or other drugs, try to make yourself comfortable and engage in a calming and relaxing activity.
• If you feel like vomiting, let it out. Your body knows there is an excess of toxins, so let it do its job.

When to Go to the Emergency Room?

If you experience:

• Aggressive thoughts that are not typical for you.
• Visual or auditory hallucinations.
• Talking gibberish, pacing back and forth uncontrollably.
• Seizures. If you’re asking yourself: can weed cause seizures, the answer is no. So, if you are experiencing seizures, you’ve smoked laced marijuana. In this case, go to the emergency room at once! 

Wrapping It Up

All things considered, it is extremely dangerous to consume marijuana with other substances, be they glass, fentanyl, or cocaine. Recognizing laced weed is not always easy, so stick to legal dispensaries, and regular weed  — clean and unadulterated!

About the Author

Ljubica Cvetkovska

Ljubica is a writer and researcher who enjoys spending most of her time between the pages of her favorite books or immersed in her writing. With a background in English literature, she prides herself on delivering content that is well-researched and backed up by relevant data. When she’s not working, she’s known to binge-watch a TV show or two or hit the gym, which doesn’t happen that often.

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