Hello, I guess that as this is the first entry in this blog I should say something first entryish and let you know what to expect. As I run one of London's most successful independent music studios I'm going to be filling you in with my view on what's happening on the local music scene, who to look out for and why.

I've lived in Mill Hill most of my life apart from a brief stint in Stockholm in the early 80s so I'll also be giving you my views on the locality and doing the odd spot on interesting local stories. I also reserve the right to go off on one occasionally and have a rant if something needs ranting about.

Anyway that's what your going to get in future, here's today's bit and I thought I'd start with a rant. I found out something by chance a while back that hasn't been mentioned anywhere in any of the papers, the TV news or anywhere else, but I think this could be the next major health scare.
Now I'm not a saint and I'd be the last person to tell anyone how to live there lives, but if I saw a blind man walking towards a cliff edge I'd tell him that he was in danger. What am I on about? Well in the last 5-10 years, the most popular form of cannabis smoked in the UK has become locally grown skunk weed.

So what is the major health scare. Well the problem is to do with the way that it is being commercially grown. The preferred system in this country is called "hydroponics". This means the seeds are grown in water without soil. Nutrients are put into the water and by using extremely bright lights, crops grow far quicker than using grow bags in the green house. The biggest problem for the growers is infestations of bugs, such as the Red Spider mite. How do commercial growers deal with this? They use what are called systemic insecticides. These are put into the hydroponic nutrients and these travel up the plants roots to the leaves and buds. When a Red Spider Mite starts to eat the plant it gets poisoned. Now systemic insecticides were developed by farmers for flowers such as Daffodils and tulips, not foodstuffs or smokables as they are actually in the plant and can't be washed off.

Let's consider how skunk weed is usually smoked. There is no filter as on a normal cigarette and it is rolled up pure. As such, any poisonous chemicals contained in the skunk weed goes straight to your lungs. What effect does smoking systemic insecticeds have? Well unfortunately, if you look at the research, plurosy, Lung Cancer and a host of other conditions can be triggered. Just go to a garden centre and look at the warnings on the packet or ask the manager if you should use them to grow tomotoes.

We are not talking about one puff and instant death. We are talking about a slow build up of harmful chemicals in your lungs and blood stream. Over the course of 5-20 years, we are going to see a whole host of people developing symptoms, often for no apparent reason. Sometimes this will be years after they stop smoking. The whole point of systemic chemicals is that they stay in the system. There is also often alack of willingness on the part of the patient to admit to habitual drug use.

With the smoking ban, tabacco smoking is falling, masking any change in the lung related disease figures due to insecticides in Skunk weed. Most youngsters think that it won't happen to them. Some say "dying doesn't scare me" What everyone should consider is the possibility of years of ill health due to damaged lungs. If you need an oxygen cylinder to breath, you can't get out too much, your quality of life will not be great.

If you smoke Skunk weed, think your kids smoke skunk weed, think your dad smokes skunk weed, have friends who smoke skunk weed, show them this. The people who grow the stuff are only interested in a quick buck, they don't care about your lungs. As I said, if I saw a blind man heading towards the edge of a cliff, I'd tell them. If you didn't know any of this before you've been told. Please think very carefully about it.