Pubdate: Sun, 26 Mar 2006 Source: Greenwood Commonwealth (MS) Copyright: 2006 Greenwood Commonwealth Contact: http://www.gwcommonwealth.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1541 Author: Bob Darden , Staff Writer NARCOTICS OFFICERS GIVE CROWD UPDATE ON ILLEGAL DRUGS Concerned parents, grandparents and citizens came out Saturday to Turner Chapel African-Methodist-Episcopal Church to learn not only about the harmful effects of illegal drugs but also how they look and smell. "We're trying to better our community. We're trying to get you educated along with our kids," said Sgt. Demetrice Bedell, of the Greenwood Police Department Narcotics Division. The three-hour Basic Narcotics for Parent Workshop, sponsored by Delta Sigma Theta sorority, also featured Rodney Williams, an agent with the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics. Williams discussed the physiological affects of certain drugs on the human body while Bedell focused on street lingo of each drug from depressants such as marijuana to stimulants such as cocaine. The workshop, which was attended by more than 50 people, was designed to make people aware of drugs. To make people more aware of the presence of drugs in their homes and communities. "We're going to try to get you up to par with the things the kids already know. That way, you'll have a line of defense and the kids can't talk over your heads," Bedell said. First on the list Saturday was marijuana and how it is smoked. Marijuana now contains more tetrahydrocannabinol (also known as THC) - the plant's psychoactive ingredient - than ever before, Williams said. Today's THC content in marijuana, he said, is around 28.6 percent, compared with an average of 10 to 12 percent with marijuana during the 1960s and 1970s. Marijuana is classified as a Schedule I drug under Federal Drug Control Act, along with drugs such as heroin, Williams said. Marijuana can permanently affect the brain of the user, Williams said. In addition, 23 of a marijuana plant's 400 chemicals, he said, have been identified as cancer-causing agents. Street names for marijuana include "weed," "bud," "fire," "blunt," "green," "trees" and "soft," Bedell said. "These are the things you're going to hear out on the streets. You're not going to hear nobody talking about marijuana. You'll hear, 'Let's us go get some weed' or 'Let's go get some bud,'" he said. Another trend on the streets is to stuff marijuana into commercially-produced cigars, such as Swisher Sweets, which can hold more marijuana than conventional rolling papers can. On the street, such altered cigars are called "blunts," Bedell said. People might notice loose tobacco in trash cans or on the ground. That comes from someone removing tobacco from the rolled cigar and replacing it with marijuana, he said. Blunts are commonly found by police when traffic stops are made, Bedell said. It's rare to find someone with a rolled paper joint these days, he said. "If we see this here, it's going to be on a joker about 40 or 50 years old." Williams lit a form of marijuana without THC - that was produced at University of Mississippi - and let its pungent aroma fill up the church's fellowship hall. To get the drug's effect, it must be inhaled directly from the cigarette, cigar or bong. It can also be eaten. Marijuana is also packaged in plastic sandwich bags for resale on the street. Only a small portion of the baggie is used. The rest of it is simply torn off and discarded. That's why its called a "tear off," Bedell said. "When you start seeing a lot of those in your garbage cans, they ain't making no sandwiches," he said.