Have you ever heard someone talking about “smoking wet weed”? Maybe they said something along the lines of “I got so messed up last night smoking wet weed with my friend.” But what is wet weed? How is it different than normal bud? And what exactly will it do to you?

What is Wet Weed?

Wet weed, or simply “wet,” is essentially tainted cannabis. When someones says that they smoked wet, they mean that they smoked a joint that was filled with weed and either PCP or formaldehyde. Sometimes both. This mess is known as wet because the weed literally looks wet, unlike normal weed.

What is Formaldehyde?

Formaldehyde is a type of embalming fluid. It delays but does not ultimately prevent decay. It’s highly flammable and smells disgusting. It is also a known carcinogenic. As a whole, formaldehyde is definitely something you want to avoid putting into your body.

What is PCP?

PCP is the street name of the drug Phencyclidine. It is also known as “angel dust.” PCP can come in a liquid or a powder form and can be consumed by injecting it, smoking it, or snorting it. PCP is most associated with dissociative hallucinations, ego death, and often violence and aggression.

Why Should You Avoid It?

You know by now that smoking cannabis—normal cannabis—is totally fine and safe. Research has disproven some of the negative stereotypes about cannabis. In fact, many studies have shown that cannabis is beneficial to your health and overall well-being.

The same cannot be said for wet. When you smoke wet weed, you’re smoking PCP and the chemical they use to preserve cadavers. Not so appealing right? It get’s worse.

What is wet weed associated with? Violence. Seriously. There are stories from the media and through the grapevine about the horrific things that people have done after smoking wet. The most disturbing, and the best deterrent, is murder. In the past few years, there have been reports of wet users killing children and then killing themselves.

If that is somehow not enough to convince people not to smoke it, there have been other reports of the awful effects of smoking wet. This time, about respiratory failure.

It makes sense, really. When you smoke formaldehyde, you can likely expect that it could cause some pretty hefty disturbances in your heart and lungs.

Here’s how one study put it:

Marijuana use by itself has not been linked to respiratory failure; however, it has been associated with chronic respiratory problems, such as bronchitis, obstructive lung disease, and histopathologic airway changes. The inhalation of embalming fluid has been linked to bronchitis, lung damage, and airway ulcerations. Pulmonary complications have rarely been reported in association with PCP use.

Final Hit: What is Wet Weed?

We’re not telling you all this to scare you. There is no boogeyman out there trying to trick or convince normal cannabis smokers to ingest PCP and formaldehyde. This definitely isn’t some “Reefer Madness” campaign. We’re publishing this article so that you can be as informed as possible about what wet weed is and the consequences it can lead to. Knowledge is power, and we want you to be as knowledgeable as possible, so you don’t accidentally hurt yourself.