Doctors in Germany reported dozens of cases of serious poisoning due to the presence of lead in marijuana packets. It appears that drug dealers looking for extra profits added lead flakes to packets of marijuana, inflating their value and causing serious consequences.

After examining some of the contaminated marijuana packets, doctors found that the lead made up, on average, 10 % of the material in the marijuana packets.

It has been evaluated that adding such amounts of lead boosted profits by about $1,500 (1,000 euros) per kilogram (2.2 pounds) of marijuana. Since packages contained obvious lead particles, the investigators concluded that the lead was deliberately added rather than inadvertently incorporated into the marijuana plants from contaminated soil.

The incident was discovered last year after first of 29 patients, aged 16 to 33, started signing up to four Leipzig hospitals symptoms such as abdominal cramps, fatigue, nausea and varying degrees of anemia. One was ill enough to be suffering from hallucinations.

A common pattern was uncover 8 weeks after: all sufferers were young, smoked, had body piercings and were either students or unemployed and all regularly used marijuana.

These people’s stashes tested positive for lead contamination, with one even having lead flakes obvious under a microscope. Two weeks after, anonymous screenings uncovered additional 95 people who needed treatment.

So far, about 200 people have been identified. Although it does not appear that the practice is continuing among dealers, the screenings are continuing to take place.