A Spanish researcher recently claimed that out of 90 hash samples he collected, 75 percent contained high amounts of E. coli bacteria, a sign of fecal contamination.

The study was led by Manuel Pérez Moreno, a veterinarian pharmacist at Madrid’s Complutense University. The project took a year to complete, and it required Moreno reaching out to illicit drug dealers to obtain the hash samples.

Just how did all this poop get into the hash? In Spain, hash typically comes in small packages called acorns or bellotas. To make an acorn, smugglers wrap up hash pellets in a plastic film. Then, they swallow the acorns to bypass security at ports of entry.

Once clear, the smugglers find a toilet and pop a squat, pushing out the hash packets along with the rest of their colon’s contents, reported El Pais. Some of the samples Moreno scored contained so much feces they reeked of scat.

Cannabis currently exists in an uncanny legal gray area in Spain. Weed is decriminalized for personal use, but commercial production and sales are illegal. The government only permits the sale of medical weed in the form of the pharmaceutical spray Sativex.

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