Kids Using Fake Marijuana -- The Next Big Drug?
By Nick Gillespie
Reason readers know we love "new drug of choice" stories, mostly imagined tales of dangerous new intoxicants sweeping the country, especially "the heartland," like hula hoops of yore. Coke is the new pot, which was the new crack after heroin was the new drug of choice, and on and on. And, lest we forget, pot was "the hula hoop of the Jet Generation!"
Here's the latest cycle: the fake pot product K2, a.k.a. "spice," "genie," or "zohai" (because all new threats need exotic, dangerous-sounding names). Sez AP in an article titled "Cops: Imitation pot as bad as the real thing,"
There may be nothing like the real thing, but some industrious marijuana users have seized on an obscure but easily accessible substance that mimics the drug's effects on the brain -- creating a popular trade in legal dope that has stymied law enforcement authorities. The users are buying a product known as K2 -- or "Spice," Genie" and "Zohai" -- that is commonly sold in head shops as incense. Produced in China and Korea, the mixture of herbs and spices is sprayed with a synthetic compound chemically similar to THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana. Users roll it up in joints or inhale it from pipes, just like the real thing.
Though banned in most of Europe, K2's key ingredients are not regulated in the United States -- a gap that has prompted lawmakers in Missouri and Kansas to consider new legislation.
"This isn't Jerry Garcia's marijuana," said state Rep. Jeff Roorda, a Democrat from the eastern Missouri town of Barnhart. "They've used chemicals to avoid creating something that's already illegal."...
A proposed bill in Missouri would make possession a felony punishable by up to seven years in prison -- identical to punishments given to users of real marijuana. A similar bill in Kansas would make possession a misdemeanor punishable, with up to a year in jail and a $2,500 fine, also the same as marijuana convictions....
The worst part of it all? Even by reading about it, you may be part of the problem!
Conner Moore, 20, who is taking a semester off from Moberly Community College, said he and his friends started smoking K2 after reading online news articles and postings about the substance. He compares the high to smoking medical marijuana. The high, he says, is shorter.
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I wish people would be more careful. My friends were telling me about some sort of blueberry K2 incense and I googled it and found out it is counterfeit. Apparently there are only a few authentic blends so the list of fakes is scary long and they don't quite know what is in those, http://www.k2incense.org . It's worth checking out if you buy this or know someone who does. Stay safe.....
Sorry no.. everyone knows that marijuana is better for you than any pill you could swallow...it has less risky side effects, and on top of that isn't going to kill your liver...watch out painkiller people becauses that is what that medication is doing..
I don't know if it's because they are afraid of this and people "being high" but what the hell do you think people on cough syrup, vicodin..etc..are? Sober? not really.
On top of all this.. you want to talk about health .. drinking does more harm to you than marijuana will ever do.. and cigarettes we all know are bad for us..
What I think the problem is, is that this stuff is hard to regulate and someone somewhere is going to lose money because of that.. heaven forbid pharmaceutical companies don't get all of their billions.. or maybe they can.. but can't we please please please stop being a nation full of idiots.. and stop letting "fears" about something half of the people afraid of it, haven't even looked into themselves stop us from being progressive.
hear say is for morons.. research is for people that have a brain.
This article seems to assume that the information about the use of "fake marijuana " is meant as a scare story. Gillespie suggests that the name has to be "exotic" to amplify the " threat ." But the name is presumably coined by users, not drug opponents intent on creating threat. If drugs are being used, should they not be reported on? Reading between the lines, the author implies that drugs are harmless.
Now, drug abuse and addiction seem to me antithetical to reason as drugs, including alcohol , affect the brain and its powers of reason. Legalizing drugs would lead to an increase in the number of abusers and addicts, lowering the number of reasonable people which the reason organization would seem to want to promote. It would also increase the number of underage users (according to statistics we have far more underage users of alcohol and tobacco than any illegal drug), which is correlated with lower grades and graduation rates, also decreasing the number of educated people who think reasonably.
If one doubts that alcoholics and drug addicts can reason effectively, I invite you to try to convince an addict by using reason that his using is harming himself or loved ones and that he should curtail or stop his/her use. Even if he/she is convinced, I suggest you follow through be determining whether this person can actually stop using.
You may construct lots of "reasonable" arguments for the legalization of drugs, such as the "harm" principle, but these substances are instrumental in aggravating numerous social problems such as domestic violence , homelessness, unemployment , school drop outs, traffic in women and prostitution , health care costs , theft, and on and on and do not create the greatest good for the greatest number. Monetary costs to society of the abuse of alcohol and drugs are enormous. Still, the illegal status of drugs has held down the % of abusers to less than 2% of the population versus a much higher % for legal drugs. Just because some people still use despite the consequences does not mean that drug laws do not prevent many others from using or conversely, that legalization would not increase use.
This country's drug laws as they apply to marijuana are based on nothing but lies and propeganda from the 20's and 30's. The people in charge of this dis-information rationalized that by lying about it, they would be doing a tremendous service to the brainless idiots/peasants of america that can't think for themselves. The problem is, the DEA still sticks to these "truths" as if they were fact. It's nice to see that many states have seen through this nonsense and have passed medical mary jane laws . How about making it legal altogether and most of all seperate it from other class III narcotics , which by definition, it is not part of anyways (it does have medical value). And lets also admit that Reagan and his war on drugs has done more to bankrupt and harm this country than our former nemisis "Communism" ever did. Kind of funny now that you think of it, Reagan turned out to be a bigger enemy of the U.S., and caused more harm to it's citizen's than Castro, Mao, Lenin and Stalin.
In 1994 in Switzerland started an experimental program
to sell heroin addicts heroin at very low cost or even give it to the addicts who cannot afford it. In 2008 68 percent of the Swiss voters voted to make the program permanent. Have Swiss heroin addiction rates skyrocketed? No, they have fallen.
In 2001 Portugal abolished all criminal penalties for personal possession of all drugs . Have the rates of drug use and abuse skyrocketed in Portugal? No, they have fallen.
So why do we continue with our failed drug policies?
Other than because lots of people, organizations and
industries have a vested financial interest in continuing
the status quo of drug prohibition .
When did our society decide that it is illegal or dangerous to get "high"? Geez,I understand not getting high on dangerous chemicals ,like the ones the pharmaceutical companies sell,and most of the chemical drugs sold by drug dealers are probably more dangerous from what the dealers added to it than the drug itself would be.if produced in professional industrial conditions but to make a law
out of fear of the unknown will be a total failure. Especially if you use politicians to make decisions on anything to do with protecting your heath or wealth.
When you look at the"outlawed" drugs of today,look past the problem going back to where there is no problem with it. As with cannabis ,as long as it is not tampered with,after 40 years of clinical testing of organic marijuana ,they can still cannot find any dangerous long term or short term side effects. Only when they isolate and synthetically create chemicals found in the hemp plant,can they even claim "possible links" with their research and a "dangerous" possible side effect.
As for cocaine ,go back to where it is grown,check for health problems among the growers,mortality statistics and such.
You will find that they don't have as many of the "health problems" associated with cocaine use by anyone else,because they chew the leaves and receive it in it's organic form,before man has tampered with it.
Opium is much the same,different mortality rates and less health issues when the opium is smoked or eaten in,it's organic form,
before man messes with it,
Look what man has done to corn and wheat,or just about any plant on earth,when he learned to distill alcohol from them,one of the most deadly drugs on the market,and it is legal .
Isn't it time we legalized drugs . We could sell them legally, collect taxes from them, lay off all those DEA cops (put them back in cruisers, patrolling and protecting our neighbourhoods) and put the drug gangs out of business. It's not as crazy as it sounds, look at the Dutch. They are a society we could all learn from.
K in Newfoundland, you aren't that crazy. But exactly where do we draw the line? You said: "isn't it time we legalized drugs "...well, yes and no. Should Heroin be legalized? I mean, that's a drug, right? OK, I'm sure you wouldn't be advocating the legalization of Heroin and crack because that would just be ridiculous. Might as well put meth in markets while we're at it.
In regards to your argument about Dutch society , while many believe drugs are legal there, by and large, they aren't. Certainly not coke, meth, crack, etc. Marijuana is...sort of. While you can possess marijuana there, it must be for "personal use" and not to be sold. Yes, there are cannabis bakeries, but guess what? They get raided by police periodically. Doesn't sound so free, does it? But when I reread your post, I get this distinct feeling you ARE advocating the legalization of all drugs, otherwise you would not have mentioned putting the drug gangs "out of business". The legalization of marijuana would do nothing to curtail drug cartels. Sure, it might put some dude at the local college out of commission, but small potatoes.
Okay, let's go with this assumption: we legalize drugs, the government gets levies from the sale of them, everybody is happy...well, how exactly would the US government procure kilos of Heroin, might I ask you? It's not like they can go to ikea to get the goods. It sounds like they would have to ... pay the drug lords. And it appears we are back at square one.
Do you really want to live in a world where crack is legal? Really?
As for this cheap garbage they are pawning off as marijuana, it sounds like another in the long line of "things to get high off of" and will eventually be replaced invariably by some other fad. FWIW, head shops have been selling "fake marijuana" since the advent of Bob Marley. What's so revolutionary this time?
Back when heroin was available from the Sears catalog and the corner drugstore, the US addiction rate was no different than that of today. What was different was that we had no drug crime . None. Zip. Not when your next fix was as close as the mailbox.
Pharmaceutical companies can produce an ounce of synthetic, pure cocaine for around $20, and heroin is about the same cost . So your belief the cartels would be suppliers to a legal market is silly.
We already live in a world where crack is de facto legal: it can be obtained in any city in any state by virtually anyone of any age with cash money . A legal and regulated market would actually make it more difficult for young Americans - the same ones drug prohibition is designed to protect - to obtain drugs .
The only valid point you make is that legalizing cannabis will not curtail cartels. In fact, a good case can be made that legalizing pot will actually increase cartel activity and violence as they work to replace revenues lost to the legal market.