Recently legislation was introduced in Pennsylvania to ban substances marketed under the names Spice, K2 and others. These products, sold as incense, contain synthetic cannabinoids and are being used as a new designer drug.
We’ve been following the details of these products with cannabinoid research scientist Jahan Marcu. Here are our blogs about this emerging topic:
Celebstoner.com: The Truth About Spice & K2
Examiner.com: Facts about new synthetic drugs K2 or Spice
Marcu's blog : www.cannabination.com
Prohibition of the new fad drug is problematic and could be very expensive for local law enforcement authorities. Incorrectly called “fake pot” or “synthetic marijuana” by the media, the substances are chemical based and are much different than natural cannabis.
Users seek it out because standard drug tests will not detect it in blood or urine. There are no field tests or intoxication tests for Spice products that police, crime laboratories or prosecutors can utilize. One test for Spice has been marketed in Russia recently, but it has not been adopted even in states with existing bans. PA could spend the money necessary to develop those tests, but the costs would easily tally up to millions of tax dollars.
Almost 30,000 Pennsylvania residents are arrested every year for marijuana violations. This huge expenditure of resources already contributes to the clogging of our courts and prisons.
Natural marijuana is, thankfully, far more ubiquitous than Spice. But there is no reason to extend senseless prohibition onto these synthetic substances.
The psychoactive ingredients in Spice are actually chemicals made for laboratory use. Local bans of these chemicals may have a chilling effect on priceless academic research. It may also negatively affect existing research in PA, even some done with federal funding.
Cannbinoid scientist Jahan Marcu explained those concerns:
Think about the guys who invented JWH-018. This is probably the worst nightmare imaginable for a researcher to have the product of their hard work for many years, decades maybe, turned into a designer drug of abuse. Because then it gets banned and essentially your chapter in research history is over because your access to the drug vanishes. If they go systematically down the list banning all of the JWH compounds, those are less compounds we can use to enhance our knowledge of how the endo-cannabinoid system works. Read full
Prohibition has never been an effective public policy. Spice products require careful attention and study to be sure. But, the only reason users seek out Spice is to get a pot-like high and then pass a drug test. It would be far safer and less costly for Pennsylvania to legalize marijuana than it will be to ban Spice synthetics.
The Philadelphia NORML Examiner will continue to follow the story of Pennsylvania’s new Spice prohibition bill.
PhillyNORML www.phillynorml.org
by Chris Goldstein, the Philadephia NORML Examiner. Chris is on the Board of Directors at PhillyNORML and NORMLNJ. He may be contacted through media@phillynorml.org
>>Subscribe to the Philadelphia NORML Examiner – it’s free!
NJ: Medical Marijuana Stakeholders Meeting planned
New Jersey medical marijuana law goes back to basics
Philly/PA topics
Philadelphia: Details of the new marijuana procedure
New poll shows 8 in 10 support medical marijuana in PA
PA: Quinnipiac poll 59% say medical marijuana is a ‘good idea’
VIDEO: Philadelphia 2010 marijuana march speeches by PhillyNORML and PA4MMJ
PA Senate considers medical marijuana, patients call for support
VIDEO: PhillyNORML 2010 Global Marijuana March
AIDS Law Project, ACLU-PA endorse medical marijuana
Conservative Rabbi backs PA medical marijuana
Video: PA medical marijuana hearings - Son speaks of dying mother
Philly: White women rarely arrested for pot
PhillyNORML 4/20: Photos, review and news video
PhillyNORML kicks off 4/20 on the Preston & Steve Show
Comments
They are delusional for thinking a ban is going to stop people from getting their hands on this stuff. I wish people would be more careful though. My friends were telling me about some sort of blueberry k2 incense and I googled it and found out it is counterfeit k2 incense. Apparently there are only a few authentic blends. The list of fakes is scary long, http://www.k2incense.org. It's worth checking out if you buy this or know someone who does. Stay safe.....
They banned FIVE well known cannabinoids. There are hundreds or thousands less well known. What a piss poor use of our legislators time and OUR tax dollars. We would have been better served if they all stayed home sick that day.
Oh, and further, when GERMANY banned JWH-018 (the then-active ingredient in Spice), Spice was reintroduced within a week, but with a different, LEGAL active ingredient called jwh-073, another of the five chemicals banned by HB176. If Germany were to ban the JWH-073, the manufacturers of Spice have myriad suitable legal chemicals available, as it isn't a specific TYPE of chemical they are trying to illegalize, it's receptors in YOUR brain that the legislators are against stimulating. The chemicals they banned today have NOTHING in common with marijuana beside the particular brain receptors they target. Talk about invasive legislation!! Now they are trying to legislate WHICH PARTS OF YOUR BRAIN YOU ARE ALLOWED TO USE!!!
I think its B.S.!!!!!!!!
Got something to say?
Examiner.com is looking for writers, photographers, and videographers to join the fastest growing group of local insiders. If you are interested in growing your online rep apply to be an Examiner today!