TAMPA, Fla.--In November, California voters had the opportunity to change history by voting for the legalization of recreational marijuana. The proposition failed by only nine percent. This left smokers without a prescription for medical marijuana to resort to harmful synthetic materials marketed as incense like the popular brand K2. Then, last week, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) also issued an emergency federal ban on those products. November has been a dead end for people wanting to get high.
But as fast as they are being banned, companies are coming up with new alternatives. According to the K2 website, who claims to be the official source, there is a new generation of products they developed that they claim are completely legal and not covered by the ban. None of these five new scents are fruit or candy flavored which takes away the appeal for kids. These new products are adorned with an official seal.
As of November 24, 2010, the DEA has announced temporary placement of five synthetic cannabinoids into Schedule-I of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), including the substances JWH-018 and JWH-073.
Based on a finding by the DEA Deputy Administrator, the placement of the synthetic cannabinoids into Schedule-I of the CSA is necessary to avoid an imminent hazard to the public safety.
There are five schedules of controlled substances under the CSA. For a substance to be placed on Schedule-I, which already includes marijuana, LSD, and Ecstasy, it must have a high potential for abuse, have no current accepted medical use in treatment in the states, and a lack of accepted safety.
A trip to several smoke shops and convenience stores in the Tampa Bay area revealed the instant availability of synthetic marijuana. K2, a blend of spices, moonlights as an incense but people are actually smoking it to catch a buzz.
What they are actually smoking is a blend of various herbs and chemicals called JWH-018 and JWH-073. It appeals to teenagers and young adults because the incense comes in fruity “scents” like grape, strawberry and cotton candy, while the back of the package reads “not for human consumption.”
The chemicals are produced in China by an unknown company and were flying under the United States’ regulation radar for years. JWH-018 and JWH-073 were invented by Dr. John Huffman at Clemson University in 1995. Huffman was conducting medical research on the effects of cannabinoids on the brain. The only side effects found were negative. The mix started to be reproduced to create a legal alternative to the marijuana.
Some question why dangerous products like K2 were available for purchase for ages 18 years old and up, but marijuana, which is legal in 16 states for medicinal purposes, is still illegal for recreational use.
Gabriella Gonzalez, 22, a French major at the University of South Florida, said she has been smoking weed since she was 16 years old. Gonzalez has never experienced any negative side effects, but has from trying K2.
“The only negative effects I’ve seen in other people from smoking marijuana are panic attacks and paranoia,” said Gonzalez, “but I did have a bad headache from smoking K2. It didn’t work the same and it tasted gross.”
According to information derived from an FDA report from 1997 to 2005, marijuana has been the primary cause of death in zero cases, where as other FDA approved drugs racked up over 10,000 deaths. Two of those drugs were the popular Viagra, which cause 2,254 deaths in that time period, and Vioxx, which caused 4,540 deaths.
“If weed were legalized, I think it would make it less of a gateway drug because you would have to buy it from federally or state sanctioned places like a gas station or a smoke shop or something where it would be contained,” said Gonzalez. “People would have to be either 21 or 18, versus young kids in high school who just go to drug dealers who don’t care how old they are.”
Gonzalez believes that this would solve the riddle of marijuana being a gateway drug.
“A lot of drug dealers have other drugs out and that would make kids more likely to try them. That’s the gateway; buying it from an illegal source and being influenced by that lifestyle,” said Gonzalez.
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