The 911 call placed on behalf of Demi Moore last month suggested the actress may have endured a highly-negative reaction to synthetic marijuana, also known as K2, or Spice.
The caller said that Moore had been smoking something other than marijuana, and similar to incense. Synthetic marijuana is often packaged under names like "K2," "spice," "herbal incense," and "potpourri."
The caller frantically claimed that Moore, while breathing, was convulsing. The use of synthetic cannabinoids, like K2, can produce anxiety, hallucinations and convulsions, according to recent studies. Because synthetic marijuana is so recent to the drug scene, more studies are needed.
Moore survived. But not everyone does. What makes synthetic marijuana so dangerous is that it is far more potent than cannabis and can lead to toxic, even fatal reactions.
A 13-year-old Pennsylvania boy suffered chemical burns to his lungs from smoking synthetic pot. The lung injuries were so grave the boy underwent a double lung transplant. He died from complications of an infection.
Emergencies stemming from the use of synthetic pot are rising drastically. According to the American Association of Poison Control Centers, centers around the country reported receiving 6,955 calls last year involving people who were harmfully exposed. That's well more than double the reports in 2010.
The dangers of synthetic marijuana led, in March, 2011, to the temporary classification of five synthetic cannabinoids as a schedule 1 substance.
The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) divides controlled substances into five categories. Schedule 1 is the most restrictive. Drugs that are in this category are considered not only highly abusive but also have no currently accepted medical use. Schedule I drugs include, heroin, ecstasy, and LSD .
The Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984, in fact, authorizes the U.S. Attorney General to ban products that pose an "imminent hazard to the public safety."
Today, 43 U.S. states have passed or proposed a law banning the sale of specific chemicals contained in synthetic marijuana and other dangerous drugs such as "bath salts."
Synthetic cannabinoids are widely available online, where they are typically marketed as "spice," "incense" or "potpourri." Manufacturers are playing a cat-and-mouse game with authorities: Every time one chemical gets banned, makers substitute another chemical, chemically virtually identical in its composition and effects, to circumvent a ban. The solution to implement a broader, widespread ban on synthetic chemicals has yet to overcome legislative hurdles.
Even if federal laws are passed, their enforcement, say prosecutors, is difficult and time consuming. The result is that these highly-toxic synthetic cannabinoids are readily available to drug seekers and can be obtained in many convenience stores without fear of prosecution.
When packaged, synthetic marijuana looks like the real thing, and when smoked, tastes and feels like the real thing.
But it's not the real thing. "Monster weed" (synthetic pot, now K2 and its related family of compounds), originally developed by a Clemson University organic chemistry professor to test on lab animals, is much more potent. And it can lead to convulsions, seizures, paranoia, hallucinations, paranoia and high blood pressure.
What can be done to reduce synthetic drug abuse, of K2 and many other dangerous drugs, is not simply legislation or enforcement. It is education, public awareness and early intervention. That was what the White House Drug "Czar" Gil Kerlikowske, with whom I met in New York at the DEA's most recent National Prescription Drug Take Back Day in October 2011, told me.
Like most public health hazards, treatment and law enforcement mutually support one another. Communities must become more vigilant at recognizing the dangers of synthetic marijuana. Public awareness about its dangers can reduce its use and help channel people to treatment. We are at risk of an epidemic that could impose a costly human, social and economic toll. Law enforcement is a necessary but limited means of drug control, as we know dating back to the days of prohibition. But the media high profile emergency involving Demi Moore should serve as a public warning about the dangers of synthetic marijuana in a way that is far more effective than what many academicians and doctors are able to convey.
Let's all do the right thing and demand that the war on cannabis end. This war has done enough harm to our society and as intelligent educated people, we should no longer accept it.
That being said, K2 is crap, and people should stick to the safe, natural alternative: Good old American-grown marijuana.
If the people who want to use marijuana could grow a few plants in their own back yards, it would be about as valuable as home-grown tomatoes; it would put the chemical garbage out of business and get it out of our neighborhoods.
That is the only reason anyone smokes this crap. The only reason.
The kid that had the double lung transplant smoked his fake pot out of a plastic pez dispenser. The plastic has more to do with his death than anything else. It's still a sad tragic senseless death that never should have happened, but it was not the fake weed.
If real weed were legal this crap would vanish like a fart in the wind.
NO. What makes these things dangerous is ignorant writers and pundits who use the word "marijuana" when they describe these things. It's not marijuana, and does not produce a "high" like marijuana. The chemicals used are not even similar to THC, except for the fact that they attach to the brain's receptors for THC.
Simply put, from the experiences of many, it DOES NOT "when smoked, tastes and feels like the real thing. .." The good doctor needs to try some real, good weed, and then some of this adulterated incense... or stop writing like someone out of "Reefer Madness."
It's truly a shame that a millionaire flaky spacecase like Moore cannot go out and get a doctors' note, or just buy some normal, harmless, and safe marijuana.
Also, the death of a 13 year old boy from smoking ANYTHING out of a burning plastic toy isn't really a good case to add on to this story. I'm certainly not saying this crap is safe, but why has nobody else died from smoking crap? Yes, other kids have died from smoking with plastic toys, but it's like saying a brick wall killed a man drunk driving.
,No. Your own government developed this shit.
Go to. http://inventors.about.com/od/hstartinventors/a/Synthetic-Marijuana.htm
The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) divides controlled substances into five categories. Schedule 1 is the most restrictive. Drugs that are in this category are considered not only highly abusive but also have no currently accepted medical use. Schedule I drugs include, heroin, ecstasy, and LSD.
You probably came to the same conclusion I did. Is it me or did the writer of this article about synthetic "marijuana" purposely omit cannabis from the listed schedule 1 drugs here as if it were a given?? Or did they omit it to prevent people's reasoning to connect one dot to the other which is... you got, end prohibition on cannabis.
Why are people so afraid of this miracle plant that could possibly fix so many problems for this country, let alone the world? To find truth you must first find confusion. The path to truth is one of questions not answers. Arrogance is a blindfold. Don't let fear and arrogance blindfold you.
Everyone who has been paying attention knows marijuana is less "addictive" than coffee and FAR less harmful than alcohol. Indeed, polls show public support for ending the marijuana prohibition has now passed 50 percent - nationwide. So why do we still have this barbaric persecution?
Because police, prosecutors and politicians build their careers and empires on it. Because industries like alcohol and pharmaceuticals don't want the competition. Because other interests like the drug treatment/testing industry and the prison industries depend on it for their life's blood. Because many shaky corporations couldn't exist without the laundered money. And because government uses marijuana prohibition as a means of controlling minorities and the poor.
Of course, the TRILLIONS of dollars made by the drug gangs have not been buried in the ground. They have been invested in legitimate business, causing another huge support of this persecution of millions of innocent people.
For a good view underneath the iceburg, see Catherine Austin Fitts' excellent article: "Narco Dollars For Beginners." - keeping in mind that while Fitts employs cocaine because it best suits her metaphor, FBI statistics show marijuana sales comprise 80 percent of all "illegal" drug transactions.
http://www.ratical.org/co-globalize/narcoDollars.html
Secondly, this so-called "problem" is easily solved -- it doesn't even have to exist. It's a "problem" caused by cannabis prohibition. These incense products (and bath salts) are no different than the deadly bathtub gin and wood-grain alcohol that was produced during the days of alcohol prohibition. They exist only because the real thing is irrationally illegal. We don't need to ban more stuff, we need to un-ban the safer alternatives.
L E G A L I Z E .
CA | Regulate Marijuana Like Wine (http://regulatemarijuanalikewine.com/)
CA | Repeal Cannabis Prohibition 2012 (http://repealcannabisprohibition.org)
CO | Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol (http://www.regulatemarijuana.org/)
CO | Re-Legalize 2012 (http://www.legalize2012.com)
MI | End Marijuana Prohibition (https://help.repealtoday.org/)
MO | Show-Me Cannabis Regulation (http://show-mecannabis.com)
MT | Montana First (http://www.montanafirst2012.org)
NE | Nebraska Proposition 19 (http://www.neprop19.org/)
OR | Oregon Cannabis Tax Act (http://cannabistaxact.org)
OR | Citizens for Sensible Law Enforcement (http://endprohibitionagain.com/)
OR | Sensible Oregon (http://www.SensibleOregon.org)
WA | Washington Marijuana Legalization and Regulation (http://newapproachwa.org/)
WA | Yes End Penalties (http://yesendpenaltieswa.org/)
http://www.Legalizers.org
This is just ONE MORE monstrously destructive harm of the fraudulently enacted marijuana prohibition.
Support ALL initiatives to re-legalize marijuana!
Mary Jane Warners please come to the front desk immediately!
Monday, Sep. 07, 1931
CRIME: Muggles
Ten cents' worth of a certain bird seed, planted in any back yard, will grow into a yardful of marijuana. Marijuana is a variety of hemp weed (Cannabis sativa) long common in Mexico, lately becoming common in the U. S. Its leaves can be dried, ground and rolled into cigarets, which are bootlegged under the name of "muggles," "reefers," or "Mary Warners." Thinner, shorter than standard cigarets, "muggles" are made from the small delicate leaves of the female marijuana plant. The male plant has no potency.
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,742157,00.html
The government throws the lies about cannabis,and they fool some of the people,but it is obvious that people enjoy it,and that the only real hazard to using it is getting caught by the police.
Grow your own,don't try to make money from it,help your friends grow and share your bounty.
In a truly free society, violent actions against others should be criminal but criminalizing even stupid behavior around what any American decides to eat, drink or even smoke goes against everything America is all about.