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Retailers Fight Efforts to Ban "Fake Marijuana" [FEATURE]

Submitted by Phillip Smith on (Issue #668)
Drug War Issues

Although the DEA's bid to ban synthetic cannabinoids at the federal level has been stymied, at least temporarily, bills to ban it at the state level are moving through legislatures in at least a half-dozen states and more will probably follow this year. They are already banned in a dozen other states. But retailers' representatives say that "fake pot" is a multi-billion dollar a year industry that should be regulated, not prohibited.

synthetic marijuana -- gone in some states, going in others? (image via Wikimedia)
In products going under a variety of brand names, such as Spice and K2, and sold widely in head shops, convenience stores, and gas stations, as well as via the Internet, synthetic cannabinoids are sprayed onto dried plant matter. Although the products are marketed as incense and sometimes marked "not for human consumption," they are typically smoked by purchasers in a bid to replicate a marijuana high with a legal substance.

While advocates of banning the synthetic cannabinoids describe them as harmful and dangerous, there is little evidence they are addictive or especially toxic. There are no known overdose fatalities from Spice, although at least one suicide has been linked by grieving parents to recent use. Other reported adverse effects of synthetic cannabinoids include panic attacks, anxiety, agitation, rapid heartbeat, vomiting, hallucinations, tremors, and seizures.

The American Association of Poison Control Centers reported last week that it had received more than 2,800 calls about Spice last year and another 217 through January 18. The calls were "causing increased concern among doctors and clinicians," the group said.

"These products present a health risk that is not worth it for consumers," said Missouri Poison Center Medical Director Anthony J. Scalzo, MD, who first noticed increased calls about these products to his center last fall. "The products are meant to create a similar reaction to marijuana, but in fact, patients often report the opposite -- a fast, racing heartbeat, elevated blood pressure and nausea."

But representatives of retailers say the concerns are overblown. They point to a relatively low number of reported adverse events, a lack of evidence of life-threatening side effects, and fending off Puritanism as reasons to regulate instead of prohibit synthetic cannabinoids.

"My estimate is that this industry is worth $2 to $3 billion at the retail level, so we are talking about up to 100 million $30 doses," said Dan Francis of the Retail Compliance Association, the group representing retailers that forced the DEA to back away, at least for now, from its emergency ban on synthetic cannabinoids. "If we're talking about 3,000 reports to poison control centers, it would seem that the incidence of problems is extremely low."

Francis also reacted to some of the hyperbolic rhetoric surrounding the danger of synthetic cannabinoids and the need for emergency action. "The typical side effects that are being reported are anxiety, agitation and nervousness," he said. "There are no reports of any side effects lasting more than a few hours."

"These substances are very widely used and they've been around for awhile. They're sold in head shops across America and a large number of gas stations, and there have been a few cases where people have freaked out and gone to the hospital, but that happens with marijuana, too," said Dustin Bayer of the Small Business Alliance, a group representing entrepreneurs challenging the federal ban effort. "It's not physical problems, but more like anxiety attacks."

The complaints of the retailers' representatives notwithstanding, bills to ban the synthetics are moving in the following states:

In Arizona, HB 2167, an emergency measure adding synthetic cannabinoids to the state's list of dangerous drugs and providing the same penalties as those for marijuana, passed the passed the House Judiciary and the House Rules committee last week on unanimous votes. It now heads to the House Floor.

In Indiana, SB 57, which outlaws synthetic cannabinoids and punishes them like marijuana, passed the Senate on a 47-0 vote last Friday. Two days earlier, the House Criminal Codes Committee approved its version of the bill. It now awaits a House floor vote.

In Minnesota, HF 57, which make sale of fake pot a gross misdemeanor punishable by a year in jail and possession a misdemeanor punishable by 90 days in jail, passed the House Public Safety Committee Monday and has been referred to the house Judiciary Policy Committee.

In Utah, HB 23, which would add synthetic cannabinoids to the state's controlled substances list, passed the House Health and Human Services Committee and is headed for the House Floor. A less restrictive bill that would ban their sale to people under age 19, HB 200, passed the House Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Committee, but its sponsor said he would withdraw it if the more draconian bill passed.

In Virginia, SB 748, which add a new category of controlled substances to include synthetic cannabinoids, was passed by the Senate Committee on Courts and Justice Tuesday. The bill would make punishments similar to those for marijuana.

In West Virginia, SB 63, which would ban fake pot in the Mountaineer State, passed the Senate Health and Human Services Committee Tuesday, but only after being amended. The original version of the bill also included a ban on salvia divinorum, but that was dropped in the version approved by the committee.

Indiana state Sen. Ron Alting (R-Lafayette), who sponsored the Indiana ban bill, provided a typical rationale in an interview with the South Bend Tribune. "This is something that is just a real, real bad substance," he said, adding that "the hallucinations produced by synthetic cannabinoids are 10 times stronger than those from marijuana."

Alting said doctors and police had told him of people falling into comas, being temporarily paralyzed, or trying to kill themselves after using fake pot. And he said teenagers in his home district convinced him of the need for a ban when he asked them why anyone would smoke synthetic cannabindoids.

"They looked at me and said, 'Because it's legal,'" he said."Let's put an end to that comeback from young people and anyone else using this."

"Why do they want to make criminals out of store clerks?" asked an exasperated Francis. "It's an insane endeavor to enforce felony-quality laws on people who are just struggling to get by. Why don't they consider regulation instead? There's a myriad of those chemicals out there -- we could have good manufacturing regulations, batch and lot numbers, restricting it to people over 21. Those are the kinds of things we're working on right now."

"I would ask those legislators what danger does this pose?" said Bayer. "There is no shown danger. The people who want to ban it want to ban it for moral reasons, the same way they want to ban marijuana. It's not a scientific issue or an issue of danger, it's really more of a moral issue."

Permission to Reprint: This content is licensed under a modified Creative Commons Attribution license. Content of a purely educational nature in Drug War Chronicle appear courtesy of DRCNet Foundation, unless otherwise noted.

Comments

earl (not verified)

I smoked some K2 with a friend last month. The stuff works but tastes disgusting, like pipe tobacco. How do they get away with not listing the ingredients on the packaging? What is the non-psychoactive crap we are smoking, anyway? It is said companies simply spray some innocuous herbs with the JW class of synthetic cannibinoids but what are those herbs? Also, could someone please explain to me what justification would allow synthetic cannibinoids to be made illicit in states that have medical marijuana laws? It seems to me producers of synthetic cannibinoids could be protected in states that allow cannabis for patients. Ironically, one could use the twisted logic of the Federal Analogue Act, citing the legality of marinol in certain cases.
Thu, 01/27/2011 - 3:05am Permalink
ganj (not verified)

THE GOOD NEWS ABOUT K2 / SPICE / and the DEA; now that the feds. have equated k2 / spice with marijuana, they have handed us the MOST POWERFULL arguement to use against them, so far. we just say; -yes, k2 / spice is just like marijuana, THEREFORE, WE HAVE HAD; -FULLY LEGAL MARIJUANA- IN ALL 50 STATES, -AND THE SKY DID NOT FALL !! MILLIONS OF PEOPLE DID NOT GET ADDICTED. SOCIETY DID NOT END. THERE WERE NOT MILLIONS OF CAR CRASHES. THERE WERE NOT MILLIONS OF PEOPLE GOING TO WORK STONED / SMOKING AT WORK, CAUSING ACCIDENTS AND FATALITIES. ALL THE PREDICTED DOOM AND GLOOM AND ANARCHY, NEVER HAPPENED !! LIFE WENT ON, EXACTLY AS BEFORE !! -and except for LEGAL AGE REQUIREMENTS, it was FULLY LEGAL !! JUST LIKE WITH ALCOHOL, IF YOU ARE CLEARLY OVER AGE, THERE IS NO NEED TO SHOW ANY I.D. AT ALL !! JUST LIKE WITH tobacco and prescription pills, it is LEGAL TO DRIVE AFTER SMOKING K2 /SPICE !! (intoxication is what matters, not zero tolerance) NO DATABASES REQUIRED FOR SMOKERS !! NO SEARCHES AND SEIZURES, BECAUSE IT IS LEGAL !! NO ARRESTS, BECAUSE IT IS LEGAL !! NO ONE OUNCE LIMITS, OR ONE POUND LIMITS, NO LIMITS OF ANY KIND !! NO ONE BEING PISS TESTED, OR DENIED EMPLOYMENT !! NO EXTREME SECURITY REQUIREMENTS for sellers !! NO SPECIAL LICENCES / PERMITS / FEES REQUIRED for sellers !! NO SPECIAL 'DRUG-FREE' ZONES AROUND SCHOOLS, PARKS, PLAYGROUNDS !! NO SPECIAL I.D. CARDS OR FINGERPRINTING FOR SMOKERS !! NO SPECIAL TAXES; SALES TAXES COLLECTED WERE THE SAME AS ANY OTHER TAXABLE PRODUCT !! JUST LIKE tobacco and alcohol, IT WAS NOT ON THE 'SCHEDULE' SYSTEM; not schedule 1, or 2, or 3, or 4, or 5. CAN USE FOR RECREATIONAL USE !! CAN USE FOR MEDICAL USE !! CAN USE FOR RELIGIOUS USE !! it was FULLY LEGAL, AND THE SKY DID NOT FALL !! THEREFORE, IF WE FULLY LEGALIZE REAL MARIJUANA, THE SKY WILL NOT FALL !! SO; that's EXACTLY what we need to shoot for. MAKE MARIJUANA TOTALLY, COMPLETELY, FULLY, 100 % LEGAL !! (for adults)
Thu, 01/27/2011 - 7:58am Permalink
aarghiisfrowny (not verified)

I don't think they are required to list any ingredients if it's not 'intended' for human consumption.

Thu, 01/27/2011 - 12:51pm Permalink
gerald.sutliff… (not verified)

Banning Spice the like makes just as much sense as banning marijuana, well, maybe a little more.  Let's put the Spice merchants and their ilk out of business by legalizing MJ.

Thu, 01/27/2011 - 2:13pm Permalink
maxwood (not verified)

"Synthetic cannabinoids"-- 3000 (in one year) poison center reports; one alleged suicide

Salvia divinorum -- numerous reports; one alleged suicide

Nicotiana tabacum --

*  435,000 (slow, ex$pensive) deaths per year

*   (thousands per year?) sudden traffic fatalities, attributed to alcohol, where "a $igarette or  two" emboldened a drunk to drive

*  (thousands per year?) homicides, attributed to alcohol, where "a $igarette or two" helped an angry drunk remember to bring the gun along

*  (thousands per year?) fatalities in urban building fires "caused by a $igarette"

Thu, 01/27/2011 - 6:11pm Permalink
GregF (not verified)

K-2 is simply today's bathtub gin.   And the simplest way to make it go away is the same way our grandparents made bathtub gin go away.   People don't want fake marijuana, they want the real thing.   They only turn to a dangerous substitute like K-2 when they prohibition blocks their access to the much more benign real thing.

Thu, 01/27/2011 - 6:56pm Permalink
primus (not verified)

This is another example of politicians making a mountain out of a molehill so they can 'save' us from the mountain that never was.  Why do they do this?  Because it has always worked.  I think we should start laughing at their stupidity, not railing against it.  Nobody likes being laughed at and called stupid, especially when the finger-pointer has his facts right and chides the stupid politician for being stupid.

Thu, 01/27/2011 - 9:06pm Permalink
Anonymous1 (not verified)

Generally, the substance the JWH is sprayed onto is just simple vegetable mullion, sometimes mixed with other known organic and legal psychoactive herbs for a little extra kick. 

Probably not the best thing to smoke, but likely not the worst either.  In any event, if it is the above it is organic so no huge worries, except for maybe your lungs because smoking anything isn't good for them.
 

Sat, 01/29/2011 - 4:04pm Permalink

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