K2 or Spice: The New Synthetic Marijuana - It's Legal but is it Safe?

K2 is an up and coming new high that is currently legal and unregulated. The product, sold in tobacco, novelty, and herbal shops as potpourri or mediation incense, are found under various names such as K2, Spice, Genie, "fake pot", Blaze, Red X Dawn and Zohai with different blends known as standard, citron, blonde, summit or pink. K2 (or more commonly known as Spice) has been sold since 2006 and its popularity is growing.

K2 is an herbal mixture of dried spice plants and other herbs resembling potpourri and typically sold as incense. Some ingredients listed on the packaging have included Canavalia rosea (called beach bean, bay bean and found in tropical and subtropical beach dunes), Clematis vitalba (a shrub also known as Old Man's Beard and Traveller's Joy), and Nelumbo nucifera (known as lotus, Indian lotus, and sacred lotus). Pedicularis grandifolia (related to Figwort and geraniums), Heimia salicifolia (a shrub with five petaled yellow flowers, also found in the United States and with hallucinogenic properties). Leonurus sibiricus (native to central and Southwest Asia, but naturalized in the United States), and Ledum palustre (an evergreen shrub related to the genus Rhododendron and found in North America).

What makes it similar in effect to that of marijuana is the addition of chemicals called JWH-073, a chemical similar to JWH-018. Other chemicals have also been found when tested that included HU-210. These chemicals produce a high similar to that of marijuana but with more potency that may be dangerous to those using it and are synthetic compounds that produce physical and mental effects similar to tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). In most states, these chemicals are neither illegal nor regulated and with no restrictions.

The list of alleged side effects is hallucinations, delusions, severe agitation, elevated heart rate and blood pressure, vomiting, tremors, and seizures. There have been a few cases where individuals suffered blackouts that lasted for several hours or developed catalepsy, a nervous condition causing a fixed body posture. Some of the symptoms such as increased agitation and elevated blood pressure and heart rates, did not match up with symptoms associated with marijuana. The chemicals have not been tested on humans so little is known about any side effects, dangerous or not.

However, some states are taking steps to introduce legislation to outlaw K2, including Illinois, Missouri, and Kansas. It is already illegal in other countries such as Austria, Britain, Poland, Chile, Germany, France, Russia and South Korea. It has also been banned on some, but not all, United States military facilities.

Opponents to the ban want K2 left alone and regulated with no sales to minors and standards set for the ingredients, saying that the hysteria and hype over K2 is unwarranted. They believe prohibition has already proven to be ineffective with marijuana, whereas regulation and taxation would keep drug dealers from adding other ingredients that could cause actual harm to users and provide needed revenue to the states.

Should K2 be regulated and taxed or should it be banned outright and criminalized without any testing or studies being compiled? Time will tell because the drug is here to stay.

Sources:
Fake Weed, Real Drug: K2 Causing Hallucinations in Teens, By Jeanna Bryner, LiveScience Managing Editor, 03 March 2010
Toxicologist Warning to Parents: Look for Signs of K2 -- 'Fake Marijuana', ScienceDaily, March 3, 2010
K2, marijuana substitute catches attention of Missouri legislature, by Trysta Eakin, February 09, 2010
'K2' poses dangers and should be illegal, By Calvina Fay, March 3, 2010
Don't criminalize 'K2,' regulate it, By Grant Smith, March 3, 2010