Aus - Smokers blow off synthetic weed

[poledriver]

Aus - Smokers blow off synthetic weed

The use of synthetic cannabis has halved in the past year, thanks to bad trips and legal changes.

It's been three years since Hack documented the rising use of the synthetic cannabis, often dubbed kronic. At the time, it had the advantage of being legal and undetectable on drug tests.

Now, the latest drug survey from the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre (NDARC) has found that synthetic cannabis use has halved in the past decade.

NDARC Associate Professor Lucy Burns says the research shows users are being turned off it after having nasty experiences.

"Experience with using the substance is not a positive one for people, so when they go out and use they'd rather not use again," she explained.

Iain McGregor is a professor of psychopharmacology at the University of Sydney.

He says these products mimic THC by binding to cannabinoid receptors in our brain, but around 100 times stronger than the natural stuff.

"That means that rather than giving these receptors a nice little tickle and giving a subtle modulation of brain function, some of them are extremely strong on the receptor and kind of punch it.

"That's why people can really spin out and badly and get anxious and paranoid on synthetic products."

But they don't just bind to the cannabinoid receptors, they attach to other receptors in the brain and can cause damage.

"So it might hit receptors for serotonin, it might hit receptors for dopamine, for adrenaline, it might hit receptors that are critical to cardiovascular function, or kidney function, or sexual function," he said.

Professor McGregor says synthetic cannabis is probably more aligned with hard drugs than natural cannabis, but not enough research has been done.

"The actual science of investigating the toxicity of these products is lagging."

With a 24 minute sound cloud embed of the radio show -

https://storify.com/triplejHack/smokers-blow-off-synthetic-weed

 

[poledriver]

I bought one of those packs of kronic in the picture when I couldnt get any weed and kronic was sold in shops, I bought it in a tobacconist and I tried it a few times with bad effects, I ended up tossing the rest out. I recall I had shortness of breath and headaches, it was really horrible. I had the pineapple express I think it was called.

 

[.:Holy::Toast:.]

To me spice and synthetic cannabinoids in general are a novelty and nothing else.
Serious drug connoisseurs are the only ones I see using them long term, I mean it's always nice to have a unique selection in your arsenal

 

[drug_mentor]

I honestly don't know many smokers who enjoy this stuff at all, a few might be dumb enough to buy a packet when they absolutely cannot get a hold of weed but it never takes more than a few pipes for them to remember how unpleasant it is.

I tried a number of blends of this stuff and I could never get into it, I honestly don't know why anybody would smoke this shit over cannabis unless they were being drug tested, personally, if I were to be subjected to regular drug tests again I would rather abstain from cannabinoids completely than resort to using synthetics.

 

[Parabolan]

I hate this stuff.. made me paranoid

 

['medicine cabinet']

Ugh of course that stuff is garbage...this older guy who worked in the same hospital asy exgfs father was a huge pothead. I'd get shit from him sometimes and on the phone all he said was it was something dofferent ...so I thought kief or hash or something but it was a bag of SPICE!! Lol I took a hit from a j and caughed like wtf is this and when he told me I slowly got this weird feeling like I was about to start tripping but never did.

I wanted to say I'm going to kick your ass if you bring that shit around again lol...that stuff I k ow is popular w some ppl but its nasty. Weird effects and there is like dozens of them. They get weirder and weirder names by the day.