spini4
Bluelighter
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- Nov 18, 2003
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MARGATE — When Margate police summoned Nancy Ferreira to a hospital emergency room on New Year's Eve, she saw her 14-year-old son having a seizure and struggling to breathe.
"He had 10 seizures in total and his blood pressure was extremely high," Ferreira said. "He didn't know I was there."
Ferreira's two sons, 14 and 17, had been smoking "Mr. Nice Guy herbal smoke blend," a brand of incense that is labeled "not for human consumption" according to Margate police. Her elder son spent 24 hours in the hospital and was not as severely injured, she said.
Officials do not know what Mr. Nice Guy is made of, and a West Palm Beach company that offers the product on the Internet won't talk about it.
But it appears similar to products with brand names like Spice, Black Mamba and K2, often sold by the gram, that federal and state governments are trying to regulate. Users who get these "incense" products at gas stations, convenience stores and head shops reportedly seek an effect similar to a marijuana high, but without any trace in drug tests.
The teens told police officers that a friend bought Mr. Nice Guy for them and that they had smoked it before "because it's not illegal," according to a police report. They said they had never suffered such severe reactions.
Ferreira says blood and urine tests for her sons showed no traces of illegal substances, alcohol or narcotics. The Sun Sentinel is not identifying the teens because they are juveniles.
The federal government says these products may contain synthetic cannabinoids that were developed over the past 30 years for medical research. They are not FDA-approved for human consumption.
"Retailers say there is nothing on the package to say what it is, and that's the point," U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration spokeswoman Barbara Carreno said. "They're being advertised as more potent than marijuana, and marijuana can cause heart palpitations. There is concern whether this is actually even synthetic marijuana."
"This is not incense," Carreno said.
The American Association of Poison Control Centers has heard of adverse effects from smoking the incense from its 60 members across the United States since the last quarter of 2009, when there were 14 reported cases. In 2010, there were 2,862 cases. During the first four days of the New Year, there were 42 calls for help.
The DEA says that medical practitioners have linked the products to problems including vomiting, excessively rapid heartbeat, high blood pressure, seizures and hallucinations.
The Florida Poison Control Center in Miami, one of three in the state, gets at least one call a week about ill effects from incense smokers, said Dr. Jeffrey Bernstein, medical director of the center.
He called the incense products "bathtub brew" and said poison centers can have difficulty advising doctors or sick people who call. He has not heard of deaths from incense smoking.
"Depending on who made it, who knows what's in it?" Bernstein said. "There are inconsistent effects, and I have my doubts that it's even the same drug that is being sold by various manufacturers."
In November, the DEA announced it may categorize five synthetic cannabinoids as illegal drugs, and take them off the legal market for a year while government researchers investigate the products' effects on humans.
The incense is manufactured all around the world, the federal government says. At Bob's News and Books on Andrews Avenue in Fort Lauderdale, Mr. Nice Guy was sold out Tuesday.
Store manager Erin Steinberg said he's not restocking until he sees what happens with the proposed restrictions on the product. Meanwhile he sells a $20 vial of Black Mamba, which resembles marijuana or green tea leaves.
Read more at: http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/s...fter-smoking-synthetic-marijuana-1165470.html
"He had 10 seizures in total and his blood pressure was extremely high," Ferreira said. "He didn't know I was there."
Ferreira's two sons, 14 and 17, had been smoking "Mr. Nice Guy herbal smoke blend," a brand of incense that is labeled "not for human consumption" according to Margate police. Her elder son spent 24 hours in the hospital and was not as severely injured, she said.
Officials do not know what Mr. Nice Guy is made of, and a West Palm Beach company that offers the product on the Internet won't talk about it.
But it appears similar to products with brand names like Spice, Black Mamba and K2, often sold by the gram, that federal and state governments are trying to regulate. Users who get these "incense" products at gas stations, convenience stores and head shops reportedly seek an effect similar to a marijuana high, but without any trace in drug tests.
The teens told police officers that a friend bought Mr. Nice Guy for them and that they had smoked it before "because it's not illegal," according to a police report. They said they had never suffered such severe reactions.
Ferreira says blood and urine tests for her sons showed no traces of illegal substances, alcohol or narcotics. The Sun Sentinel is not identifying the teens because they are juveniles.
The federal government says these products may contain synthetic cannabinoids that were developed over the past 30 years for medical research. They are not FDA-approved for human consumption.
"Retailers say there is nothing on the package to say what it is, and that's the point," U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration spokeswoman Barbara Carreno said. "They're being advertised as more potent than marijuana, and marijuana can cause heart palpitations. There is concern whether this is actually even synthetic marijuana."
"This is not incense," Carreno said.
The American Association of Poison Control Centers has heard of adverse effects from smoking the incense from its 60 members across the United States since the last quarter of 2009, when there were 14 reported cases. In 2010, there were 2,862 cases. During the first four days of the New Year, there were 42 calls for help.
The DEA says that medical practitioners have linked the products to problems including vomiting, excessively rapid heartbeat, high blood pressure, seizures and hallucinations.
The Florida Poison Control Center in Miami, one of three in the state, gets at least one call a week about ill effects from incense smokers, said Dr. Jeffrey Bernstein, medical director of the center.
He called the incense products "bathtub brew" and said poison centers can have difficulty advising doctors or sick people who call. He has not heard of deaths from incense smoking.
"Depending on who made it, who knows what's in it?" Bernstein said. "There are inconsistent effects, and I have my doubts that it's even the same drug that is being sold by various manufacturers."
In November, the DEA announced it may categorize five synthetic cannabinoids as illegal drugs, and take them off the legal market for a year while government researchers investigate the products' effects on humans.
The incense is manufactured all around the world, the federal government says. At Bob's News and Books on Andrews Avenue in Fort Lauderdale, Mr. Nice Guy was sold out Tuesday.
Store manager Erin Steinberg said he's not restocking until he sees what happens with the proposed restrictions on the product. Meanwhile he sells a $20 vial of Black Mamba, which resembles marijuana or green tea leaves.
Read more at: http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/s...fter-smoking-synthetic-marijuana-1165470.html
