'K2' poses dangers and should be illegal

Mariposa

Mariposa

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Look! Another misinformed prohibitionist idiot, this time with her own agency!

(CNN) -- Smokable herbal blends marketed as "legal highs" have become increasingly popular and as easy to buy as cigarettes.

The blends of exotic herbs and other plants have been sprayed or coated with one or more chemicals that, when smoked, produce euphoria. They are commonly labeled as herbal incense to mask their intended purpose. These contain drugs that are dangerous and should be illegal.

"K2" is a brand name for a dried herbal blend that can be smoked. It produces a high similar to that of marijuana but doesn't contain tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the psychoactive chemical in marijuana. Instead, K2 contains synthetic chemicals, known as JWH-018 and JWH-073, that mimic THC by acting on the cannabinoid receptors in the brain.

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JWH-018 and JWH-073 are produced in China and unregulated in the United States. Similar products have been produced and marketed under names such as Spice, Genie, Blaze, Red X Dawn and Zohai. Since 2009, the Drug Enforcement Administration has been receiving reports of the abuse of these herbal products.

K2's key ingredients were invented by Dr. John Huffman at Clemson University in 1995 during medical research on the effects of cannabinoids on the brain. He found no medical benefits -- only negative side effects. Unfortunately, marijuana users reproduced the recipe, creating a legal alternative to marijuana.

Although the company manufacturing K2 is unknown, it is legally available for purchase in the U.S. by anyone, including minors.

In late 2008, herbal incense-type products that were being shipped from Europe to the U.S. were found to contain traces of another potent psychoactive chemical known as HU-210. It is classified as a Schedule I controlled substance because it is a derivative of THC with a similar chemical structure and pharmacological activity. HU-210 was also developed for experimental purposes and can be from 100 to 800 times as potent as THC.

In 2009, Germany banned the sale of Spice because tests revealed that it contained JWH-018 and yet another potent chemical, CP-47 497, developed by a drug company in the 1980s for research purposes. It produces effects similar to THC and is three to 28 times more potent.

Spice is banned by some U.S. military commands, where the potential for its abuse has been recognized. Research has linked naturally produced marijuana to health issues, including schizophrenia. With synthetic marijuana being even more potent, it is frightening to consider its potential damage.

K2 can cause increased heart rate, loss of consciousness, paranoia, hallucinations and psychotic episodes. Users report that smoking small amounts results in intense highs comparable to smoking large amounts of marijuana.

Studies in 2008 revealed that users developed chemical dependencies, withdrawal and addictive behaviors. Increasing numbers of children are purchasing synthetic marijuana products because they are legal and easier to obtain than cigarettes.

Because of the various chemicals being used, these substances are difficult to regulate. But the DEA is determining whether some or all of these products need to be controlled. More research is definitely needed. With young people using K2 more, some states are not waiting for the DEA and are moving to ban it.

Let's face it: Anytime you consume an uncontrolled or unregulated drug or a drug with unknown effects, you are taking a risk. Products like K2 are not made in a controlled environment, and those who use it are playing Russian roulette.

Schedule I drugs are defined as substances that have a high potential for abuse and no accepted medical use. At this time, the evidence suggests that these synthetic marijuana substances should be controlled and perhaps classified as Schedule I drugs.

Making these drugs illegal makes it more difficult for dealers to push them to our children. It limits availability and sends a message that the drug is dangerous -- an extremely important message since history has shown that when youngsters perceive drugs to be harmful, they are less likely to use them.

K2 serves no apparent useful purpose, and we do not need more addicted family members, drug-impaired drivers or drug-related deaths.

The sale of synthetic marijuana is banned in Britain, Germany, Poland, France, South Korea and Russia. The U.S. should move urgently to protect the public from yet another dangerous and potentially deadly class of drugs.

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Calvina Fay.
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Source

8) 8) 8)
 
Just a start, but here goes:

"K2 serves no apparent useful purpose, and we do not need more addicted family members, drug-impaired drivers or drug-related deaths."

WTF? It is not addictive, and is far, far less likely to cause driving accidents than good ol' alcohol. Is it possible for synth. cannabinds. to cause deaths? Unlikely, at least if taken at reasonable doses.

And what about the purpose of getting high? That is very useful. I enjoy it thoroughly. Maybe not apparent to her, but who is she to determine what is useful to me?

"The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Calvina Fay."
Obviously. They are ignorant, uninformed, biased, closed-minded, and reek of the kind of propaganda created by the gov. during the 1960's and earlier about marijuana.
Disgusting.
Fire this ignorant person.
 
article said:
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NSFW:
Don't criminalize 'K2,' regulate it
By Grant Smith, Special to CNN

The recent emergence in the United States of "K2," sometimes called synthetic marijuana, is testing lawmakers to see if they've been paying attention to the failures of marijuana prohibition and will respond to K2 with enlightened policy.

The first stories on K2, or "Spice," broke out with headlines labeling the mixture of herbs and spices, which are treated with a synthetic compound, as "fake pot." K2 was virtually unknown until the media hyped up its presence at tobacco and novelty shops.

Under U.S. law, and in all 50 states, the herbal product is legal, and also unregulated. People who have tried K2 often report psychoactive effects that are comparable to marijuana, but notably less pleasurable.

When lawmakers consider regulating K2, they should keep in mind that the government has waged a futile war against marijuana and people who use the drug for decades.

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Elected officials have burned through billions of taxpayer dollars chasing marijuana sellers, bagging marijuana plants and jailing marijuana users.

Government-funded media campaigns have sought to scare children and adults away from marijuana with grossly exaggerated claims that using the drug will lead to death and mayhem.

Despite all of these efforts, the public has largely dismissed the myths and hysteria around marijuana and recognized that the drug has important medicinal benefits. Moreover, public opinion is leaning in favor of a regulated and taxed market for marijuana.

Researchers who have tested K2 identified synthetic chemicals that are thought to mimic the psychoactive component in marijuana. These chemicals are thought to act on the cannabinoid receptors in the brain much the way that THC -- the principal psychoactive component in marijuana -- operates.

What's notable about these synthetic chemicals is that very little is known about them, and this legal alternative designed to deliver an experience like marijuana may actually carry more risk. Thus we have a supreme irony of drug prohibition: The government continues to criminalize marijuana -- a drug with established medical value that has undergone exhaustive study -- and entrepreneurs introduce a legal alternative to marijuana with ingredients scientists know little about.

Given this potential for harm, and the growing volume of sensational media portrayals of K2, some lawmakers have ignored the lessons learned from marijuana prohibition and moved to criminalize possession and sales of K2.

Lawmakers in Kansas, Kentucky and Missouri have already written legislation to ban the herbal mix. It seems that a reporter need only write an article about an obscure bag of twigs to spur a lawmaker to criminalize more chemicals and the people who use them.

Time and time again, elected officials have dropped the ball when it comes to regulating drugs. Lawmakers have preferred to lazily pass the responsibility of controlling a drug on to law enforcement and the criminal justice system.

The problem is, we know from marijuana prohibition that law enforcement has no control over the drug market and the criminals who run it. Criminalizing K2 will only worsen the devastating harm our society already suffers under drug prohibition. Rather than regulation of the supply and ingredients of K2, criminalization leaves the question of what goes into the product up to drug dealers.

Rather than passing regulations that bar K2 sales to minors, criminalizing K2 will essentially give dealers the green light to sell the product to whomever they please.

By choosing to ban K2 outright, lawmakers will also forfeit badly needed state revenue from K2 sales and instead commit millions of taxpayer dollars to investigate, prosecute and jail K2 users. Plus, researchers point out that hundreds of other known synthetic chemicals will easily reach store shelves once K2 is banned.

The sensible legislative response to K2 is to create effective regulatory controls on sale and possession. California and Maine have passed model legislation that formally regulates and taxes adult sales of salvia divinorium -- another product with psychoactive properties -- and criminalizes salvia sales to minors.

Lawmakers should deliver a knockout to prohibition and pass laws that will actually regulate and control K2.

Editor's note: Grant Smith is the federal policy coordinator for the Drug Policy Alliance's office of national affairs. The group calls itself the nation's leading organization working to end the war on drugs, to be replaced with new drug policies based on "science, compassion, health and human rights."
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,,,
 
Schedule I drugs are defined as substances that have a high potential for abuse and no accepted medical use. At this time, the evidence suggests that these synthetic marijuana substances should be controlled and perhaps classified as Schedule I drugs.
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Classified by the same ignorant bastards that keep marijuana schedule one?

Can possibly kill you??? lol omg what a dumb bitch Will somebody PLEASE think of the children!!

Very Reefer Madness-y
 
Sugar poses dangers and should be illegal!
Alcohol poses dangers and should be illegal!
Tobacco poses dangers and should be illegal!
Trans-fats pose dangers and should be illegal!
Operating a motor vehicle poses dangers and should be illegal!
Crossing the street poses dangers and should be illegal!
Surfing poses dangers and should be illegal!

"Surfing serves no apparent useful purpose, and we do not need more addicted family members, drivers impaired by post-surfing syndrome (in which people are tired and have blurry vision), or surfing-related deaths."

Stop all surfing now!
 
Apparently we have learned nothing in the last 40 odd years about how prohibition doesn't work . . . period. If these nuts were half way intelligent they would look to history for the answer to this problem, remember the repercussions from the 18th amendment(prohibition and banning of alcohol) and the resulting decade long crime wave ? That's what has happened from the ban of marijuana (and other drugs) use and what will happen from this.
 
agreed this woman is seriously closed minded the problem with ppl like this is that they assume things without having any first hand experience or any reliable sources at all. thus making drugs an unknown and we all know that most people are terrified of the unknown which in most people's mind makes them "bad" and therefore dangerous blah blah blah...
 
JWH-018 and JWH-073 are produced in China and unregulated in the United States.
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We all know how those Reds are out to get us.

Studies in 2008 revealed that users developed chemical dependencies, withdrawal and addictive behaviors.
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Unlike, say, tobacco or alcohol.

Let's face it: Anytime you consume an uncontrolled or unregulated drug or a drug with unknown effects, you are taking a risk. Products like K2 are not made in a controlled environment, and those who use it are playing Russian roulette.
Click to expand...

Ah! It all makes sense! Why am I fucking around with uncontrolled substances, when I've got all the booze and cigarettes I could ever want?

Making these drugs illegal makes it more difficult for dealers to push them to our children. It limits availability and sends a message that the drug is dangerous -- an extremely important message since history has shown that when youngsters perceive drugs to be harmful, they are less likely to use them.
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Right, so let us entertain the risks associated with a chemical, blow the facts out of proportion, and expect the nation's children to believe us in the future. Talk about the Boy Who Cried Wolf, only grown men and women should know better.
 
^ That last quote you've used is ridiculous isn't it! Drugs are being used more today than ever before with the "dangers" being pushed on everyone by the Government and their scare campaigns. Alot less people were doing drugs before they recieved all this attention, Government bans have done nothing but incite curiosity and rebellion and increase drug use.
 
Increasing numbers of children are purchasing synthetic marijuana products because they are legal and easier to obtain than cigarettes.
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First of all, they need to stop calling these chemicals "synthetic marijuana". Secondly, I doubt little Timmy can obtain JWH-018 easier than cigarettes. Even if he could, cigarettes kill more people than all the other drugs combined and they remain legal while ignorant sheople demonize much less harmful substances.



Let's face it: Anytime you consume an uncontrolled or unregulated drug or a drug with unknown effects, you are taking a risk. Products like K2 are not made in a controlled environment, and those who use it are playing Russian roulette.
Click to expand...

The old familiar formula. (Insert drug) Is dangerous. Anytime you consume (Insert drug) you are playing russian roulette.

Schedule I drugs are defined as substances that have a high potential for abuse and no accepted medical use. At this time, the evidence suggests that these synthetic marijuana substances should be controlled and perhaps classified as Schedule I drugs.
Click to expand...

I must be missing something. Can anyone explain the medicinal value of tobacco to me? If marijuana is currently schedule I then cigarettes should have much more medicinal potential rite?

Making these drugs illegal makes it more difficult for dealers to push them to our children. It limits availability and sends a message that the drug is dangerous -- an extremely important message since history has shown that when youngsters perceive drugs to be harmful, they are less likely to use them.
Click to expand...

Wow. This is how some people percieve history? From my point of view if history has taught us anything about prohibition its that it only leads to bloody violence and crime, and that it adds a forbidden element to the mystique surrounding drug use making it even more intruiging to our school children.
 
as long as the idiots that are producing this stuff dont label their product porperly, its right to illegalize it. and evidence exists, that jwh-018 produces cancerogenic substances when consumed (-->add)
 
brainbug said:
and evidence exists, that jwh-018 produces cancerogenic substances when consumed (-->add)
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Where is this evidence? Please cite it. I don't think such evidence exists. This is a mantra being repeated without any evidence to back it up.
 
The ADD thread repeatedly says that the carcinogenicity can't be verified until the proper research is carried out. Nevertheless, the argument Murphy lays out is compelling. When the full Saarland paper makes it to press, the precise pattern of hydroxylation in the metabolites will be known and the epoxide transition states (if applicable) can be, at the very least, compared to the epoxide transition states of known aromatic mutagens.
 
Let's face it: Anytime you consume an uncontrolled or unregulated drug or a drug with unknown effects, you are taking a risk.
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Anytime you walk down the street, you are taking a risk.
Anytime you drive a car, you are taking a risk.
Anytime you climb a ladder, you are taking a risk.

No, risk taking is not the problem people have with drugs. People take risks all the time. The real reason people want to ban this stuff, is because they are puritans who think any kind of pleasure is sinful and wrong. That's what it's really about, I think.
 
Our experience with k2 and spice

I want to express my opinion on smoking marijuana vs. smoking k2 or spice.
I am absolutely 100% in favor of legalizing marijuana. I feel it is less lethal than alcohol (no liver damage, haven't heard of many bar room brawls involving people who had just smoked a few hits).Now, here's my thoughts on k2/spice.
My 17 year old son was arrested for smoking pot in the school bathroom. He was taken to a detention center, put on probation, weekly urine tests,etc... He started smoking k2 and/or spice to get high (in lieu of pot) in order to pass the urine tests.
On at least 2 occasions (that I am aware) he had severe panic attacks and he thought he was having a heart attack. His blood pressure was off the rails. He told me he had smoked k2 earlier in the evening. He has never had that experience with pot. Fortunately (I hate to say this) he was caught smoking k2 at school last week. The nurse took his vitals and was freaked out by his high bp and pulse rate. He was sent to detention center, etc...Long story short. I know this k2 is some whacky chemical (no one knows what they are getting). It's easily available to kids and it's f__ckin' dangerous. I've seen the fall out first hand. Now, if it was regulated, tested, etc...I may change my opinion. But for now (in my opinion) if you choose to smoke it there is a very real health risk involved. My experience my not be the norm, but it's enough to make me pause and write on this forum about my concerns.
I am no puritan. I hate tobacco, the pharmaceutical industry,republicans. I can't believe pot is not legal! Yes, there are risks in our lives ever day we get out of bed. I don't want to take anyone's legal rights away. I'm just saying k2/spice is not a safe chemical (especially for young kids).
 
for god sakes why would they have a hissy fit over this shit when mary j is close to being legalized anyways

if peopel wanna take the risk of smoking that spice to get high let them take that risk..no one is going to BLACKOUT or CAUSE AN ACCIDENT

ugh im sooooooooooooo disgusted with the way the world is today...thank god for drugs
 
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