Oregon Health Authority issues warning about Spice

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poledriver

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Oregon Health Authority issues warning about Spice

PORTLAND (AP) — Health officials say a form of synthetic marijuana known as "spice" has caused at least a half-dozen cases of sudden kidney failure in Oregon and southwest Washington since May.

The Oregon Health Authority says experts are analyzing samples of synthetic marijuana to find the toxin that triggered the injuries.

The agency has also asked doctors across the region to report any cases of kidney failure linked to the drug.

Spice-related illnesses have been reported elsewhere in the United States.

Authorities in Wyoming made three arrests in March after several people in the Casper area were hospitalized for kidney failure after smoking spice.

For more on the Spice warning see the print and e-editions of Sunday’s Herald and News. Click here for subscription information.

http://www.heraldandnews.com/news/a...11e2-af5d-001a4bcf887a.html#user-comment-area
 
Health officials warn against ‘spice’ drug

PORTLAND (AP) — A form of synthetic marijuana known as “spice” has caused at least a half-dozen cases of sudden kidney failure in Oregon and southwest Washington since May, the Oregon Health Authority reported Friday.

The agency said experts are analyzing samples to determine what toxin is causing problems. It has also asked doctors across the region to report cases of kidney failure that might be linked to the drug.

“This is not just a bad trip,” said Gary Schnabel, executive director of the Oregon Board of Pharmacy, which voted to ban the sale and possession of synthetic cannabis products last year.

“We are talking about your kidneys, and you only have two of them.”

The six patients requiring hospitalization were from the Portland, Salem and Roseburg areas, as well as Vancouver, Wash. The most recent case occurred in late September.

Five of the patients were 18 or younger, and all were male. Though they have been discharged, they remain at heightened risk for kidney problems later in life.

Spice, which is typically smoked, is a mixture of plant material sprayed with a designer drug similar to THC, the main psychoactive component of cannabis.

It’s marketed under street names such as “K2,” “herbal incense” and “potpourri.”

A University of Michigan study found that 11.4 percent of high school seniors reported using synthetic marijuana in the past year. There is no such statistic for Oregon.

The manufacturers are generally overseas and unknown, and there are often no ingredients on the package.

The Oregon patients bought the illegal drug over-the-counter at places such as convenience stores, gas stations and tobacco shops, said Dr. Katrina Hedberg, the state epidemiologist.

“It’s very hard to regulate something that’s being sold as potpourri,” Hedberg said. “Doesn’t that sound like something you put in your bathroom that smells nice?”

“It’s a clear effort to circumvent the law,” she added. “The people who are buying it know what it’s intended use is — while not explicit.”

But law enforcement has taken notice. A federal grand jury in Idaho indicted five people in July on charges they conspired to distribute synthetic marijuana products.

As part of the investigation, 14 search warrants were issued at businesses in Idaho, Oregon and southwestern Washington.

Meanwhile, authorities in Wyoming arrested three people in March after several users in the Casper area were hospitalized with kidney failure.

Poison centers nationwide responded to 3,200 calls related to synthetic marijuana or “bath salts” in 2010 and that number soared to more than 13,000 last year, said Jodie Underwood, Drug Enforcement Administration special agent in Seattle.

“A teenager thinks it safe because it’s being sold in a gas station,” Underwood said. “And these products are not for human consumption.”

http://www.heraldandnews.com/members/news/inside/article_091cf476-1053-11e2-8add-001a4bcf887a.html
 
UAE calls for prohibition of ‘spice’ drug

The Ministry of Interior has recommended prohibiting the smuggling, possessing and trafficking of ‘Spice Drugs’ at the 26th Arab Convention of Heads of Anti Narcotics Authorities held in Tunisia on October 3 and 4.
In a paper presented to showcase the experience of the UAE on Spice drugs, it was stated that the UAE has become the first Arab country to illegalise such drugs.

Synthetic cannabis, locally known as spice, affects the mind like hashish does. A panel commissioned with studying Spice recommended to criminalise and prohibit it, including smuggling, possessing, using and trafficking. Possessing Spice has now become a punishable offense by the UAE law. The UAE delegation was led by Colonel Saeed Abdullah Al Suwaidi, Director General of the Federal Anti Narcotics Department of the Ministry of Interior.

During the conference, the country’s delegation passed a full report showing the local and international efforts exerted by the UAE to tackle narcotics.

http://khaleejtimes.com/kt-article-...ngeneral_October107.xml&section=nationgeneral
 
The problem is almost certainly not with the synthetic cannabinoids - we don't have enough knowledge about them to know if they are safe or not, but they are almost certainly not causing acute kidney failure.
The problem is with the random herbs that the cannabinoids are sprayed on. Some may be incredibly toxic, grown in China, full of heavy metals or pesticides that are illegal to use, even in China.
Better to vaporize Spice, in order to use the cannabinoids without ingesting the herbs.
Even better not to use synthetic cannabinoids at all, since we don't really know how safe they are.

Edit: Of course, if the herbs are NOT sprayed with synthetic cannabinoids, but are sprayed with some other research chemical, you, as the user, would have no way of knowing that.
Moral of the story: not safe. Stay away.
 
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My friend suffered acute kidney failure after abusing spice for a few months strait. He had a siezure and was placed into a coma for two weeks. He survived and is recovering but has some brain damage. scary stuff
 
This is a serious issue. Like I said in another thread a few minutes ago,
I don't like some of the reactive effects resulting from the governments concern of 'bath salts' or 'spice' products, and do agree that selling drugs under a guise of a BS product without description of what and how much of it/them really are in them, shouldn't be tolerated. Reactive banning of the chemicals within them I don't agree with. Some of the products are known to have been used safely when properly identified/dosed and something for the government to consider; by mass banning products, it fuels the market with many more untested and unresearched products seen in the past half decade or more to make a bigger mess than they previously had.
Click to expand...
Kidney failure seen in serious number of cases of this particular "spice" blend, or other serious physiological damage hasn't been really seen or reported until now that I'm aware of. Alteration of vitals have been seen, along with countless people having bad experiences resulting in hospitalization, but not something serious as kidney failure. This is a big problem with having these chemicals easily purchased in bulk from international manufactures or distributors via international mail by anyone with a unregulated recreational drug market and drug intolerant country as the stage. Individuals trying to make a quick buck just use whatever is currently available, sell it in a previously marketed fashion though potentially slightly altered (different name, or whatever), hide what is actually contained within them to attempt to validate its sale by that fact it "isn't use for human consumption" as potpourri or bathsalts, abuse a market full of dumb people looking for easily purchased "legal" alternative to marijuana or way to get high, and get paid at the expense of semi-innocent/unknowing people who may have been stupid, yet don't deserve serious medical issues like kidney or be played as a guinea pig for products with unknown compositions.

I want to see an end to the unfortunate sale of these horrible concoctions in public markets, where they are taken with no knowledge of what was actually ingested nor regulated by what is put into these product (I could think of a horrible terrorist plot by using such methods as these bathsalt or spice products). If you put a unknown powder into an envelope everyone freaks, yet if you put an unknown powder on a mixture of plant leaves/buds or in small rocked products (don't know what "bathsalts" look like) people will consume them with out any questions, its quite silly. However, by slowly attempting to fight the problem with reactive government bans, it only carries the problem along further. It originally went from a handful of cannabinoids being used in isolated places as "spice" products, to new reactive chemicals produced that haven't been researched or ingested by humans being used as active ingredients in products that are now seen in some isolated places, after it invaded the whole country, to produce serious health concerns besides just hospitalizations (caused by anxiety attacks, bad experiences, increased vitals like blood pressure and heart rate, aka not very serious issues). This is after the massive banning of previous cannabinoids in a list that is multiple pages long, along with other products like some psychedelics, entactogens and stimulants, many of which have been used safely for years and years when properly identified and sold as such. The ban just honestly made things worse, by creating a new wave of untested chemicals produced to quickly hit the market with out care of the potential health concerns they may cause.

Of course with sensationalist media pieces and outraged moms particularly there will be idiotic responses by the government to a problem that can not be solved by their previous attempts at controlling this, yet will likely continue down previous roads as an attempt to "fight the war on drugs".

We need regulation of recreational drug products with legalization of personal possession and consumption of these products. We can even start with marijuana, helping prevent the desire for people to find "legal" alternatives to marijuana by allowing them to ingest a drug that has never been linked to any deaths, and doesn't produce the highly addictive/crack like dosing effect that many of the synthetic canniness have. But of course this will not be part of their response. Marijuana will likely be dragged in with these cannabinoids during the fall out from shit like this. Sigh..
 
If I was in Oregon, I'd just go with marijuana considering they have it decriminalized as well as a great medical program. It's the west cost for fuck's sake.

@Cloudy, as far as the highly addictive aspect of synth 'noids, I have experienced that firsthand. I would use them constantly, unable to stop with a rapid rise in tolerance. There was a blend I got every single day. When I started buying it, it took one bowl for me to get a strong effect. By the time I stopped, I could smoke a 3 gram blunt of that same blend in one sitting and be fine.

I also experienced a minor seizure in a fast food place as a result of the abuse of said chemicals. I was really dumb to use them but at the same time, I was 17 and on juvenile probation.
 
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