"Synthetic marijuana" blamed for teen's death: What is it?

^ I agree.
It is due to the unfortunate legal situation.
The safe one, cannabis, is illegal, while the chemicals of unknown safety are (kinda) legal and easily available.
Lame.
You can thank your government - and the U.S. government - for this situation.
Including Obama, who had the chance to re-legalize weed, but didn't want to be seen as soft...
(so instead, we seem him as spineless).
 
I'm all for legalizing weed. Then maybe all these kids would just stick to that instead of the other crap.
 
<<ellisd>> said:
Just a thought on this > If the government decided to allow sale of these products and regulate it, wouldn't the manufacturer need to get FDA approval before they are allowed to sell on the market? If that is the case, how many manufacturers would want to spend the millions necessary to seek FDA approval. I would think that if this was to become legal and regulated that a bunch of the manufacturers would close shop. Just a thought and I may be way off here.
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that's a great point I never thought of, maybe the big vendors would stay around. Obviously there is a ton of money to be made with synthetics, coughing up millions for FDA approval might be worth it, especially with a huge market like the US. Maybe tobacco companies would take over the industry since they have the money and knowledge already, that'd probably just ruin it all. I really have no idea how to make it all work, it's such a complex issue.

I can't see the government just letting anyone open up shop and make millions selling these chemicals, the government can't stop them now. The lobbying forces from big pharma, tobacco/alcohol companies should feel threatened that they will lose profits as better and more effective drugs are developed. When this happens I can see the power being shifted from small entrepreneurs to big companies with plenty of money to spare. In a way, the regulation of these chemicals could cause this.

@highhooked: some of these synthetics inhibit gaba transmission to a significant extent, which of course will cause anxiety and seizures to those more prone to them or in combination with certain medications. The potency is also a factor as people can smoke far too much very quickly and easily. If you are going to go crazy, cannabis will bring it out earlier (according to some studies) so the synthetics will likely do the same. I've never blacked out from synthetics or cannabis, not sure why that would happen, need more research at least.
 
I've blacked out plenty of times from weed, and had what might kinda look like a seizure while out (just sort of spasming a bit on the floor, pretty sure it's not a real seizure). It's just orthostatic hypotension, weed can make it a lot worse though.
 
I haven't tried cannabis yet (it may sound outlandish, but I have never had access to it until recently -- and its simply too expensive now that I can purchase it). I have tried JWH-210 and JWH-250. Both were remarkably psychedelic -- I had what I describe best as "rainbow snow" in my field of vision and also the expected "munchies" which I do not like. One large dose was psychoactive for a good 12 hours which I did not expect. No big deal as I had no obligations for the day, just parked myself in my chair and watched movies and such.

Now I just use them for bouts of nausea to get myself to eat in severe nausea cases. I also use it as a backup analgesic. In both fronts it is more effective than many prescription drugs (with the exception of opiates/opioids for analgesia). I do not enjoy the "stoned" state, personally. Of course I think cannabis and also these synthetics should be legal/remain legal.

I wonder if US congress will attempt to pass a broad sweeping "catch all" law that autobans cannibinoids pre-emptively solely based on their pharmokinetics (brain cannibinoid agonists automatic emergency Schedule I). That would set a horrible precedent.
 
^we'd probably all be liable to possession charges (endocannbinoids) lol. Wouldn't surprise me though, they can't even slow the demand/use down as it is, it'll take a long time to schedule these substances, other than the emergency bans. Luckily I live in Canada, where it'll probably take even longer. The government will have to study these cannabinoids and determine if they have medical use or not, I'd say the majority of them do have medicinal uses, just as you point out, so schedule 1 should be out of the question, even tho cannabis is still schedule 1, it's bullshit.

An interesting side note:

The United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is using its emergency scheduling authority to temporarily control five chemicals (JWH-018, JWH-073, JWH-200, CP-47,497, and cannabicyclohexanol) used to make “fake pot” products. Except as authorized by law, this action will make possessing and selling these chemicals or the products that contain them illegal in the U.S. for at least one year while the DEA and the United States Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) further study whether these chemicals and products should be permanently controlled.
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http://www.justice.gov/dea/pubs/pressrel/pr112410.html

It'd be cool if they did some legitimate studies and found them to have medicinal uses. And they only have like another 50 to study after those 5, my guess is that all of NA will have plenty of synthetic cannabinoids to play with for a while.
 
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