Anti-K2 Hysteria Takes over Detroit

Communities across metro Detroit are rushing to ban synthetic pot brands like K2. It consists of a mixture of herbs which include Canavalia maritima, Nymphaea caerulea, Scutellaria nana, Pedicularis densiflora, Leonotis leonurus, Zornia latifolia, Nelumbo nucifera, and Leonurus sibiricus. However the psychoactive agent, the part that gets you high is known as a synthetic cannabinoid. Cannabinoids are same drug family that THC belongs to. The most well know of these are JWH-018 and JWH-073, which are many times more potent than THC and of which little is known about medically.

When smoked these mixtures of synthetic cannabis give you a marijuana like high, but because they are so much more powerful than actual marijuana, it is easy to overdose with. Users have been known to become seriously intoxicated with as little as 2 or 3 strong puffs. Side effects can include rapid heart rate, vomiting, agitation, seizures, paranoia, loss of physical control and hallucinations. Professor John W. Huffman, who first synthesized many of the cannabinoids used in synthetic cannabis, is quoted as saying, "People who use it are idiots. You don't know what it's going to do to you."

There is however a major fly in the ointment of those claiming that this drug is dangerous and addictive, the formula keeps changing. When a patent  for a drug currently on the market is about to expire, drug makers will make a minor change to the chemical structure and re-patient it so they can have exclusive control [charge more] for another 17 years. That is why we have so many drugs on the market that do virtually the same thing. Once JWH-018 was outlawed, the chemists merely took a leaf from the drug companies and changed a molecule or two, and presto a new drug is born. 

This fact also totally destroys the anti-drug warrior's claims. Legally and scientifically, to make a claim about a drug, you must have a specific drug chemical structure in mind. Because the makers of K2 and Spice keep changing the formula you can't make any legal claims about it. It would be like if the police were looking for a criminal and put out an APB [all points bulletin]. The description in the APB would read as follows 'we don't know what color the car is or make it is, but we are 100% positive it is a brown 1998 Ford Focus 4 door'.

In light of the 'Florida Cannibal' and a few other cases, law makers and anti-drug warriors have been on a rampage. In the past, numerous laws have been implemented in a failed effort to stop anybody from using anything but alcohol to get high. These efforts are however part of the reason people are using these new designer drugs, because they don't show up on drug tests. People will always want to get high and are looking for ways to beat the system. So in their efforts to stamp out safer drugs like pot, they have driven their kids running straight into the arms of designer drugs like 'K2' and 'bath salts'. 

With these new efforts to ban synthetic pot and other drugs like 'bath salts', an all out propaganda war is being waged. No lie will go untold. As mentioned, since these drugs keep changing, you cannot make a make a blanket statement about them that would be factually correct. This however hasn't stopped those who on one hand claim to be anti-government yet on the other hand want to control everything one does with their own body.

The claims being made are straight out of a 'reefer madness' movie. Some have claimed it caused their kids to commit suicide, that it is addictive, that it puts teens in touch with Satan, and that it turns people into cannibals. Not one of these claims is based on anything but anecdotal accounts. Another tact is they will try to give their statement an aura of science to bolster their claims. Example: 'Little research has been conducted on the long-term effects of the drug, but health experts fear the brain could be seriously harmed'. Translation: We don't know much about it so we are just going to make up a bunch of scary sounding stuff. What is certain is that people will use these drugs and when the harmful effects that the 'authorities' claimed don't happen; they will be further inclined to distrust the government and society.

Bottom Line

There is no doubt these new drugs are powerful and potentially dangerous, but it is hypocritical for the very same people who claim to want government to mind its own business when it comes to Wall Street Wrecking the economy, oil companies dumping toxic waste, or coal fired power plants polluting the air; yet when it comes to peoples own bodies then there is no limit to how far they will go. Marijuana has been around for 5,000 years and there has yet to be a single case of a person dying from an overdose. Lets legalize pot and the issue with K2 will cure itself.

Sources:

Metro Detroit retailers taking synthetic marijuana off the shelves

Herbal Mixtures Offer Legal High