US cracks down on fake pot as public health hazard

US cracks down on fake pot as public health hazard

news.yahoo.com

WASHINGTON – Cracking down on fake pot, the government began emergency action Wednesday to outlaw five chemicals used in herbal blends to make synthetic marijuana. They're sold in drug paraphernalia shops and on the Internet to a burgeoning market of teens and young adults

(visit the link for the full news article)

The ban is in effect in several country's already, and 15 US states. I have never tried K2 or Spice, due to some research I did after reading a thread here on ATS. I have to admit that his time I agree with the DEA's decision.

If you have tried this stuff, I would like to hear your experience.


news.yahoo.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

reply to post by Tribble


Odd as this thread is created, our local news here is about to run a segment on why they may not be able to crack down on this stuff.

Oh here it comes...

Basically its that the law is too specific given the derivatives which could be made. They've only moved the goal posts on this one.

Great... Just great...

Legal herbs and plants will now fall under prohibitive laws making them illegal when it is not the herbs at all, but the addition of JWH-073 - a legal chemcal that

has been shown to produce behavioural effects very similar to 9-THC in animals. Its effects are produced by binding and acting as an agonist to the CB1 and CB2 cannabinoid receptors.

Wiki

Many of the herbs used in these blends are used by many people for their entheogenic properties. Many of them are also completely inactive. But you can bet now, thanks to the idiots that think it's cool to sell them marketed as a 'legal high' and thanks to the idiots that panic and make them illegal, people will now find themselves on the wrong side of the law for possessing something many of them can find around the local lake...

I already cannot get blue lotus thanks to AQIS here making everything from the eastern states prohibited so this just really annoys me.

I'm a resident of a state that is about to ban this, myself.
from what i know, this substance is a blend of wild lowers, and herbs, that when ingested get you "high." (wild dagga, blue lotus, desert skullcap) all natural substances used by shamans for years
Although, when tested these substances appear to have a chemical additive (JWH-018, JWH-073 etc...) synthetic cannabinoids, which get the user "high."

Now i'm against this ban, as i'm against all prohibitions which violate our human rights,
but if i'm not mistaken,
Wouldn't it be smarter to just legalize a plant, thats been around for thousands of years???

Look at what kids are doing nowadays...
Can't change it, so why not allow them to consume something proven safe??
Wouldn't you rather them ingest something that been around for thousands of years with no negative effects recorded, than some chemical (with no long term studies made)???


Just my 2 cents..

reply to post by HunkaHunka


You will have to give us the run down on the segment.
I realize the ban of the chemicals are not enacted yet, but there seems to be a lot of momentum.

It's my understanding that the chemicals fall under the analogue act.

en.wikipedia.org...

Originally posted by Tribble


The ban is in effect in several country's already, and 15 US states. I have never tried K2 or Spice, due to some research I did after reading a thread here on ATS. I have to admit that his time I agree with the DEA's decision.

If you have tried this stuff, I would like to hear your experience.


news.yahoo.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

I've done quite a bit of it actually. Well, I did it about a year ago.
It's not really anything special, just kind of a body high. Unfortunately that stuff is extremely popular in the military. A friend of mine in the Navy said about 50% of sailors smoke spice. That might be an exaggeration, but I think it needs to be banned. That stuff is far more dangerous that what it's trying to replace.

Wow, im glad i clicked on this thread.
I live in Japan, where marijuana is very illegal, and therefore is hard to come across and also very expensive. Many headshops here sell these herbal blends. Spice was very big for a few years. It was the first big herbal blends to hit the headshops and was very popular because it was cheap, and gave similar highs to that of pot. It stayed in the market for a few years, then was made illegal and was banned from all headshops. Since then there have been many similar blends. I haven't heard of a few that were listed in the article, but another big one that was popular was called genie. Recently, they will have a new blend and it will get banned within a period of around a year or less, then a new blend will come out. The last time i checked, the newest one was called "eagle". It looks really sketchy because all the other ones before it were a mixture of different herbs, but this stuff was pure white powder. Just from looking at it I could tell it wasn't good news. Like the article said, all these products say that it is incense on the package.
I have tried a few of these blends myself. I tried spice a few times with my friends. It has a similar feeling to that of pot, but makes you a lot more tired. I could also tell that it has a much stronger affect on you in the long run. The next day you get this kind of hangover feeling. You just feel burned out and lazy. I could also tell it kills much more brain cells. Your view on reality becomes more hazy and dreamlike if you know what I mean.
I always wondered what the side effects of this blend were, but at the time, it was brand new and searches on the internet brought up zero results. I was just a naive kid, and was thinking about the temporary high instead of what the long term effects might be.
After spice was banned, a new blend came out called "genie", like i have mentioned before. I experiemented with this stuff too, but not as much as with spice. I could tell this stuff was stronger, and didn't make you as sleepy. I can't recall having any bad experiences when on spice, but with genie it was a different story.
Many times on genie, I had a very strange shift in consciousness. It made you think about things in great depth. For me, many of the cases were not in a good light. It made me worry about things and think about them deeply in a negative way. I can see how some suicides could have come from this drug and ones similar to it. I also became very paranoid. At one point i thought that satellites were watching me thru my window so i closed all the curtains and sat in the dark. One time i was doing it with my brother, and he was completely out of it. He was hearing voices in his head and he told me they were talking to him. that was the most scared look that ive ever seen on him. I calmed him down and told him he was just high and that everything was gonna be alright. Even after that, he seemed convinced that those voices were real.
The last one i tried was the one called "Eagle". My friends wanted to try it since it was the new thing that was out, so we bought a pack and tried it. This product was different from all the others. It looked like medicine or something. It was in a small silver zip lock pack and inside the pack there was a paper package in which the powder was in. eagle was a white, odorless powder, and there was very little of it. You're supposed to roll a cigarette and then sprinkle the powder onto the tabacco. This stuff was surprisingly STRONG for the amount that we put onto it. I remember we bought a pack that had 0.4 grams, which is almost nothing, and we split it between like 6 people, and everyone could feel it. I'm thinking maybe the powder could have been the pure form of the chemical used?
Anyway, there's my experience on those herbal blends. After those years of experiementing and after reading the article I will NEVER try these things again. Take it from someone who's done them. I encourage all of you not to try these things. It isn't worth it, and ever new blend that comes out, the stronger they become. Im glad research is being started on these things because people need to check the facts before ingesting blends like these.
I'm surprised that there have been ODs with these things. I actually recall now, a group of my friends were smoking spice (i wasn't there), but a friend of mine had a very strange reaction to the blend. I believe it was his first time, so that may have had something to do with it, but his heart began pounding very quickly and he was having trouble breathing. He may have had an allergic reaction to an herb in the blend, or he just smoked too much on his first time, but he thought he was going to die.
Oh and one more thing, These blends DO NOT go with alcohol. Ive had many , and many of my friends as well have had experiences where we smoked spice or another one of the blends, later to drink some alcohol, and they do mix well at all. You become very pale and break out in a cold sweat. You usually start blowing chunks soon after that. You can't stand up and it's like being very, very hungover.
Sorry for going on and on about this but i think all this info adds to the topic at hand, and i guess i have a lot of experience with this stuff because its pretty big over here in Japan.
Hope this stuff helps. If you have any questions, feel free to PM me or just reply to this post

I have tried jwh-018 and jwh-073. They get you high like pot, don't last as long and if you smoke too much jwh-018 you are likely to wig out a little. As in feeling too high... not stoney high but feindy high... like nervous, feeling like your arms are rubber bands, thinking something is about to happen, feeling like you need to breath heavy.

I smoked a blend with herbs and I ordered the straight compound. I thought they were interesting... especially psychologically but the psychological effects are hard to describe. You start feeling and perceiving things in strange ways more so than weed in my opinion but it is much harder to get a good stoney buzz with the compounds. 73 is different than 18...where as 18 is wiggier/weirder 73 is more relaxed and in my opinion, induces sexual arousal even more than 18. it seems when you smoke it sends a warm fuzzy sensation straight down your middle. They have some interestingly different effects. I thought they were interesting but I did not do them long and will not do them anymore.

they are made with poisons and I believe they are liver toxins. I did them for a month or so and my appetite went to # and my skin started turning yellow... but I also must say that when I smoke anything I don't eat as well... and that is why right now I am clean... and I love MJ so I feel kinda weird but it's what I need to do right now.
I just hope my headaches don't come back because I'm not smoking. My concentration hasn't gotten better... as a matter of fact, I think it has gotten worse and the only increase in motivation I feel is to eat.

as for compounds, the different ways they can affect I think is important to investigate but nobody should make a habit out of this stuff. The JWHs are made from the same thing they make mothballs with and i read up on it and found out enough to dismiss my fears but then i started having physical symptoms, but strangely my mind seemed to be more clear, more intuitive. Psychologically they are very interesting and if they ban these, someone will just make more... they are already in the process. There are already MANY. I wouldn't trade the experience but I will not smoke the compounds anymore. even if they don't effect others in a bad way, they do me pretty dirty.

It's time they just come off the green...it is an absurd law when you can buy booze in almost any store.

Originally posted by Tribble

US cracks down on fake pot as public health hazard

news.yahoo.com

WASHINGTON – Cracking down on fake pot, the government began emergency action Wednesday to outlaw five chemicals used in herbal blends to make synthetic marijuana. They're sold in drug paraphernalia shops and on the Internet to a burgeoning market of teens and young adults

(visit the link for the full news article)

It feels similar but prefer natural. Its just herbal smoke with synthetic thc sprayed on
Tastes gross but give a strong feeling that doesn't last as long.
Its mostly used by people who get tested regularly cause it doesn't show up on current tests
u2u me if you'd like more info

Originally posted by rangerdanger

Originally posted by Tribble


The ban is in effect in several country's already, and 15 US states. I have never tried K2 or Spice, due to some research I did after reading a thread here on ATS. I have to admit that his time I agree with the DEA's decision.

If you have tried this stuff, I would like to hear your experience.


news.yahoo.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

I've done quite a bit of it actually. Well, I did it about a year ago.
It's not really anything special, just kind of a body high. Unfortunately that stuff is extremely popular in the military. A friend of mine in the Navy said about 50% of sailors smoke spice. That might be an exaggeration, but I think it needs to be banned. That stuff is far more dangerous that what it's trying to replace.

Just curious, but how is it dangerous. I don't think something should be banned because someone misused it.
Should sugar be banned because I think its more dangerous?
What about cigarettes?

they accumulate in your system, if they don't effect you a month into regular use, they probably will eventually. if you buy the compounds you will even be able to smell the sickly lingering oder in the room you smoke in. The toxins will build up in your system.

On a psychological level though... I thought they were pretty nifty. Yes, 18 can make you seriously wig and it's not an allergic reaction... it means that person got a huge puff of the powder probably more than other people. You have to be SOOOO careful with the amount when you are fooling with the compound... it's way too dangerous for anyone who is just slightly careless. It can seriously make you freak if you have gotten just oh...let's say .01 gram too much over what you need to be high... and if it makes you feel bad... kinda like a "dark high" you probably did too much... if you start breathing heavy, you definitely did too much and when your arms feel like jelly worms that you can barely feel, you did WAY too much.... and when that happened, i had to lay down and sort of try to "hide from my buzz" until it went away. Worse thing you can do is panic though cause you don't want to have a heart attack over something that will probably go away very soon. The buzzes don't last long. I never got the hangover feeling but I got weird points of pain in my head in the morning time... like little sickening feelings in my brain... and yeah, you start perceiving all kinds of crazy #. It opens up some pretty weird doorways upstairs.

What's cool is the receptors they work on, but the compounds are toxic, I'm certain of it.
it wouldn't surprise me if they cause permanent liver damage if enough of it accumulates.

reply to post by badw0lf


I had to look up blue lotus to see what it does and found this YT video. I appears to alter the mood and slightly sedate the user. What did you use it for?

Originally posted by beholdblight

Originally posted by rangerdanger

Originally posted by Tribble


The ban is in effect in several country's already, and 15 US states. I have never tried K2 or Spice, due to some research I did after reading a thread here on ATS. I have to admit that his time I agree with the DEA's decision.

If you have tried this stuff, I would like to hear your experience.


news.yahoo.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

I've done quite a bit of it actually. Well, I did it about a year ago.
It's not really anything special, just kind of a body high. Unfortunately that stuff is extremely popular in the military. A friend of mine in the Navy said about 50% of sailors smoke spice. That might be an exaggeration, but I think it needs to be banned. That stuff is far more dangerous that what it's trying to replace.

Just curious, but how is it dangerous. I don't think something should be banned because someone misused it.
Should sugar be banned because I think its more dangerous?
What about cigarettes?

Are my posts invisible or something?
It is made from Naphthalene!

en.wikipedia.org...

They are stinky smelly compounds that accumulate in your body and your liver has to deal with it.
The herbs do not get you high, they compounds they spray on them do.

reply to post by rangerdanger


Unbelievable, but I believe you! Soldiers on a body high, that can't be good for operations. I wonder if it's allowed to be smoked openly.

The only experience I have with "Spice" is that I had to go to the emergency room 3 weeks ago to pick up my high school son who had smoked it.

He smoked it once before and apparently nothing bad happened, the second time he smoked it he went into seizures and luckily the kids he was with called 911 and the fire dept. got there to help him and he was taken to the hospital. He had one seizure on the scene and another in the ambulance.

The fireman who responded said she suspected what it was immediately because her niece in Phoenix had just smoked it 2 weeks before and after the high wore off the girl was sitting on a concrete wall with friends smoking a cigarette and she had a seizure and fell off the wall and hit her head. She is still in a coma and suffered some brain damage.

The cop at the ER said it was bad stuff and more and more people are using it,
He said that your better off smoking the real stuff, at least you know whats in it.

Yeah, I never had a seizure but I have heard that... and I'd say it definitely does something to brain activity... increases it, I don't know. Maybe my seizure threshold is pretty high but I felt all sorts of emotions. Some of it was pretty enlightening but I certainly don't expect that to be the case with everyone. I can see how some would have a really rough time on it... especially 18, the one that seems to be used the most.

Yeah, its def safer to stick to the natural stuff, but the problem with that is that the natural stuff, which is MUCH safer and does not cause any deaths or bad health problems is made illegal. The reason why people smoke this stuff is because its cheaper, or because they just can't risk smoking pot. I know a few of my friends smoked these herbal blends becaus they were on probation and had UAs. Im guessing this is why people in the military are using these blends as well. It doesn't show up on urine tests.