Synthetic Drugs

Herbal Incense Laced with Designer Drugs

Posted by Drug Free in Synthetic Drugs on March 5th, 2012

The government is warning parents that kids are turning to legally sold “herbal incense” to get the same high from illegal drugs like marijuana.

designer drugsBrands such as K2, Spice, Spice Gold amongst others are made accessible to teens through herbal incenses which are laced with designer drugs. These items are being sold legally and they are surprisingly undetectable in drug testing procedures.

In 2009, the Drug Enforcement Agency first recorded an increase in emergency room admissions and crimes related to the use of such products based on data gathered from poison control centers at that time. It was in March 1, 2011 when the DEA pressed for an “emergency scheduling authority” to include products that give the same high as illicit drugs in the list of Schedule I substances, which means they are classified as products with high potential for abuse but with no medical use.

What makes herbal incense dangerous are the powerful designer drugs used to spike the said products like JWH-018, JWH-073, JWH-200, CP-47 and 497, as well as cannabicyclohexanol that mimic similar effects of THC, the active ingredient in marijuana.

After a year of being placed under Schedule I of the DEA list, the agency has a year to complete all requirements to issue a permanent ban on these substances.

Yet the most accessible place to get herbal incense is through the Internet where numerous sites are selling them like pancakes. In 2004, shops in Europe started retailing them and in 2008, countries like the United States and Canada joined the bandwagon of selling the same items and sales continued to soar by 2009.

In the US, only a few states have an existing law banning these products including Kansas which became the first state to impose the directive. Other states to follow suit are Tennessee and Missouri.

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Synthetic Drug Laws Should be Made Tougher, Some Say

Posted by Drug Free in Synthetic Drugs on December 3rd, 2011

Dylan Evans got introduced to plant food when he was still a freshman at the MTSU. A self-confessed nerd, Dylan got into the school with an academic scholarship. His friend at college first offered him the drug, but he declined to join him.

One day he saw the synthetic drug sold in a convenience store, so he bought one and tried it. He was instantly hooked, and from them on, he would spend hundreds of dollars for the drug. The money he had in the bank was lost in a span of five months, but he kept it all from his family.

The synthetic drugs which Evans took has become a menace to the community, with more and more people getting addicted to it, and courts and police authorities are having difficulty controlling the situation.

For Rutherford County Drug Court director Mary Schneider, the problem of synthetic drugs is one battle that authorities can’t do enough with to win. In their area, synthetic drugs cases are treated as misdemeanor acts, and every time they catch addicts, they arrest them but then there’s nothing that will hold them longer. They get released, and then the whole cycle repeats for countless times.

“They’re addicts and they think it’s legal and they don’t know what they are getting into,” said Schneider. This is why Schneider is pushing for tougher laws that would deal with synthetic drugs. Having or selling synthetic drugs like bath salts and plant food should be made a felony, which Schneider thinks will help police authorities in controlling the growing problem.

Schneider and some of her colleagues will be approaching Rutherford County politicians in the hopes of having a bill passed to toughen laws on such drug cases.

It may not be the total answer to the problem, but at least the fear of a felony could somehow keep students like Dylan away from synthetic drugs.

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