Pubdate: Sat, 27 Nov 2010
Source: St. Paul Pioneer Press (MN)
Copyright: 2010 St. Paul Pioneer Press
Contact:  http://www.twincities.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/379
Author: Frederick Melo
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/K2

'FAKE POT' FACING A REAL CRACKDOWN IN MINNESOTA

2 State Lawmakers Plan To Seek Ban; DEA Studies Illegal-Drug
ClassificationThe days of Spice, K2, Yucatan Fire, Smoke, Skunk and
Red X Dawn may be numbered. In fact, "fake pot" needs to be off store
shelves in 30 days.

While federal regulators are promising a yearlong crackdown, two
Minnesota lawmakers are pushing statewide legislation to ban fake pot,
or synthetic marijuana, an increasingly popular recreational drug that
police say has led to a proliferation of calls to poison control
centers for symptoms far more serious than anything typically
associated with cannabis.

The drug, which is legally available in convenience stores and tobacco
shops under names like Spice and K2, is usually sold in potpourri or
incense packaging with a small warning label indicating it is not for
human consumption, "but the labels are useless compared with the lure
of a legal high," said state Sen. Katie Sieben, DFL-Newport.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has also taken notice of fake
pot's sudden popularity. The DEA plans to make possessing and selling
five chemicals involved in the making of fake pot illegal for at least
a year while the chemicals are studied to determine if they should be
permanently classified as controlled substances. The rule will take
effect in 30 days, the DEA announced Wednesday.

"Once the final rule comes out, then it is a temporarily scheduled
'Class I' substance," said Special Agent Michael Sanders, a spokesman
with the DEA in Washington. "We have a year, plus six months if we
need it, to do all the research and interviews we need. ... There is
no medical purpose for K2, Spice."

Lawmakers said statewide legislation is still necessary because
federal penalties for drug possession are often relatively light
unless a user is found with copious amounts of the substance.

Some tobacco store proprietors say state and federal crackdowns won't
do much to stop them from selling new varieties of fake pot once
manufacturers tinker with the recipe.

"There's 200 different ingredients," said Jim Carlson, owner of The
Last Place on Earth, a tobacco novelty shop in downtown Duluth, Minn.
"With the DEA banning five of them, it's basically like walking into a
liquor store and saying, 'You can't sell rum or vodka anymore,' but
you still have shelves full of gin and whiskey. All they're doing is
just making us switch a product to a different ingredient."

Sieben was joined Wednesday by state Rep. Denny McNamara, R-Hastings,
at a news conference about their proposed legislation, which the pair
plan to introduce when the Legislature reconvenes in January. The bill
would make possession or possession with intent to sell a felony, with
even tougher penalties than marijuana possession.

The lawmakers said the statewide legislation would be broader than the
new federal rule, broad enough, in fact, to outlaw all forms of
synthetic marijuana, without taking pain relievers and other common
products off the shelves.

Cody Wiberg, executive director of the Minnesota Board of Pharmacy,
told reporters Wednesday that synthetic marijuana was once used in
laboratory rats to determine which sectors of the brain are activated
by cannabis.

The comparisons stop there. He called the synthetic substance far more
dangerous, in part because it is unclear what the substance is being
mixed with when it is sold in shops.

"We don't know what else is in these products," Wiberg
said.

Researchers believe "synthetic cannabinoids" are between three and 100
times more potent than THC, the active ingredient in marijuana.

That has helped make the drug a dangerous overnight sensation.
Nationwide, the American Association of Poison Control Centers has
documented more than 2,000 calls this year related to fake pot,
compared with 14 calls in 2009. Users complain of elevated heart
rates, confusion and nausea. An incident in Iowa resulted in
hallucinations and suicide, Wiberg said.

Despite the dangers, the drug remains untested in humans and entirely
unregulated. "Clearly, there are side effects that you don't expect in
marijuana," Wiberg said.

In June, a 14-year-old Hastings teen suffered a severe reaction after
trying fake pot in a relative's garage. His mother, Stacy Huberty,
said she found him on the bathroom floor, vomiting, mumbling and
drenched in sweat.

Huberty, a registered nurse, approached the Hastings City Council for
a citywide ban on the drug, but the council declined, noting a
statewide ban would be more effective because the substance is so
readily available outside the city limits. Police believe Huberty's
son obtained the drug from a neighbor, who purchased it in Cottage
Grove.

On Aug. 30, Duluth became the first city in the state to ban fake pot,
but the city has agreed not to enforce the ordinance until the courts
resolve a federal lawsuit brought by Carlson, the owner of the Duluth
novelty store. He and other critics called Duluth's rules so vague and
overly broad, they would outlaw pain relievers.

At least 15 states have banned the drug through legislation or
administrative actions, Sieben said, and four states have bills pending.

"Even the states that have banned it, the stores just pull in a
different compound the next day," Carlson said. "Some of the stores
are doing better than they were before the ban." 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake