Pubdate: Sat, 05 May 2012
Source: Washington Post (DC)
Copyright: 2012 The Washington Post Company
Contact: http://mapinc.org/url/mUgeOPdZ
Website: http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/491
Author: Colbert I. King

DANGER COMES RIGHT OVER THE COUNTER

Just what parents don't need: another way for their kids to get high, 
or worse. And getting that buzz, that glow, that trip to an altered 
state is so easy.

There's no need to bother with street dealers or big drug traffickers.

No, the stuff that can take youths (or anyone else) into a 
haze-induced world where anxiety attacks, convulsions, fast heart 
rates and raised blood pressure lurk can be purchased around the corner.

It's available over the counter, perhaps in a store near you.

This week I got a call from Kenneth Barnes, former head of the youth 
advocacy group Reaching Out to Others Together (ROOT). Barnes was 
alarmed by reports of D.C. youths getting "wigged out" on a drug 
bought openly in the community. Parents, he said, had told him that 
the easily available drug was having a devastating impact on their children.

The drug is called "K2," Barnes said, and is sold in the District 
under the street names "Kush" and "Abama." Look for it, he said, in 
convenience stores or gas stations where young people are prevalent.

Four days ago, I did just that.

While my gas tank was being filled at the Exxon station in the 4500 
block of Benning Road NE, I asked a clerk for Kush. She reached 
behind her and produced a shiny, colored plastic bag with "Kush" 
written on it. We were separated by glass but, at my request, she 
turned the bag around so I could read the label on the back. Several 
ingredients - none of which I recognized - were listed, along with 
the admonition "Not to be sold to children." She said the price was 
$8. I declined to buy it.

My experience at a gas station at Brentwood Road and V Street NE was 
easier. I didn't even have to ask. Bags of Kush were on display 
inside the cashier's glass enclosure. The clerk told me a bag cost 
$25. Again, I declined.

I learned much more after my gas station visits.

K2, Kush, Fake Weed, Spice, Blaze and Red X Dawn are only some of the 
brand names of "fake pot" sold at retail outlets in the United States 
and online, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration's 
Washington bureau spokesman, Jeffrey Scott. A Feb. 29 DEA news 
release explained the common denominator: These are smokeable herbal 
products consisting of plant material that has been coated with 
research chemicals that claim to mimic THC, the active ingredient in marijuana.

The DEA took emergency action last year to declare the five chemicals 
used to make these products - JWH-018, JWH-073, JWH-200, CP-47,497 
and cannabicyclohexanol - illegal. Those chemicals, the agency said, 
represent "an imminent threat to public health and safety." They have 
been designated Schedule 1 substances, a classification reserved for 
material with a high potential for abuse that has no currently 
accepted medical use in the United States.

So does that mean the bags for sale at convenience stores around town 
are illegal? Not necessarily.

The chemical ingredients are banned. But without testing the 
ingredients in the bags, it's hard to say whether the products are 
outside the law. What's more, the manufacturers of synthetic drugs 
are cagey. They can easily change a product's name or switch 
ingredients to mask their intended purpose.

So where does that leave us?

The alarm sounded by District parents is being heard across the country.

The DEA cites emergency-room physicians' reports of individuals who 
have ingested K2 and other fake-pot drugs experiencing convulsions, 
vomiting, disorientation and anxiety attacks. Federal investigators 
are seeking manufacturers and suppliers of these drugs; their focus 
is not on retail outlets like those I visited.

Some states have banned synthetic "fake pot" drugs. The District has not.

K2 is not just a city or emergency-room problem.

The Post reported last year on the use of synthetic marijuana at the 
Naval Academy, where at least eight midshipmen were expelled for 
using it. Navy investigators got a break when, as reported, a 
midshipman smoking synthetic marijuana began having seizures.

What's a parent to do?

Make clear to your children that smokeable"fake pot" is a synthetic 
product arguably more dangerous than marijuana. Next, demand that 
local authorities crack down on the purveyors of that stuff.

Clemson University chemist John Huffman told ABC News in 2010, 
"Anybody that tries [K2] is like playing Russian roulette. You don't 
know what you're getting. It's just insane. Anybody who uses it is 
out of their tree."

Huffman should know. What began as research - an undergraduate 
developed K2 in Huffman's lab - has led to several banned chemicals 
(including JWH-018, JWH-073 and JWH-200) bearing Huffman's initials.

That's dangerous stuff that our nation's capital can do without.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom