Pubdate: Tue, 13 Nov 2012
Source: Fairbanks Daily News-Miner (AK)
Copyright: 2012 Fairbanks Publishing Company, Inc.
Contact: http://newsminer.com/pages/submit_letters_to_editor
Website: http://newsminer.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/764
Author: Justin Cloud

DANGEROUS DRUG

To the editor:

In January of this year, I quit smoking marijuana and became a 
regular spice user. I did this so I could pass urinalysis to gain 
meaningful employment. I also did this because marijuana is illegal, 
and I wanted to be a better example for my kids. I'm now in treatment 
at the Ralph Perdue center.

Spice is a shredded plant substance that is smoked. That is where the 
similarities to marijuana stop.

The high from spice is not the same as marijuana. Spice is 66-800 
times stronger than marijuana, depending on the brand, and the high 
is much shorter in duration. Side effects include blurred vision, 
cardiac arrest, deadly swelling of the brain, deterioration of motor 
skills, elevated blood pressure and heart rate, heart palpitations, 
increased agitation, pale skin, paranoia, respiratory infection, 
seizures and vomiting.

Withdrawals are similar to cocaine, heroin and meth combined, just 
less intense. Signs of spice overdose include anxiety attacks, 
convulsions, dangerous elevated heart rate, psychotic episodes, 
severe agitation, disorientation and death.

Spice is highly addictive and sold legally in Fairbanks smoke shops 
marketed toward our youth. Spice may have been "synthetic marijuana" 
at one time, but in order to outsmart DEA, manufacturers continue to 
change the molecular structure to keep it legal and continue their 
profit margin at the expense of our families, youth and community. No 
one knows what is in it anymore.

This community is feeling the impact of spice right now. Visits to 
the emergency room, psychiatric wards, treatments and jail are just 
some of the things a spice addict has to look forward to.

The Fairbanks community can do something about this while we wait for 
the DEA to ban this for good. I think we should place a high tax on 
it for two reasons. It makes it less affordable for our youth, and it 
provides a revenue base for repairing the damage this legal street 
drug is having.

I realize this is probably unlikely, so let's begin with something 
easy we can do: stop calling spice "synthetic marijuana" and call it 
what it actually is, a "legal street drug."

Justin Cloud

Fairbanks
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom