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Efforts to ban synthetic marijuana
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| OrangestO |
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation...orts/55361624/1
| quote: | DETROIT – Mary Kait Hudson tried synthetic marijuana for the first time last October. The 17-year-old from Lake Orion and her friends bought it from a party store, mixed it with marijuana and smoked it.
"It worked pretty instant," she recalled.
She began hallucinating and felt like she was in the shower. Then she blacked out. The next thing she remembers is waking up in her bed the next morning.
Hudson got hooked on the drug — often called K2, Spice or fake weed — and ended up in rehab. But the substance has been even more devastating for other users. Police believe two young men smoked it before they attacked a Farmington Hills family with baseball bats in April. A West Bloomfield teen killed by his grandmother tested positive for the substance, the grandmother's attorney said. And police blame it for the overdose death of a young man in Bloomfield Township last weekend. |
| quote: | Some rules are already in place banning synthetic marijuana, but efforts are under way to strengthen those laws.
Michigan passed legislation in 2010 prohibiting seven substances frequently used to make synthetic marijuana. The DEA made five chemicals illegal last year.
That hasn't stopped the legal sale of synthetic marijuana because manufacturers change the chemicals and often advertise on packaging that the product is a "100% legal blend" or does not contain "prohibited ingredients as per state law or DEA regulations."
"Because it is legal, children and young adults believe it can't be that dangerous, or we as a society would protect them from it," said District Court Judge Kirsten Nielsen Hartig of Troy, who educates people on the products. |
Ok, so after reading this, I'm sitting here smoking and thinking about what causes something like to this to happen to one person and not another. I smoke this occasionally and I've never gotten to that point, at all. I feel pretty "stoner-like" after a joint and that's about it. The only difference for me is the high lasts a shorter time and it tastes like . Does it have to do with the chemical compounds and a person's physical response to it? I mean, there's a lot of people who do it and they don't kill their grandmother, so what the is the big deal. If you're going to have cigarettes and beer on the market, why not some knockoff reefer?
An Indian lady that owns a local convenient store here that I frequent for my beer, blunts and lotto tickets sells it and told me today that's she's selling it under the counter now because there's "crackdowns" and "sting operations" taking place. So now I'm not only thinking about what it's supposedly doing to the population, but also the money being spent on extra man power to get rid of it. How is this herbal substitute not different than beer or cigarettes in the grand scheme of things? It's not weed. It's already been legal and sold in stores for years. Why not go after the manufacturers instead of the shop owners if you want to get rid of it?
Uncle Sam is definitely getting his cut, so why make a big fuss about it. The store owner told me she makes an extra $3,000 per month. I could care less if this was in shops or not - I prefer the real deal from Mother Earth usually - so I'm asking out of curiosity. Is this just some more pointless bull to demonize weed and anything associated with it? Or is this a legit issue that needs to be taken care of? |
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| srussell0018 |
| They're synthetic compounds that aren't evaluated by the FDA since they're marketed as not for human consumption. The point is they don't know what kinds of effects they will cause in people. It's the same as mephedrone, MDPV, methylone, etc. Some people can take them and be fine, and some people take them and freak the out. Regardless, it's a drug, and drugs are illegal. It's not exactly a hard concept to grasp. If you can't buy an eighth of weed at the gas station, why should you be able to buy an eighth of some synthetic containing god knows what that was made in some filthy factory in India? |
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| EddieZilker |
The plants used in synth-pot are soaked in chemicals. According to a friend who's probably a little to into it to be healthy, hard-core users have found a way to rinse the chemicals off of the leaves and concentrate them for a more powerful high. In doing this, they're taking the psychoactive chemicals in high enough of a concentration that it compromises their state of mind beyond what's healthy.
Additionally, a number of stores in our area have been broken into or robbed, specifically for spice. There are users, so hardcore, that they've taken to breaking into local purveyors. I suspect either that their addiction also compromises their intellect or that incredibly stupid people are prone to becoming addicted to spice, in the first place. These criminal masterminds seem to get caught quite shortly after committing the crime; one pair breaking into a store with a police car, in plain sight, just down the block. |
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| Looney4Clooney |
| this isn't really synthetic marijuana. It is a designer drug meant to mimic the effects of THC. The FDA doesn't really regulate herbal supplements until people start dying or the feds find out it can make you high. And since it isn't really herbal, don't see why it would not be put on the list. As long as they don't schedule 1 it right away so people can study it |
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| OrangestO |
| quote: | Originally posted by srussell0018
Regardless, it's a drug, and drugs are illegal. |
This has been legally sold in stores for years. Just recently, whenever a chemical has been put on that illegal list, the manufacturers adjust accordingly and come up with something else. I agree, who the knows what's in it. Whatever it is though, it gives me the same feeling as smoking some weed. I just wonder about why the such extreme reactions from it, if I'm ok. What's scientifically going on there? Or do we not know, yet?
| quote: | Originally posted by EddieZilker
According to a friend who's probably a little to into it to be healthy, hard-core users have found a way to rinse the chemicals off of the leaves and concentrate them for a more powerful high. In doing this, they're taking the psychoactive chemicals in high enough of a concentration that it compromises their state of mind beyond what's healthy.
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:wtf:
I haven't met anyone doing that. Some people know no limits. |
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| Halcyon+On+On |
:stongue:
As much of a fan as I might be to decriminalize and regulate actual cannabis, I am having a hard time not thinking that people of such grand idiocy need to be removed from the general population. |
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| Looney4Clooney |
| quote: | Originally posted by EddieZilker
addicted to spice, |
lol sounds like they have watched Dune a few too many times. |
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| Halcyon+On+On |
| THE SPICE MUST FLOW |
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| OrangestO |
So why is liquor and beer allowed to be sold in stores?
Cigarettes are soaked in chemicals?
Why is this any different?
People die from from alcohol and cigarette use all the time. |
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| Looney4Clooney |
| you are assuming people make policy on facts and reason. The reason drugs are controlled the way they are was to to piss of those hippies. LSD was the drug that made nixon implement the current system of control. |
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| Halcyon+On+On |
| Baby Boomers still have their decrepit grasp on policy. Also, private prisons thrive on the idea of contraband! |
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| srussell0018 |
| quote: | Originally posted by OrangestO
People die from from alcohol and cigarette use all the time. |
People also don't smoke a couple cigarettes and then run around naked for 24 hours straight because they think the devil is chasing them.
| quote: | | Smith recalls one man who had been running for more than 24 hours because he believed the devil was chasing him with an ax. By the time police brought him to the hospital, he was dehydrated and covered in blood from running through thorny underbrush. |
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