Actress Demi Moore has smoked spice, or synthetic marijuana, according to some news reports. She’s a Hollywood celebrity so that makes getting high from a “legal” substance okay, right?

Moore was hospitalized in late January after allegedly having smoked “an undisclosed substance,” according to Reuter’s news service. The Reuters report was based on a tape of the medical emergency call released to news media.

“She smoked something, it’s not marijuana but is similar to incense,” a female friend of Moore’s is quoted as telling emergency services. Moore was reported to have suffered convulsions and have been semi-conscious before being rushed to a California hospital. The actress has since gone into a rehabilitation program, according to news reports.

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Larry Black, commander of the Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit Drug Task Force based in LaFayette, speculates Moore smoked synthetic marijuana, also known as spice or K2. Spice is rapidly becoming a serious problem among local youth, second only to the widespread abuse of prescription drugs, Black said.

Convenience stores, head shops and Internet sites pedal spice as herbal incense or potpourri, Black said. These products appear to target teenage and 20-something buyers, enticing them with colorful packaging and trendy names like “Good Times,” according to Black.

“They’re not buying it to make their bedrooms smell good,” he said.

The challenge law enforcement faces is that spice manufacturers are quick to reformulate the drug, often changing banned ingredients in synthetic marijuana by just one molecule to technically make it legal, Black explained. Spice is usually labeled “not for human consumption,” although many of the merchants who sell it also sell rolling papers and glass pipes so users can smoke it, he added.

Black wants parents to be aware of this dangerous new drug. He said he and his fellow law enforcement officers didn’t know what spice was until about a year ago, when it began to crop up in north Georgia. Before the task force investigated spice buyers and sellers, prescription drug abuse was the most recent drug trend he and his officers had dealt with, he said.

Demi Moore’s bad experience with spice could not have come at a better time, he said. Black hopes the negative publicity surrounding the actress’s drug abuse draws more attention to the risks people take when they smoke spice.

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Local war on spice (synthetic marijuana)

In late January, the Lookout Mountain Drug Task force conducted two seizures of synthetic marijuana in LaFayette, according to Larry Black, commander of the task force, which covers Walker, Catoosa and Dade counties.

Task force officers initially confiscated 92 packets of “Good Times” and 300 other miscellaneous synthetic marijuana products from a distribution warehouse, Black said. The owners of the warehouse in the first raid are cooperating with police, he said.

Officers then confiscated 18,900 packets of synthetic marijuana from a storage warehouse located across from the LaFayette Post Office, the task force commander said. Spice often comes into the United States from China and Canada, and can then be “tampered with” once it arrives in country, the task force commander said.

The task force is currently working with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and state Rep. Jay Neal of LaFayette to draft legislation that would permanently take all forms of synthetic marijuana off the market, Black said.

What is in spice?

Spice is laced with manmade chemicals that mimic THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, and other types of cannabis that cause users to experience a feeling of euphoria, according to WebMD.

Black says the synthetic chemicals spice manufacturers spray on herbal potpourri and incense are generally 15-20 times more potent than naturally produced cannabis. Some doses could even be higher than that, he added.

On March 1, 2011, the DEA categorized five chemicals used in spice as Schedule I drugs, which places them in the same league as heroin, Black said. These illegal ingredients include JWH-018, JWH-073, JWH-200, CP-47, 497 and cannabicyclohexanol, according to the website WebMd. Black said Schedule I drugs “have no accepted medical use.”

A Clemson University researcher named Dr. John Huffman invented JWH-018 in the mid-1990s, Black said. WebMD quoted Huffman as saying, “Nobody knows anything about how these new compounds (synthetic cannabinoids) act in the human body. Anecdotal reports say they stick around in the body for quite a long time.”

Why try a dangerous high?

So why would someone try spice?

“It was something new,” replied a 21-year old Walker County man who asked that his real name not be used.

“Why buy the illegal stuff when you can buy the legal stuff in the store,” he said. “I bought it at a convenience store. It was on the counter right next to the lottery tickets.”

The man, referred to here as “Dave,” said he and five friends bought and smoked “Mean Green” brand herbal incense two years ago, when he was living in another state. Dave admitted he smoked and sold naturally grown marijuana at that time. Today, he steers clear of any manmade drugs because of his one experience with spice.

“The reason I don’t like it is because I had a bad trip off of it,” Dave said. “I watched me and one person out of the six of us that tried it trip real bad. I’ve not touched it since then.”

Dave said his heart rate seemed “to be goin’ 90 to nothin’.”

“My buddy couldn’t move at all. He couldn’t feel anything on his body,” Dave said. “It was hard for him to talk, it was hard for him to drink water. I think he must have drunk a case of water. He was hearing things that weren’t there… me and him both.”

Dave and his friend did not seek medical attention, he said.

“We stayed up until the high wore off and we went to sleep,” Dave said. “(My friend) was telling me to call the ambulance. I said, ‘No, we can’t do that brother. You’ll be fine.’”

“I’ve known people to have seizures off of it,” he continued. “I don’t know anybody that’s gone to the emergency room over it.”

Dave said he no longer abuses drugs, natural or synthetic.

“I won’t do any drug that you have to make. Meth, crack … I stay away from all that stuff.”

Dave is unemployed and looking for work.

“I’ve never been tested by an employer but you never know,” he said.

Still, he is not opposed to the sale of naturally grown cannabis.

“I wish they’d just legalize marijuana,” he said. “I never had a problem smoking it. I got through school, graduated, the whole nine yards.” Dave said he began smoking marijuana when he was 12.

When asked if Walker and Catoosa County youth can find spice on local convenience store shelves, Dave said most of it has been pulled. Stores that previously carried spice took it off the shelves after last month’s drug task force raids, he said.

“They (young people) will go across the state line to get it, if they have to,” Dave said. He tries to warn his younger siblings over the dangers of spice.

“I’d cuss my little brother out with a quickness if he ever does it,” he said. “But he’s 18 and doesn’t listen. He does what he wants.”

Dave added young people don’t need to buy rolling papers or glass pipes to smoke spice or other drugs. It’s easy enough to fashion pipes or bongs from household trash, like toilet paper rolls and empty plastic soft drink liter bottles, he said.

Physicians, drug counselors weigh in

Local doctors and mental health counselors say not enough research has been done on spice, to really understand the drug’s long-term effects. What they do know is increasing numbers of people who have smoked synthetic marijuana are showing up in emergency rooms or calling poison control centers.

“Basically, there is scant medical information regarding synthetic marijuana,” said Dr. John Thompson, a TeamHealth Atlantic regional medical director. Thompson supervises the emergency department at Erlanger at Hutcheson in Fort Oglethorpe.

“Poison control has very little information and is of minimal assistance when we have problems with this,” he said. “There apparently are chemicals in this stuff that stimulates similar receptors in the brain as does marijuana; however, there are a variety of other side effects.

“I have seen numerous patients with severe altered mental status,” Thompson continued. “I have had to put one patient on a ventilator due to respiratory failure. A big problem is that for someone intoxicated (on spice) there is no (standard) blood or urine test to detect this substance at this point. It seems that many people assume this is safe because it can be bought over the counter.”

Amy Jo Barron, a substance abuse counselor with Lookout Mountain Community Services, said health providers don’t know what the long-term effects are from spice use, because the drug has only been “on the market” for a few years.

Barron, like Thompson, says spice abuse is underreported.

“Many of (our clients) don’t see spice as a drug,” she said. “They’ll report other drugs they’ve abused, but not spice.”

An athlete, job applicant or individual on probation might not use naturally grown cannabis for fear of being tested positive for it, Barron continued. They would, however, smoke spice or K2 because it wouldn’t get picked up on a standard drug test.

“The problem is, we do see a fair amount of teenagers that are on an active high,” said Dr. Darwin Koller, medical director of the emergency room at Children’s Hospital at Erlanger in Chattanooga. “We can’t really test (for K2) with the routine drug screen we use so we may be missing some (cases).”

Barron said a drug test for synthetic marijuana was finally developed last fall. This new test costs community services $30 per kit, roughly double what a standard test for naturally grown cannabis costs, Barron said.

Spice users put themselves at risk of suffering delusions, she said. The drug also has been found to affect a person’s judgment and therefore can impair their driving, she said.

“You have these kids getting behind the wheel driving under the influence (of spice) and having accidents,” Barron said. “I would encourage parents to talk to their kids about any and all substances, legal and illegal. There’s always going to be some type of side effects, some kind of consequences that’s going to harm you. If you think your child is using marijuana and they’re not (testing) positive for it you might think about having them tested for K2.”

Barron said individuals assessed at community services could be screened for spice as part of an evaluation prior to treatment. Some urgent care centers also can test for it, she said.

“We began hearing about spice about two years ago,” she said. “Different people would come in and ask me if they could use herbal incense. My response was, ‘If it makes you feel high, then no.’”

Koller said the real danger spice presents is the drug’s unpredictability.

“You can have the euphoria and the lightheadedness and the calmness and mild hallucinations you might get with normal cannabis,” he said. But with spice, an individual might also experience aggression and violent behavior, even heart attack or severe withdrawal symptoms, Koller said. And because spice isn’t regulated, the dosage and its resulting symptoms are going to be different from one sample to another, he added.

Other reported symptoms of spice abuse include rapid heart rate, vomiting and confusion, according to sober.com. Spice users can develop a tolerance for the drug over time, and experience cravings for it, the website states.

More legislation needed to ban spice

On a positive note, a number of states, including Georgia and Tennessee, have enacted legislation to make spice and K2 illegal.

Dr. Darwin Koller, medical director of the emergency room at Children’s Hospital at Erlanger in Chattanooga, said the number of young people seen at Erlanger’s emergency room suspected of using spice seems to have declined in the past several years since Tennessee banned the drug.

Georgia officials plan to go even further by drafting legislation that would effectively ban all forms of synthetic marijuana.

Georgia Rep. Jay Neal of LaFayette said the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) used its emergency powers last year to outlaw five chemicals found in synthetic marijuana, placing them in the same category as heroin and cocaine.

“We (Georgia) were one of the first states to pass legislation banning spice,” Neal said.

Neal introduced HB1309 in 2010 to make some chemicals found in synthetic marijuana illegal. Gov. Sonny Perdue signed HB1309 into law on May 24, 2010. Neal then introduced HB199 to ban additional Schedule I substances.

Unfortunately, spice manufacturers are quick to adapt to the bans, he said. Each time a chemical is outlawed, Neal said, makers of synthetic marijuana reformulate the fake cannabis so the new chemicals they use are considered legal. Neal said the challenge for lawmakers is to come up with the appropriate legal language to effectively “close those loopholes” and successfully outlaw all types of fake pot.

Neal said he and other elected officials intend to work on this legislation during this next session of the general assembly and promised, “It will be introduced soon.” He said he is confident it will pass.

Spice withdrawal symptoms

· Inner unrest

· Elevated blood pressure

· Headache

· Drug craving

· Tremor

· Nocturnal nightmares

· Nausea

· Profuse sweating

Source: sober.com

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