DEA bans chemicals in K2 and similar incense

A Closer Look into the World of RC’s

Knock Knock Knock… RC’s are coming to stay. The world of research chemicals is becoming a multibillion dollar industry which is growing exponentially, and the DEA’s attempt to schedule these substances is exasperating the already failed war on drugs.
The government is oppressing the people’s rights by declaring a federal state of emergency, through the Drug Enforcement Agency, on making five Research chemicals illegal. They are jwh-018, jwh-73, jwh-0200, cp-47, and cp-497 (Morgan). Now you may be asking yourself…Why should I care? Whether you may know it or not, there is an underground legal drug market, which is rapidly growing and becoming public controversy. The world of research chemicals are becoming the recreational drugs of the future.
All five chemicals are and have been being used in the manufacturing of an incense product known as K2 or Spice. The incense is sold in corner stores and smoke shops across the United States to anyone over the age of 18 and it costs approximately $10-15 a gram. Although not legally allowed to be sold for human consumption, these incenses are smoked by the users to experience a euphoric high similar to the affects of THC, chemically known as delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, or the main chemical present in marijuana. Synthetic cannabis as it’s also called, usually consists of a variety of different herbs, sprayed with the synthetic cannabinoids. These plants when smoked by themselves have their own psychoactive properties. Leonotis leonurus (Wild Dagga), Pedicularis densiflora (Indian Warrior), Turnera diffusa (Damiana), and many other plants have been use to make these “smoking mixtures” (Cary).
Dr. John W. Huffman was the organic chemist at Clemson University who first synthesized the metabolites of THC and discovered a wide array of chemicals in the synthetic cannabinoids family (Fay). Over a twenty year time span, Huffman discovered a wide array of cannabinoid chemicals. His research was funded by the National Institution on Drug Abuse. In January of 2009 a group of German chemists at the University of Freiburg publicly announced that many of the k2/spices were infused with synthetic cannabinoids, specifically jwh-018 and jwh-073 (Fuller).
During the past year, around 2000 people have contacted poison control centers, after smoking some herbal incense product; complaining of symptoms such as irregular/rapid heartbeat, disorientation, and nausea. Although these side effects may seem dangerous, nobody has died exclusively from smoking too much (Morgan).
Although in less than a month, all current synthetic marijuana will be removed from store shelves, destroyed, and become illegal it’s not going anywhere anytime fast. The main reason is because the user may smoke it and still pass a drug test. This is because the technology used in detecting these synthetic cannabinoids is new and not readily available. Also unlike natural cannabis, which stays in the human body for about a month, its synthetic counterparts only stay in ones system for 1-3 days, thus making it harder to test for (Morgan). Here’s my prediction… when k2/spice becomes illegal, The DEA will try and control these 5 cannabinoids…and fail miserably. So far this year their budget has exceeded 46,723,127,720 and their resources are being stretched to the max (“Drug War”). Now in a few weeks, synthetic marijuana will be illegal, and the DEA will have yet another drug to control. Not only is synthetic pot, impossible to test for but it is also a small, orderless, more potent version of marijuana. So when it does become illegal, it will not go away, it will be pushed into the underground drug market, where it will become made in probably not in the cleanest facilities, and will be laced with other illegal drugs, making them even more potent and addictive. There will be many kids and young adults, thrown into our already overcrowded legal system, which incarcerates more people than any other country (Morgan).
The biggest, most important ironic thing about this whole ordeal is that although jwh-018, jwh-73, jwh-200, cp-47, and cp-497 will all be schedule I controlled substances; it seems as though the DEA did not do their research on the topic because there are not only 5 synthetic cannabinoids on the market, but in fact there are others (about 20) known to be both CB1 and CB2 agonists just like the 5 being scheduled (Everything JWH). They are jwh-015, jwh-081, jwh-133, jwh-250, jwh-398, cp-55/244, cp-55/940, and win-55. In essence, when the K2/spices become illegal, there will be a short period of time if any before new synthetic pot hit store shelves. So when these “new” incenses with different cannabinoids become available, they will likely become popular once again. This will not stop the underground, black market from producing and selling the future 5 scheduled synthetic cannabinoids. Because of their higher potency in agonizing the CB1 and CB2 receptors and their better known chemical properties that makes them easier and cheaper to produce (Everything JWH).
“Whatever unpleasantness arises from all of this will owe its origins entirely to the mindless war on marijuana, and it’s truly the height of irony that K2/Spice will soon be subjected to the same failed prohibition policy that made it popular in the first place” (Morgan).
In other words Morgan is reminding us that the prohibition of alcohol in the United States took place from 1920-1933. We now understand why prohibition is a bad idea that does not work. It causes crime to increase because when you make a product illegal, its value increases dramatically, and the risk of buying/selling it becomes more profitable. So why does the government try and make us believe that the prohibition drugs will be any different than that of alcohol?
Cannabinoids are not the only legal RC’s on the market today, in fact, there are hundreds, if not thousands of legal unpublicized chemical derivatives which have similar effects to many well known illegal drugs. Mephadrone, 4-methylmethcathinone, Is a legal RC which has been receiving just as much attention as the synthetic cannabinoids. Mephadrone is an amphetamine, which is usually available in powdered form. The drug is usually taken by nasal passageway. It affects humans similarly by mimicking the effects of amphetamines, cocaine, and MDMA. Users of mephadrone state feelings of elevated mood, euphoria, stimulation, and a better appreciation of music. Although there are only a few reported deaths from using mephadrone, the side effects could include nausea, anxiety, paranoia, blood circulation problems, and delusional thoughts. Mephadrone is just one chemical in the Empathogen-entactogen chemical family, along with around a dozen others, some of which are legal. They include 4-MTA, MDAI, MBDB, MDEA, Methylone, and MMA (Europol).
The social, economic, political, and environmental devastation that the drug war brings, affects many people.
The medicinal use of marijuana is one example of how the drug war negatively affects society. Thousands of people in America, who reside in states where medicinal marijuana is still illegal, are being denied their medicine and are being arrested and prosecuted for using marijuana as a medicine, in order to treat such illnesses such as HIV/AIDS, cancer, and glaucoma.
The incarceration rate in the United States is higher than in any other country, and is an economical example of how the drug war fails. A large portion of the inmates in prison are drug offenders. In fact there are more people in jail for drug offences than any other crime. Mandatory minimum sentences were put into place during the year of 1986. The laws were put into place in order to detour people from doing drugs because of the harsh sentences. As we see now, these harsher sentences did not stop people from doing drugs; it put more drug offenders in our already crowded prisons (drugpolicy).
Hundreds of scientists are being funded by the United States and British Drug Enforcement Agencies, to create biologically engineered fungi to destroy illicit drug crops. The huge problem with this idea is that genetically altered organisms are very dangerous in that they can easily evolve into something totally different than the fungus which was originally used. In other words an entire ecosystem could be destroyed because of some climate condition that genetically altered the fungi (drugpolicy).
The war on drugs is a battle that has been lost, since it began, almost 75 years ago. The political, economic, social and environmental casualties caused by the drug war can never be justified. The DEA and their tyranny have gone on long enough. The Time for action is now. We need to stop the drug prohibition, which has unintentionally, signal handedly, expanded the legal drug industry into a multibillion dollar phenomenon, which has grown expidentullay during the past few years. Prohibition has failed. Point blank, people are always going to do drugs. So by making drugs such as marijuana illegal, people have the incentive and motivation to take and create research chemicals. There is little known about the short term and long term effects of almost all RC’s. The government should stop funding the DEA and use those billions of dollars to truly research all drugs, including RC’s, to hopefully create a greater understanding of them. And in turn decriminalize, regulate and tax certain very well known, scientifically studied drugs, (marijuana) so that the United States may slowly but surely, climbs out of the debt hole those government officials and stupid people dug us into.

Very nice and informative article. Unfortunately I am not sure it will educate the right people. As long as the majority of the peoples vote for the politicians is against it I fear nothing will come of it.
It seems the popular vote will always win no matter how much sense it makes. I have to scratch my head when they blame k2 for a one suicide and another driving on the wrong side of the road. Hmmm !!
http://www.k2incensesmoke.com

I know they are trying to close any loopholes that current k2 incense manufacturers are trying to get around but my friends still buy k2 incense from places that still claim to offer legal everywhere k2 herb blends like http://www.buyk2.com. As long as marijuana is prohibited there is going to be a niche for marijuana alternatives.