Herbs – Fake pot legal, but dangerous

They go by names like Voodoo, Euphoria, Dead Man and Black Magic, offer a cheap high and are easily found at local tobacco and head shops.

The herbs and synthetic cannabinoids commonly known as K-2 and spice, also have a dark side, sometimes causing sweating, vomiting and even hallucinations.

Connecticut lawmakers have tried to regulate or outlaw the substances, but the makers and distributors of K-2 and similar products have confounded those efforts, altering the blend of substances or carefully labeling the products as not for human use.

So it’s business as usual. Take last Wednesday, when Andrew Durand was checking out the line of merchandise at Cigarette Express on Main Street in Bridgeport.

Durand, 39, of Bridgeport, decided on a packet of Black Magic herbs. “It’s not the same high and it’s not as long-lasting as pot,” Durand said of the product. “But this stuff is cheaper and easier to get. I mix it with tobacco and smoke it because some people say it’s really strong if you smoke it by itself.”

The clerk had packets of several different herbs in a shoebox under the counter and racks of them on the wall.

“You have to be 18,” said the clerk, who declined to give his name. “It’s all legal.”

THE LURE OF SALVIA

The legal and commercial history of synthetic cannabinoids — fake pot in the minds of many — is a complicated one.

The synthetic cannabinoids have been considered legal since their introduction in 2004 because they do not contain THC, the active ingredient in marijuana. Two of the synthetic cannabinoids were developed in the mid-1990s by Clemson University researchers who were conducting lab experiments on mice, according to the website of the Iowa Substance Abuse Information Center.

Perhaps the most popular herb is salvia, or salvia divinorum, a Mexican plant known to have psychoactive effects. According to author J.D. Arthur in his book, “Salvia: Doorway to Thought-Free Awareness,” it was used by Aztec warriors to have visions they would use to predict the future.

For years, U.S. drug crackdowns ignored synthetics, focusing instead on powerful, addictive drugs like cocaine and heroin or on marijuana, viewed by some as a gateway to more hazardous substances.

But alarmed by the growing popularity of the synthetic substances and herbs and by reports about their dangers, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency last fall put salvia and several of the chemical compounds on its schedule of controlled substances. France, Austria and Germany, along with 13 U.S. states, mostly in the Midwest, have banned the synthetic substances, according to the Iowa center.

Connecticut lawmakers this year followed suit, sending to Gov. Dannel P. Malloy a measure he signed into law that regulates the sale and use of the substances. The measure aligns Connecticut regulations with federal laws and lists many of the most common ingredients as controlled substances.

“These products are used by more and more young people because they had escaped the scrutiny of the Food and Drug Administration and other authorities in what seemed like a deliberate end-run around state and federal drug laws,” said state Sen. Andrea Stillman, D-Waterford, who introduced the measure signed by Malloy. “Fake marijuana products seem targeted at young people and are said to contain chemicals researchers estimate to be from five to 25 times more potent than THC, the active ingredient in the real thing. If one of our goals in state government is to protect the public health and well-being of individual residents — particularly young people — our state must carefully scrutinize comparable products and ban those with no discernible productive purpose.”

EXACTLY WHAT’S IN IT?

Cracking down on K-2 and other synthetics is difficult for another reason.

The packets often are labeled as incense and have varying ingredients in different strengths, said John Lieberman, director of Visions, a California drug treatment program. The mix of ingredients also tends to be altered to comply with changes in laws, he said.

“There are probably 250 different synthetic cannabinoids, and somebody figured out that if you say on the package that it’s not intended for human consumption it’s legal,” Lieberman said.

The herbs are available across the region in head shops, tobacco stores and even gas stations. They are sold in packets or small jars the size of lip balm, for $14 to $20. Like some street drugs, synthetic cannabinoids have many different “brand names,” including Black Magic, Voodoo and Euphoria.

In Bridgeport, across the street from Cigarette Express, customers at Head to Toe have a wide selection.

“We have a lab report on each of the brands we sell, and that way we know exactly what’s in it and whether it is legal,” Head to Toe co-manager Talia Ruggerio said. The store, in business since 1974, only carries legal products, she said, and all of them carry a warning label.

“The stuff is widely available online, but then you don’t know what you’re getting,” Ruggerio said. “A lot of it is bootlegged. We don’t know what people do with this stuff, but we can tell them what is in it.”

Outside Head to Toe, Adam, who asked that his last name not be used, held a tiny jar of “Dead Man” herbs he bought for $14. The ingredients are not detailed on the label.

“Regular people buy it,” he said. “I want to see what it feels like, but I won’t go near salvia. That stuff messes you up and I won’t mess with it.”

At Visions, the drug treatment program, Lieberman said salvia is among the most common herbs used by adolescent patients who admit that they’ve tried K-2. “They’ll take anything with anything, and often they’ll mix drugs and alcohol,” he said. Salvia and synthetic cannabinoids are often found in the same product, he said.

`THERE IS NO JOY’

While area hospitals have reported few emergency room visits by people who’ve smoked or ingested the herbs, one former paramedic described an emergency call he received from a teen who overdosed on K-2.

Former paramedic Joseph Tomasso said the West Haven teen had to be hospitalized.

“The (ambulance) crew said he was hyped-up, off the wall, and that he told them he had taken K-2. He was wigging out on the stuff and he ended up spending a couple of days in Yale-New Haven” Hospital, Tomasso said.

That makes sense to Michael Baker, a Los Angeles man who was treated at Visions for what he and Lieberman said was an addiction to the synthetic drug.

“It doesn’t act like pot at all. You can get hooked on it,” Baker said. “It doesn’t mellow you out. Initially, it made me self-conscious, slightly paranoid. It was a pretty negative feeling; it put me in a depressed state of mind. Pot makes you look inward, but there is no joy in (using) K-2. It knocks the life out of you.”

Lieberman said the so-called synthetic versions have the opposite effect on the body that marijuana does. While natural cannabis is prescribed to control nausea and vomiting in patients undergoing chemotherapy, the new drug can cause strong vomiting, he said. “One of the dangers we see with it is aspiration pneumonia from choking on vomit,” the drug abuse counselor said.

“Parents say, `Why can’t my kid party like I did?’ or “They’re only using pot,’ but this generation of kids is being raised by the one that used more illicit drugs than any before it,” Lieberman said. So far, society’s reaction has been `ridiculous,’ he said.

“Does it make sense that there are more restrictions on cigarettes than K-2? I’m not going to drive over your kid if I’m smoking, but I might if I’m on K-2. Smoking hookah is outlawed, but K-2 is not? That’s like saying going 70 miles an hour is illegal, but 120 is not.”

Reach Frank Juliano at 203-520-6986 or [email protected] Follow him at http://twitter.com/FrankJuliano or blog.connpost.com/juliano.

Bill & Sheila’s A-Z of herbs