Banning drugs can be a real headache, or psychosis

[Kuya]

This week, President Obama signed a law banning synthetic marijuana and other synthetic drugs. Dozens of states and local governments have already tried to outlaw fake marijuana, which has been blamed for hundreds of emergency room visits and a handful of fatalities.

But the bans have proved largely ineffective, and there are fears that the federal law won't be any different.

At roughly $20 a gram, it's unlikely that many buyers are using synthetic marijuana to freshen up the powder room. Most are smoking it as a substitute for real marijuana.

The pathologist determined the cause of Stinson's death to be "acute intoxication due to the combined effects of ethanol (from alcohol consumption) and Relaxinol." No charges were ever filed; the company that makes Relaxinol did not respond to requests for an interview.

There are no clinical studies about the health effects of synthetic marijuana. But anecdotally, health care providers report a long list of nasty side effects, from agitation and paranoia to intense hallucinations and psychosis.

Christine Stork, the clinical director of the Upstate New York Poison Control Center, says that she's seen a steady stream of synthetic marijuana users turn up in emergency rooms over the past few years.

"They're expecting a marijuana experience and pretty soon, they realize they're not getting their usual experience," she says. "They can be quite agitated. They can be quite paranoid. They require drugs to sedate them and may have seizures, which are pretty severe."

Stork says synthetic marijuana can be 20 times as potent as real marijuana. But it's hard to predict the strength of any particular brand or packet — in part because it's remarkably easy for anyone to make and package synthetic marijuana without any oversight or regulation.

Most states have already moved to ban some synthetic cannabinoids — the chemical compounds that are the key ingredient in synthetic marijuana. But Burns says it's not that simple.

"You have people that are very good with chemistry, that continue to manipulate the molecular structure of these substances," he says. "So that they are creating analogues, or substances that are similar to those that have been banned."

The result is a big game of cat and mouse. The government outlaws a certain compound or family of compounds. But then producers tweak the chemical formula of their products to skirt the law.

http://www.npr.org/2012/07/12/156615...for-regulators

If banning certain drugs just makes people make up new synthetic legal ones that are more dangerous than the banned ones, shouldn't it be time to recognize that drug laws need some change?

[hey]

If banning certain drugs just makes people make up new synthetic legal ones that are more dangerous than the banned ones, shouldn't it be time to recognize that drug laws need some change?

No, drugs are bad. Just look at all the people dying from fake pot. And this stuff isn't even the real thing! Just imagine how bad that must be.

[Mazmaz]

That's sketchy as fuck man. Could you tell the difference between synthetic and real? Thank god I didn't die from smoking weed back when I was doing that.

[Lucavi]

I smell a shitty 1990's "Mom's can't taste the difference~!" off-brand product commercial coming on...

[Dimmauk]

I just smoked a whole tub of "I can't believe it's not marijuana". AFK eating hobo faces.

[Tweek]

are they talking about salvia or wizard smoke or something different?


edit: after reading the article a little more closely it seems this shit is about salvia WTF are they calling it synthetic marijuana that's so misleading.

[Correction]

"If we can make the bad guys react to what we're doing instead of us reacting to what the bad guys are doing, then I think that'll help us get a better handle on this issue," he says.

Man I hate the language of the drug war. 'bad guys,' jesus christ.

[Seanr]

Im a bad guy