Last week, it was perfectly legal to walk into a Chicago smoke shop and buy any variety of K2 incense, a synthetic marijuana product. At 12:01 a.m. Jan. 1, it became a felony offense to buy, sell or possess the drug. But the authorities worry the ban will not be effective for long.
The Smokes and Such store in Skokie advertises a legal version of K-2 and Sky incense. According to the store manager the banned substances have been removed from the new incense Wednesday December 29, 2010.
Jose More/Chicago News Cooperative
K2, which is increasingly popular with high school and college students, is little known to anyone older than 25. Its chemical-laced herbs are sold online and in stores as incense “for aromatherapy and intense meditation,” as one distributor puts it. In reality, users smoke K2 products because they contain one or more chemicals developed to mimic the effects of THC, the active ingredient in marijuana.
K2 does not show up on standard urinalysis drug tests, said Will Taylor, a spokesman for the Chicago field office of the Drug Enforcement Administration, making it especially attractive to athletes and parolees. Medical officials, including Dr. Michael Wahl, director of the Illinois Poison Center, warn of the drug’s unpredictable and dangerous side effects, which can include elevated heart rate, panic attacks and seizures.
On Saturday, Illinois became the 17th state to outlaw K2, making possession and sale of the drug a felony offense. Meagan Dorsch, a spokeswoman for the National Conference of State Legislatures, said more states will most likely follow suit. “We expect K2 to be a hot topic in 2011,” she said.
But there is a catch. Drug laws are written to ban specific chemicals. And like most synthetic drugs, K2 can be repeatedly altered by replacing illegal chemicals with legal alternatives. “This is one of the most frustrating things about synthetic drugs,” Mr. Taylor said.
He said that as soon as one synthetic drug is outlawed, or when parents and the police become familiar with it, the formula changes and another product appears.
A manager of the Smokes and Such shop in Skokie, who requested anonymity, said he removed K2 products from the store weeks ago in anticipation of the ban. But a K2 sales representative told him that the company’s new blends, K2 Sex and K2 Sky, have been made using legal chemicals and are unaffected by the new laws. The shop is selling the new formulations, the manager said.
A federal ban is not yet on the books. On Nov. 24, the D.E.A. issued an Emergency Notice of Intent — the first use of this action since 2003, when the agency moved against another synthetic drug — to control five of the chemicals used to make K2. A notice alerts the public at least 30 days before the drugs are designated as controlled substances, giving the D.E.A. time to decide whether to make the ban permanent.
The Chicago Police Department did not respond to requests for comments.
Ken Kaupas, director of public affairs for the Will County Sheriff’s Office, said his department was aware of the drug and preparing to enforce the state ban. “We’re planning compliance checks and stings at retail,” he said, “the same way we check compliance for age limits on cigarette and alcohol purchases.”
Liane Jackson, a spokeswoman for the Cook County Sheriff’s Office, said Monday that she had never heard of K2, much less a statewide ban.
That makes sense, Mr. Taylor said. After all, K2 was legal until Saturday. “The vast majority of police departments are dealing with heroin and cocaine,” Mr. Taylor said. “Synthetic cannabinoids are just now becoming a problem.”
State Representative Kenneth Dunkin, Democrat of the 5th District and the bill’s chief sponsor in the Illinois House, acknowledged that the ban must evolve as new formulations are introduced. But he wanted to get a law on the books, he said, because the drug was “wreaking havoc.”
In 2010, the Illinois Poison Center received almost 70 K2-related calls, nearly all from hospital emergency rooms in Chicago and its suburbs. Nationally, poison centers fielded about 2,500 calls this year from emergency departments grappling with K2′s side effects.
Once medical workers are more aware of the drug and its side effects, Dr. Wahl said, reports will be more accurate. But the trend is definitely upward, he added. “We’ve seen more cases in October, November and December than earlier in the year.”
Users mistakenly think of K2 as a marijuana substitute, Dr. Wahl said. “People who smoke marijuana don’t tend to wind up in the E.R.,” he said “They just want to watch a video, eat some ice cream and go to sleep.”
Synthetic pot binds to the same brain receptors as its natural cousin, but it binds in a different way, with unpredictable results.
“People who smoke this stuff don’t get mellow,” Dr. Wahl said. “To use the vernacular, it’s a bad trip.”
Why do these people give use numbers without providing percentages. Well, I did a little digging and found that emergency room calls for “K2″ are way behind emergency calls for OTC diet pills and pain relievers. In fact, the K2 numbers are not even worth mentioning.
Also, after years of heavy use, no one has died from K2. So why do we want to start dumping ta payers dollars to incarcerate a bunch of young students? Is jail safer than K2?
You people are evil. Protect the children, right…
No matter WHAT the feds do or what laws are enacted, people will ALWAYS SMOKE MARIJUANA, K2, and any other analog of marijuana, because it is human nature to want to get high. When will people understand that the more you criminalize a substance, the more crime, violence, and overall strife is created? makes me sick….
Legalize cannabis and all this goes away. http://www.saferchoice.org
does anyone know if the new dea commpliant blends show up in a drug test or not?…i know that the old jwh stuff can be detected now so thats why i ask
“Legalize cannabis and all this goes away.” = right on
K2 is much worse for you than weed is in numerous respects.
Laws were meant to protect our freedoms not bind us. You know whats harmful… Cigarettes. Proven to kill but they have been paid off to keep it legal. Alcohol is an actual poison plain and simple. I’m not saying these things should be illegal as adults should have the choice as to what they put into their own bodies. I’m mean seriously, when do they make Mac Donald’s illegal as obesity is the # 1 health problem in the nation. This article is also inacurate; while these herbal blends are popular with young people there are alot of shop owners who say that 80% of their clients are over 40. It’s great for those of us, like myself, that want to relax after a long day at work but don’t want to have to worry about a drug test ruining our lives.
This is ridiculous, shameful and it should be a crime.
Because prohibition has been working SO well.
Well, I go back and forth on the pros and cons of legalizing real weed, but to anyone who thinks the lawmakers are off base with this K2 crap, and all its ugly cousins–I just found out the hard way what the heck this stuff even is. My child was offered this at a friend’s house and an hour later I’m in the ER watching his heartbeat go all the way to 170 and them megadosing him with anti convulsants. When the ER nurse called poison control, she was told they get tons of calls about this stuff and it is dangerously erratic so I wouldn’t say it’s “not worth mentioning”. Say what you like about it, I’ve seen with my own eyes what this garbage does.
I truly do side with you, madam, but only to a point. This shouldn’t be in the hands of kids at all. However, responsible adults should be able to choose what goes into their bodies, and that includes K2. I am sorry about what happened to your son, he should never have been able to get a hold of it. Personally, I think it should be sold like alcohol, meaning that to purchase K2, one should be 21. I like to smoke this myself, and it’s much better not having to worry about drug tests for what you do in your own time, not company time.