Spice, Spice baby: ‘Legal marijuana’ may soon get kicked to curb in Idaho
Main Feature, Opinion Monday, October 4th, 2010
KRT US NEWS STORY SLUGGED: RAINBOWFAMILY KRT PHOTOGRAPH BY ELIZABETH FLORES/MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL (MILWAUKEE AND WISCONSIN OUT UNTIL JULY 17) (July 3) WATERSMEET, MI -- A young woman smokes marijuana at the Rainbow Family of Light gathering at Ottawa National Forest near Watersmeet, Michigan, on Tuesday, July 2, 2002. (MW) NC KD 2002 (Horiz) (mvw) (Diversity)
What makes the heart race, increases blood pressure, dilates pupils, can cause death and is insanely stupid to use?
Cocaine? Yes. However, so can a special brand of incense called K2, more commonly known in today’s society as spice.
Spice is a new fad with teens and 20-somethings. Essentially, it is synthetic weed. It’s sold in head shops and online throughout the United States. Every package of Spice is clearly labeled: “Not for human consumption.”
If a label specifically says don’t consume this product, any sane person would think, “Hmm, I better not put this in my body in any way, shape or form. It is entirely possible that this product is dangerous.”
However, spice is taking the U.S. by storm. One of the main reasons for the increased popularity is spice will not show up on a drug test. Unlike marijuana, meth and the like, the only way to show a person has been smoking spice is to test a urine sample.
Spice won’t show up on drug tests and it can give people the same effect of smoking pot.
It sounds like an ideal situation, right?
Wrong. Unlike marijuana, spice can kill you.
June 6 in Indianola, Iowa, 18-year-old David Rozga smoked spice with his friends one night and had a terrible reaction to it. He told his friends he felt he was going to hell. Later that night, after going home, Rozga shot himself.
In Dallas, Texas, 19-year-old Dominique Darrell Tate died Aug. 6. He posted a status update on his Facebook page early Friday morning, and by 11:30 p.m., several RIP messages had been posted to his wall by friends, saying they didn’t understand why he had to die. The medical examiner won’t rule on a cause of death until toxicology results are back. However, he did confirm Tate had a history of spice use.
Though no spice-related deaths have been reported in Boise, several BSU students have tried the new drug. A few have said they enjoy it and get high from smoking it, but other students such as such as junior communication major Michael Johnson find spice disgusting.
“I’m not going to smoke some herbs that have synthetic crap sprayed on it,” Johnson said, adding that his spice smoking experience was not enjoyable, and he didn’t like the taste or feeling he got after he smoked it.
Spice contains a mixture of herbs which, by themselves, wouldn’t be harmful to the user. However, spice is sprayed with a mixture of chemicals. It also is not regulated by the FDA, so each package of spice, whether it is the same brand or not, may have a different amount of a different combination of ingredients. There is absolutely no way to know how big a dose is contained in each package. Also, several of the main ingredients of spice have been linked to known cancer-causing agents.
Even the inventor of the main drug in spice advocates it was never designed to be a ‘super-THC’ and should not be used for recreational purposes. John W. Huffman created spice’s main ingredient, JWH-018, to study the relationship between chemical structure and biological activity.
“It is like Russian roulette to use these drugs,” he said. “We don’t know a darn thing about them.”
As appealing as it sounds to bombard the body with a mixture of chemicals and herbs scientists have yet to fully study, why risk smoking something that is unregulated, untested and comes with a death warrant attached to it?
Spice originated in Europe in 2004. Now, however, spice is banned through most of Europe, Asia and South America. And though it is still legal at a national level in the United States, several states have made it illegal, including Alabama, Kansas, Kentucky and Missouri. Other states, including Idaho, are in the process of making spice illegal. In addition, spice is banned in the U.S Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps.
The people who created spice have outlawed it in their continent. Some of the most respected branches of the U.S. military have banned it. Obviously, spice isn’t a casual, once-in-awhile habit to indulge in. It’s dangerous. It clearly says on the label it is not for human consumption. It has caused deaths, and even the inventor of the main ingredient in spice urges it is not to be used as a recreational drug.
Consider this — ammonia is legal. Bleach is legal. Windex is legal. These items are for sale in almost every convenience store in America. Yet, people don’t rush to buy them and dump these cleaners into their bodies to get some psychedelic feeling. Ingredients in ammonia, bleach and Windex can kill, and they, just like spice, clearly state not for human consumption.
Short URL: http://arbiteronline.com/?p=53190
Posted by Karey Hoke on Oct 4 2010. Filed under Main Feature, Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
Maybe we should ask what causes people to feel so hopeless and desperate that they have to turn to strange chemicals for a head change. Maybe they want to forget that they are one paycheck away from homelessness, that they have no medical care, no retirement, no home of they're own to die in and that all they're social security has been stolen.
Any fool can see the government has a financial foothold in Alcohol and Marijuana and that spice has impacted those sales in a negative way, and big brother is not happy about losing those revenues. Hypocrisy and Oppression, is our government.
The more you ban the more I sell. http://www.phatpugs.com
I moved my entire operation to Oregon in less than two hours.
Now, your left with a black market, higher prices = more crimes, idiots will try to make there own spice and poison people, no tax revenues for the state, but added expenses to enforce. And fill up the jails and courts with victim-less crimes.
In 30 years of living in Boise, I never had a problem getting weed as a minor or adult. So don't pat yourselves on the back, because you Big Brother, have done nothing for the people. NOTHING!
are you serious? looks like the law is already working: moving crazies to Oregon.
Phatpuug is not K2. K2 makes you feel sick, like something unnatural is in your system. Phatpugs is smooth, calming, and effective for assisting in relieving stress so I can meditate and pray more intensely. I am a devoted Christian and a college student with a 4.0 GPA. I am not ashamed that I enjoy spice, as long as it is Phatpugs. He is an honest business man with a consistent product.
We are all different and we need different things to balance ourselves. If the government's idea is to simply ban anything (except pharmaceuticals, alcohol, cigarettes, and other products they make serious money from) that people consciously choose to put in their body to create that balance, then they deny our American freedom.
If they make marijuana illegal in 1937 to allow DuPont's new product, Nylon, to not be challenged by hemp, then they will obviously have alterior motives for attacking spice. It is my assessment that it is because spice prevents me from needing either alcohol, marijuana or pharmaceuticals to balance me… and that hurts their profits…
Not to judge , for we all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. I just wanted to hold you accountable and possibly point out something you didnt know. If you have to smoke or eat or do anything but come to the Lord with a sincere heart to pray then you are breaking a commandment and therefore praying to a false God. Thall shalt have no other Gods before me. When you smoke before you pray to make your communication experience better you are putting your faith in something material instead of in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Instead try reading you word especially in Romans it talks about the dangers of people that may lead you to believe to Pray using Pharmacia which means drugs to do so . God is the creator of the world when you talk to him it should be in reverence with a pure clean heart and if you want to hear his answer then read his word . With Love from your brother in Christ
all this information as tru as it can be isnt exactly 100% true. different people have had different expierenced with this stuff. some people dont even get high some people get really high. But anyone at the age of 21 can go into a store buy some alcohol and get drunk and drive and ultimately kill someone. How many k2 k3 or pot related vehicle deaths have you heard or seen. very few if any. its just another way for society to ban something they are scared of and dont know. i have been an avid k3 smoker for over 2 months now since i cant smoke regular pot. its relaxing in the evening after working 12 hours to come home smoke some k3 and enjoy my evening. i dont need it nor am i addicted im simply someone who likes the feeling it gives. all my friends have stopped smoking pot and started this. no crazy flip outs or any kind of psycho outbursts. they all claim its "almost better than the real thing" it doesnt last as long and when your high is gone you feel completely normal again. please dont believe this ignorant propaganda.
"And though it is still legal at a national level in the United States, several states have made it illegal. Other states, including Idaho, are in the process of making spice illegal. In addition, spice is banned in the U.S Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps.
The people who created spice have outlawed it in their continent. Some of the most respected branches of the U.S. military have banned it."
Someone should point out that you could pretty easily replace "spice" in "homosexuality" in the above passage and make just as compelling of an argument from authority. "Well, the USMC and Alabama don't allow it, so neither should you!"
I mean, if the Arbiter is determined to moralize from the editorial pages, the least they could do is try to not sound like Mormons.
Also:
"One of the main reasons for the increased popularity is spice will not show up on a drug test. Unlike marijuana, meth and the like, the only way to show a person has been smoking spice is to test a urine sample."
I'm sure it's a fine distinction to a person such as yourself, but most drug tests test urine. The reason "spice" doesn't show up on the test is because it is metabolized by the body, and you therefore have to test for the metabolites instead of the drug.
it's just another thing in life that takes someone away from stress in life but society gets told how to react to it if you dont use it thats fine but dont claim it does this or that unless you do god gave you brain to use for good not to be poluted by false information there is to many laws searving someones poket book if it bothers you give to god not to the power of our goverment to arrest our children.
I've gotten really sick off of spice once. I threw up for about 20 minutes straight and definitely "saw the light." Honestly, it's probably a good thing it's banned. Now as for the legalization of marijuana…..
its labeled not for human consumption. why? because if it said "smoke this and get high" it'd be illegal incredibly quickly. as far as suicides go, im reminded of the cop who called 911 "overdosing" as he put it, on pot brownies. its physically impossible to overdose on thc. they were probably gonna off themselves anyways, or were unstable to the point they shouldnt be smoking anything (or drinking, you know, the thing that kills a hell of alot of people). Never seen a single person get sick off this. if you dont like the feeling, stop, go eat some food and consider yourself done. i hate the feeling of being drunk, so i dont drink, simple concept. youre in the minority if you've given spice (k2 never did anything for me, black magic and home blends are best) a try and DIDNT like it.notice and you'll probably only try it looking to replace bud. It always tastes like shit, so buy some smoking flavor drops. strawberry made it taste like a super smooth strawberry hooka…in a bong!. And to whoever talked about desperation to turn to drugs, i can name many a college professor/ outstanding athlete/dedicated parent/people with common sense who like weed/ spice.
Can you smoke it and beak a drug test? I am going to look for a job, don't they all do urine tests? Would they even be looking for it if it is not a controlled substance?
its bull dude if you smoke a shit ton of it yes you will die but if you smoke a bowl every now and again you just get the good feeling
ive smoked redicoulus amount of the shit im not dead, they have to put not for human constumtion to be able to sell it legally, it was made in the sole purpose of human cunsumption wtf else you gonna do with it
I smoke Spice every-night, I havent had any thing wrong with me and feel fine, I sleep better because of spice and i cant smoke marijuana because of my job. Yeh theres been times when i had a little to much but i never wanted to kill myself lol. Alot of kids that try spice are inexperienced and cant take it. I think it should stay legal. But if you want to legalize weed by all means ban spice lol.
It is blatantly obvious that prohibition just doesn't work. K2 herb has survived all these bans thus far. If people want to buy k2 smoke, it looks like they are going to have no problems doing it as there are places like, http://www.k2incense.org that have k2 incense products that aren't restricted by any current bans. I think our founding fathers would be appalled by how The Constitution is being stomped on. Let us have more respect for our individual liberties and take more personal responsibility. Parent your children, stop looking to Mommy Government to do it for you with all these ineffective and oppressive laws.
Why not?7In my opinion is a good idea, why do they allow whisky and not marihuana? if whisky can hurt you more? I would approve it.