The United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has issued the most severe ban possible this week, exercising the Controlled Substances Act by putting a federal control on chemicals used to make faux marijuana products. This emergency action was necessary to prevent an imminent threat to public health and safety according to the enforcement agency.

A big reason for the ban is because these products are not FDA approved and no organization is keeping tabs on their manufacture. Schedule I substance controls are reserved for those substances with a high potential for abuse, no accepted medical use for treatment in the United States and a lack of accepted safety for use of the drug under medical supervision. Brands such as “Spice,” “K2,” “Blaze,” and “Red X Dawn” are labeled as herbal incense to mask their intended purpose.

Since 2009, DEA has received an increasing number of reports from poison control centers, hospitals and law enforcement regarding these products. At least 16 states have already taken action to control one or more of these chemicals.

Emergency room physicians report that individuals that use these types of products experience serious side effects which include: convulsions, anxiety attacks, dangerously elevated heart rates, increased blood pressure, vomiting, and disorientation.

Late last year in November in Florida, the Polk County Sheriff’s Office and prosecutors released details of more than a dozen recent arrests for sales of imitation marijuana sold as K2, Spice and other brands. Deputies arrested 12 people who sold products containing synthetic marijuana to undercover detectives during an undercover operation.

The arrestees were charged with possession and sale of an imitation controlled substance, a third-degree felony and Polk County detectives checked 268 stores in the county.

The crackdown began in October when Polk County law-enforcement agencies became the first in the state to challenge sales of so-called synthetic marijuana products sold as incense. Florida’s Drug Policy Advisory Council recently urged the Florida Legislature to join a growing number of states in banning the substances.

The products, usually sold at small gasoline stations and mom-and-pop food stores, are sprayed with synthetic “cannabinoids” and can be purchased legally as incense.

DEA Administrator Michele M. Leonhart comments:

“Young people are being harmed when they smoke these dangerous ‘fake pot’ products and wrongly equate the products’ ‘legal’ retail availability with being ‘safe.’ Parents and community leaders look to us to help them protect their kids, and we have not let them down. Today’s action, while temporary, will reduce the number of young people being seen in hospital emergency rooms after ingesting these synthetic chemicals to get high.”

Over the past couple of years, smokeable herbal products marketed as being “legal” and as providing a marijuana-like high, have become increasingly popular, particularly among teens and young adults. These products consist of plant material that has been coated with research chemicals that claim to mimic THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, and are sold at a variety of retail outlets, in head shops, and over the Internet.

Cannabinoids were first discovered in the 1940s, when CBD and CBN were identified. The structure of THC was first determined in 1964.

Synthetics are often marketed as “herbal incense”; however some brands market their products as “herbal smoking blends”. In either case the products are usually smoked by users. Although synthetic cannabis does not produce positive results in drug tests for cannabis, it is possible to detect its metabolites in human urine. The synthetic cannabinoids contained in synthetic cannabis products have been made illegal in many European countries.

Source: United States Drug Enforcement Administration

Written by Sy Kraft, B.A.