"Officials say three Upstate deaths associated with legal synthetic marijuana"

[hedgehog]

Syracuse, NY – Three deaths in Upstate New York, including two investigated by the Onondaga County Medical Examiner’s Office, have been associated with legal synthetic marijuana that is 20 times more potent than regular marijuana, health care providers said today

The substance is a plant material coated with chemicals that mimic THC, the active ingredient in marijuana. It’s sold in head shops, convenience stores and gas stations under brand names like Mr. Nice Guy, Scooby Snax, Spice, K2, Blaze, and Red Dawn X.


Products which health officials call synthetic marijuana are in a display case at Twisted Headz on North Salina Street in Syracuse.
The shops sell the small foil packages clearly labeled as not for human consumption as incense, but users smoke or ingest it anyway, officials said.

http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2012/03/officials_say_three_upstate_de.html

Now can we legalize pot?

[EOTE]

1. And deaths from marijuana??

Still zero. I used to think that synthetic stuff was great. Bring it to places where you can't smoke bud and not worry about getting caught. I'd use it on somewhat rare occasions. Then my dad tried some while he was on vacation and an ambulance ended up getting called. I really thought that my dad just freaked out or had a panic attack or something, but I've been hearing more and more of these problems with all these JWH synthetics. I'm amazed that they're not all banned due to the analog substances act. But we can still get this ridiculously harmful shit, but we can't get a plant that grows naturally everywhere. This country is fucking insane.

[hedgehog]

2. I don't smoke and I don't drink;

my vices are tea and chocolate! But I am sick to death of over 40 years of the War on Drugs! My kids got the same anti-drug lectures in high school that I got. All the War on Drugs means is the incarceration of people too poor to afford good lawyers and/or born with the wrong color skin!

[Ganja Ninja]

3. Proving once again that the war on pot is a cluture war ...

not a drug war.

If you were worried about peoples safety why would you allow the more dangerous substitute to be sold in lieu of the safe product it is suppose to replace?

[eppur_se_muova]

4. A reminder -- this is ***IMITATION*** pot, not "synthetic" pot !!

"Synthetic" implies a man-made substance chemically identical to the natural product. This is not THC; it is not even similar in chemical structure. It binds to the same receptors in the brain as does THC, but does not have identical effects -- the imitator appears to have very serious side effects NOT shared by natural cannabinoids. And the death toll is climbing.

"People who use it are idiots. You don't know what it's going to do to you."

links here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=38305