Emergency ban extended on chemicals used in drugs that mimic pot

[alp227]

Source: CNN

The Drug Enforcement Administration is extending for another six months its emergency ban on five chemicals used to make synthetic drugs such as Spice, the DEA announced on Wednesday.

The DEA already had banned the substances for a year, but with that period soon to expire, the DEA announced it will file a notice in the Federal Register on Thursday that will mean the chemicals will continue to be illegal.

The substances used to make the fake pot products are: JWH-018, JWH-073, JWH-200, CP-47,497 (that's all one chemical CP-47,497) and cannabicyclohexanol. The names sound like an alphabetical and numerical soup. But the drugs are marketed as herbal incense under such names as K2, Blaze, Spice and Red X Dawn and have been popular with teenagers and young adults.

The DEA says the products are made of plant material coated with chemicals that claim to mimic THC, the key ingredient in marijuana.

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2012/02/29/justice/emergency-drug-ban/index.html

[ArcticFox]

1. Just smoke pot, people.

You'll kill yourself with that fake shit.

[Comrade Grumpy]

2. Really, just legalize weed.

Those synthetic cannabinoids won't kill you, though, although there appears to be an almost infinitesimally small chance you'll kill yourself after using it. There have been a handful of deaths "linked" to it; two or three are suicides, one was a guy who crashed his car, and one was a kid who smoked it in a Pez dispensary, got lung damage from the plastic, and later died.

Poison control and ER people say the bad reaction symptoms they see are similar to those of pot "overdoses."

"Bath salts," however, is a different story. That's the amphetamine-cocaine-Ecstasy-like stimulant, and a few of what appear to be real overdose deaths have been reported, and some really whack symptoms, like acting bat-shit crazy.

But it looks like people are selling the shit out of both kinds of substances. so the bad reactions aren't that frequent.

[ArcticFox]

3. Thanks for the info. I was thinking more that synthetic drugs can lead to unexpected consequences

I learned about this in a Psychology class - Synthetic Heroin-Induced Parkinsonism, from a botched synthesis leaving in the wrong chemical:

http://jdc.jefferson.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1129&context=jeffjpsychiatry&sei-redir=1&referer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Furl%3Fsa%3Dt%26rct%3Dj%26q%3Dsynthetic%2520heroin%2520mppp%2520mptp%26source%3Dweb%26cd%3D2%26ved%3D0CCgQFjAB%26url%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fjdc.jefferson.edu%252Fcgi%252Fviewcontent.cgi%253Farticle%253D1129%2526context%253Djeffjpsychiatry%26ei%3DpOhPT6ShIoaltwfWvaWiDQ%26usg%3DAFQjCNGFqwPTDtn5FRKAO_M1q33gM52OYA#search=%22synthetic%20heroin%20mppp%20mptp%22