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| -Lurid Crime Tales- |
| Cops: Imitation pot as bad as the real thing |
| 2010-02-17 |
| There may be nothing like the real thing, but some industrious marijuana users have seized on an obscure but easily accessible substance that mimics the drug's effects on the brain — creating a popular trade in legal dope that has stymied law enforcement authorities. The users are buying a product known as K2 — or "Spice," Genie" and "Zohai" — that is commonly sold in head shops as incense. Produced in China and Korea, Now with 50% more melamine! the mixture of herbs and spices is sprayed with a synthetic compound chemically similar to THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana. Users roll it up in joints or inhale it from pipes, just like the real thing. Though banned in most of Europe, K2's key ingredients are not regulated in the United States — a gap that has prompted lawmakers in Missouri and Kansas to consider new legislation. "This isn't Jerry Garcia's marijuana," said state Rep. Jeff Roorda, a Democrat from the eastern Missouri town of Barnhart. "They've used chemicals to avoid creating something that's already illegal." Authorities in Johnson County, Kan., discovered ex-convicts on probation smoking K2, and said it is spreading to high school students. |
| Posted by:ed |
| #1 smoking anything with chemicals made in China would have too be worse than smoking regular pot |
| Posted by: chris 2010-02-17 19:45 |