Since the ban has been in place, one K2-related arrest has been made in the Arkansas county of Crawford. It seems that the police were notified of a possible drug transaction in the parking lot of one of the city's malls. As one vehicle was departing, one of the arriving officers noticed a traffic violation, giving cause to conduct a traffic stop.
The officers found an unopened package of K2 in the driver's glove compartment. There was no indication that the driver or his juvenile passenger had used the substance. They each now face a fine of up to $1000 and/or confinement for up to a year.
Sold in various flavors in 3-gram bags, the product consists of herbs that are sprayed with synthetic substances that mimic THC, the high-causing natural chemical found in marijuana. Laboratories have found that K2/Spice contains large amounts of synthetic tocopherol, which is not listed as one of its active ingredients.
Until the U.S. Drug Administration places the ingredient, JW-018, on its scheduling, K2 or Spice will continue to be sold legally by public retailers and on the internet.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Glenn Contrarian
JT -
Thank you very much - because I'd never heard of K2 before now (other than the mountain, that is). Just another thing that parents need to watch out for....
2 - Doug Hunter
How about we use this as an opportunity to conduct a real study? We should let it remain legal but tax and regulate it, monitoring it's use and see what happens. If it fails and use of the drug skyrocket beyond typical users and the taxation and regulations are ineffective then we've learned a valuable lesson about future drug policy. If we're able to get people help quicker, limit crime associated with the drug, without encouraging it's use then we'll have another answer.
I think the questions raised by those against current drug policy deserve at least an answer. K2 gives us a guinea pig we should be able to study.
3 - Cannonshop
The stuff kind of shows-people will do/pay anything to get high.
4 - Charles Thompson, Jr.
I agree that it should be studied thoroughly to find out exactly what type of danger it presents to the public. So far, the only results we have seen or heard about are those where someone have had an adverse effect from it.
However, I do agree with the officials, states and nations that have banned it. An indepth study should have been conducted prior to putting it on the open market. Until this is done, the potential threat should be eliminated or deterred to protect our youth since they are the main K2/Spice abusers.
You do know that K2/Spice is 3 to 5 times more potent than marijuana? This makes you think that it could be addictive in the long term, and presents a greater danger than marijuana ever has if it is putting people in the hospital, and chances of becoming addicted to K2 is too strong a probability.
I am going to keep monitoring the studies, legal and health issues about K2 that are being raised, and hopefully the effects, long and short term, will be discovered without anyone dying.
Prohibitation seems to be the first obvious step to take until more information about the drugs used in K2/Spice are known. Not regulations and taxation. The pros and cons of K2 in general are going to be open for debate for a long time, just like the arguments over legalization of marijuana.
5 - Dr Dreadful
I know that K2 is a very high mountain, but its rain shadow can't extend all the way to Arkansas, surely...
[runs away giggling]
6 - Cody
Oh no, it contains large amounts of "tocopherol"... you people know that's vitamin E right?
7 - sheeb
I dont think K2 could possibly be any more dangerous than cigarettes, or alcohol...
and if it was, then why not legalize marijuana instead of K2?
8 - william
i think it is stupid that everyones first reaction is to bann everything. it isn't supposed to be sold to anyone under 18 to begin with. which means its for adults to choose whether to buy and or to use it how they want. besides most of the people who couldn't handle it turned out to be kids who couldn't handle being high because they were too young to even be touching it to begin with. that should fall back on their parents, and not mean take it away from everyone else in our supposed free to choose country. so if a teeneager gets alchohol posioning becaus he drinks too much too fast, should alshohol be taken away from the rest of us? why is the majorities freedom always being taken to accomidate the few?
9 - Concerned Mother
I think that anything that has to be manufactured /with additives to make it consumable should be banned. Yes this includes alcohol! Now Im not saying foods etc... should be banned. But think about this for a second. Back in the old days before we had all the additives in our foods etc.. we didnt have 9 and 10 year old girls looking as if they were 17 & 18 year olds. I think that all the additives we have put in our foods have had a bad effect on our/and our childrens bodies.
Even so recent as the 70's we didnt have 9 year old girls going thru puberty. But now days we do. WHY???? Could it be from all the chemicals we have put in our foods? I think so. I look at my 13 yr old daughter and, if I didnt know her age, I would think she was 19 or 20, just because of her stage of development.
So we may not know today what this K2/Spice does to us or our childrens bodies, but what about down the road???? From what I read about this stuff they have added chemicals to it. Which in turn WILL have an adverse effect on our bodies. Now dont get me wrong Im not saying that pot should be legal just because it can be grown naturally, and I DO NOT CONDONE THE USE OF IT, But I have never heard of anyone driving like a bat out of hell while on pot. They all are so mellow that all they want to do is sit around, veg out and eat! But drink some beer/any alcohol and get behind the wheel and see how they drive!!!
As for taxation on this K2/Spice stuff, maybe they should tax it as they do cigarettes. And tax the heck out of alcohol as well. We dont hear of beer getting a 2.00 tax raise. Why not??? Where I live its almost cheaper to buy a case of beer than it is to buy a case of soda. No, just a cigarette tax. It gets taxed every year now it seems. What used to cost 15.00 a carton here, is now up to 50.00 a carton. And how many incidents have you heard of where a person smoked a cigarette and got a DUI? Or loss of motor skills from smoking a cig?? Yes I am a cigarette smoker, and I think all the additives they have put in them is wrong as well. I think the gov. just doesnt see the big picture when it comes to the safty of our/our childrens lives. They dont care as long as they can gain a profit from it! And truthfully I am SURPRISED that they havent legalized pot. YET! I think if they could get away with it they would, because they know they could make a boatload of money from it!!!!!
10 - john doe
I would just like to say, I have smoked k2, Im in my late thirtys, Im a disabled vet, I have 3 herniated disk in my back, arthritis in my back and knee's, and I also have asthma. Im not taken up for k2 dont get me wrong I do feel like alchohol there should be an age limit. But since Ive smoked it, I have not had to take any of my pain medication and I have not had to use my breathing inhaler. Like with any drug it has its ups and downs. I smoked pot in my younger days, and I dont feel k2 is any stronger then pot. Maybe it is bad for us in the long run, but so are ciggarettes, and alcohol. I just wanted to comment on this post.
11 - Charles Thompson, Jr.
@Concerned Mother, in another article I wrote on BC, "Controversial K2 Ban Spreads Across Nation, Spawning Pro vs Con Debates," lists some of the side effects K2 users have stated in various article/blog comment sections. This data is not from official testing or research, or a complete list, but from individuals alleged reactions to K2. Note that as with alcohol and drug usage, it was not a common/same reaction in each user, experiences varied, perhaps due to the user's experience, age, metabolisms, etc. However, it does give you an idea of what one might expect.
@John Doe, out of all my readings, you have stated the most positive reaction to K2. Hopefully when the official research is conducted this will be one of the positive reactions confirmed.
12 - MAAAAADDOX
I'm 21. I've been smoking k2 every day for 2 weeks. The high is similar to marijuana, but at the same time very different. It's more mental than physical.. Kind of an in-between of marijuana & psychedelic drugs.
I enjoy it. It has no immediate or short term side effects at all - anyone who says that it does is lying, or can't handle being high (probably smoked too much, it doesn't take much).
13 - Charles Thompson, Jr.
@MAAAAADDOX, from what I have been reading during my research in various articles and readers' comments, the main problem with those that have had negative reactions to K2 are not using it properly. They feel that they can smoke this unknown substance the same way they smoke weed. Instead of puff, wait 5 to 10 minutes and repeat until the desired high is obtained (which I have read that to be 3 to 4 hits) they are smoking same amount or quantity that they would smoke of marijuana, however, K2 is reported to be 3 to 5 times stronger.
A reasonable comparison that has been made would be a person that normally drinks 70 to 80 proof liquor to get intoxicated, or to get in to a party mood, to assume drinking the same amount of 151 proof Bacardi will get them the same way. More than likely they would end up with alcohol poisoning since the 151 proof is about twice the strength of the liquor they are used to consuming, and with K2 being an unknown and 3 to 5 times stronger than marijuana, the approach to consuming K2 should be one of caution. This is one reason that an official study should be conducted to find out exactly what effects K2 has.
I believe what scares the lawmaker so much that they ban it is the ages of the persons reporting negative effects after consuming K2.
14 - LINDYLOU
WHAT WOULD YOU RATHER HAVE SOMETHING REAL OR FAKE
15 - gumby
fire it up
16 - gumby
cant we all just hit da bong...
17 - Irene Athena
You know what Pokey would say, don't you?
18 - zach
I love how newspapers say how europe has illegalized it and that means we should. Well in England weed is legal and this isn't if we follow them weed should be legal. No more k2 problem. hook line sinker
19 - onepissedamerican
i think people are stupid to even be concerned with K2 or marijuana.ancients used maryjane for specific purposes, now days people just use and use to get fucked up. which is not what its intended purpose is.. if stupid ass teenagers would use it like it should be used then there wouldnt be a problem and just because the government says somethingis bad doesnt mean it is ..they lie more then anyone else..its there job and its a game of control. people should live there lives the way they want to..with the rights our four fathers gave us and stop letting the government control everything. and stop going to them with your problems...cause they dont care they created those problems..instead we should fix our own problems(like our gov.)our biggest problem of all. man people are such sheep"letting them herd you to your cage"(or this so called free life we have)
20 - T to tha J
How can we let this go on???? People will always be smoking marijuana, you know, the drug thats never killed anyone, and yet it remains illegal. Our kids get caught with weed and are drug tested. They still wanna get high so they turn to this K2 untested stuff that somehow remains legal and which is unditectible by drug tests. Good job america. LEGALIZE POT AND SAVE OUR NATION!
21 - Military
Hello all I'm a 20 year old male. I used spice, magic gold, k2 all the legal highs that were available in Oceanside calif. I'm a military service memember and I'm well aware were are supposed to use drugs, but me and my friends chose to anyway. I used spice regularly from June until October when I deployed to Iraq with no ill effects. Ceased usage while in Iraq and continued when I returned state side. I absolutly loved spice and never had a problem until oneday I smoked a high amount which is what I normally done. I got a horrible case of tinnitus I could feel my heart beat on the blood vessels next to my ear on my face. I went deaf temporarly and had a persistant very loud roaring noise which felt like my brains was going to spew out my ears. My heart felt like it was at heart attack levels. All I could do was lay in my bed and pray to God not take me now. I had extreme anxiety which I've never had on any drug. This experience was the worst experience I've ever endured. It lasted about 2 hours I would assume. After the effects wore off I just thought I got high and induced myself into a panic attack. This same experience happened 1 or 2 more times. Which lead to my immediate ceasing of the drug. I am incredably paranoid of smoking marijuana know because I get uncontrollable paranoid thoughts what I would compare to schitzophrenia. I have been clean from spice for about 4 months with no physical or mental impairment. I know it was a very foolish choice I made to injest chemicals that are unresearched. But I'm hear to share my experience with anyone that may be considering using or is currently. Stop now before you have this happen to you. I know you think it was just me or my genetic build, but don't take the risk with something you don't know anything about. I thought I knew it all. Thankfully I'm still here to share. Thank you Jesus for saving me from myself.
22 - Christopher Rose
Military, was it your drug use that lead you to believe in magical superbeings or were you that gullible before you started taking drugs?
23 - Another military
This stuff is strong as it's been stated. Do it in moderation. I had some after I had drank quite a bit and holy crap I could barely move. As for you military, if you're smoking pot, it's only a matter of time before you aren't military.
24 - Rhewt
I've tried it quite a few times. Never had any adverse effects. I no longer do it as it has been banned in my area and I only used it before because it was legal. I think that people use scare tactics to get things banned. Ive never smoked a large quantity at once so I can't comment on that experience. One thing is for sure, legalize Marijuana and this problem goes away. It ridiculous that alcohol is legal and people can't smoke weed. Prohibition doesn't work it just causes crime. rethink this people.
25 - Average Joe
You guys know you can get high off huffing canned duster or paint fumes too, right? As long as we're banning shit we should go ahead and do that too. Oh, and did you know that the combination of sugar, salt, and trans-fats gets you high? I guess we should ban fast food too. Yeah, you're probably right, marijuana is evil, but there's nothing wrong with 1 out of every 2 Americans eating themselves to death. Did I mention it's impossible to ingest enough marijuana to kill yourself?