Category: K2 Incense News Archive June

By David Newsom

As cannabis law reform proposals continue to make local headlines, another and potentially more dangerous substance is leaving its mark on the San Diego community. A synthetic cannabis product popularly known as Spice has infiltrated the nation under the guise of “herbal incense;” and according to researchers at the American Psychiatric Association, the chemicals used to mimic a marijuana-like high can cause psychosis in some users.

Because Spice is easy to obtain and as yet untraceable through conventional urine tests, use of the product among members of the military has become a mounting concern for government officials and medical doctors alike.  Last month, the Los Angeles Times reported that ten patients at the Naval Medical Center in San Diego were hospitalized for psychosis after using Spice – and their symptoms, which ranged from auditory and visual hallucinations to paranoia, delusions and suicidal thoughts, lasted anywhere from five days to three months.

San Diego-based naval physicians explained that, unlike THC (the quick-bonding, short-lived substance in marijuana that gives users a temporary high), the chemicals used to make Spice — such as JWH-018, CP-47 and cannabicyclohexanol — are more potent and bind themselves more permanently to receptors in the body. Not only do the drugs maintain a longer-lasting effect on the brain and other organs, they also take longer to bind to receptors than THC does – thus placing users at a high overdose risk due to delayed recognition of the drug’s effects.

read more at lajollalight

By Bonnie L. Cook

INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

Abington police are investigating the possibility that an Upper Moreland teenager had smoked synthetic marijuana, a legal substance, before he jumped from the Willow Grove Park Mall parking garage Wednesday night.

Detective Sgt. Steven Fink said the 16-year-old, whom he declined to name because of his age, was recovering in Abington Memorial Hospital after leaping off the three-story garage at 8:30 p.m.

When transported to the medical center, the teen was conscious and talking, Fink said.

What happened Wednesday night was the subject of intense scrutiny today by Abington detectives, one of whom was sent to the hospital to monitor the teen’s recovery.

Three other teens who were with the young man at the time had not been charged with any crime, the sergeant said.

“As far as we can determine, no crime has been committed,” Fink said.

Police said in a formal statement that the boy was sitting in a car with three friends about 8 p.m. when “he began to act oddly and may have been hallucinating.”

“He suddenly climbed out of the car. . . and ran full speed and leaped off of the deck,” police said in the statement.

Fink said investigators believe the boy had smoked synthetic marijuana “sometime prior to the incident.”

Synthetic marijuana – also known as “spice,” “K2 incense” and fake weed – is a manmade chemical compound that can be sprayed on a natural herb.

“It produces a high similar to THC,” Fink said. “You can go into a store and buy it. Due to a loophole in the law, it’s not a banned substance.”

That could change very soon.

Though federal authorities imposed a temporary ban on the sale and possession of five chemicals commonly found in synthetic marijuana, the ban has no teeth until reflected in a state statute, said Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman.

Such a bill, outlawing both the powerful drug known as “bath salts” and synthetic marijuana, passed the state Senate by a unanimous vote Wednesday and was headed to Gov. Corbett’s desk. A spokesman said the governor would sign it.

Ferman said she had learned about the existence of the synthetic compounds, and the dangers they pose, in the last few months.

“It’s really important that people understand that these chemical compounds don’t exist in nature, but they can be just as deadly,” the district attorney said.

Although there had been incidents of bizarre behavior throughout the Commonwealth that had been tied to use of the synthetic compounds, such incidents had evaded Montgomery County.

“That changed yesterday,” Ferman said.

The chemical compounds are manufactured overseas and are typically laced on plant material and sold as herbal incense or plant food in stores or over the Internet.

According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, increased use of synthetic marijuana has led to a surge in emergency-room visits and calls to poison-control centers. Adverse health effects include seizures, hallucinations, paranoid behavior, agitation, anxiety, nausea, vomiting, racing heartbeat and elevated blood pressure.

read more at philly

THERE is growing evidence that chronic use of the recreational drug ketamine is linked with severe bladder problems. The findings may also have implications for the drug’s use as an antidepressant.

Used safely as a medical anaesthetic and analgesic for decades, ketamine has also risen in popularity as a recreational drug. The first case of severe bladder problems linked with ketamine use was documented in 2007, but little is known about the extent or cause of the problem.

Now a group of surgeons and scientists have raised the alarm in a review calling for more investigation (BJU International, DOI: 10.1111/j.1464-410X.2010.10031.x). They highlight effects such as incontinence and bladder shrinkage, as well as damage to the kidneys and ureter in people using ketamine frequently.

“It has a major impact on users such that they can be incontinent or have enormous pain,” says Dan Wood, a consultant urologist at University College London Hospitals, who led the review. He has seen 20 chronic ketamine users with urinary problems in the last three years and had to remove four patients’ bladders.

The review suggests that heavy users are more likely to suffer symptoms, and about 20 per cent of people who have taken high doses of ketamine several times a week over months to years have experienced urinary tract problems.

“[Recreational use] is a growing problem in the UK, Australia and New Zealand, and it’s a huge problem in south-east Asia, especially in Hong Kong,” says Val Curran, a psychopharmacologist at University College London, who is leading a review of ketamine for the UK’s Independent Scientific Committee on Drugs.

Previously, it was thought that bladder problems might have been down to substances combined with the drug for street sale. In an as-yet-unpublished study, Simon Baker and Jennifer Southgate at the University of York, UK, added ketamine to human urothelium cells, which line the bladder. With increasing doses, the cells rapidly became cytostatic – they stopped growing – and then died with further increases.

Ketamine has recently shown promise in treating depression. In a study published this week, Lisa Monteggia and colleagues at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas show that in mouse models of depression, ketamine promotes the rapid synthesis of a protein known to have antidepressant effects, called brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). They suggest that this may provide a therapeutic target for developing fast-acting antidepressants, especially important for people at risk of suicide (Nature, DOI: 10.1038/nature10130).

“We are excited that ketamine could be the basis for a whole new generation of drugs, but concerned that these might show similar side effects to ketamine,” says Baker. Understanding more about ketamine’s actions could support the development of antidepressants without these negative effects.

-new scientist