Category: K2 Incense News Archive June

All over the U.S., bath salts are being sold with names like “Ivory Wave,” “White Lightning” and “Hurricane Charlie.”

But these aren’t your average bath salts that you pour into the bathtub to soak in after a long, hard day to relax – these so-called bath salts are intended to be snorted, smoked or injected – and users are getting high off of them.

The Drug Enforcement Administration does not regulate these substances, but they are under federal scrutiny, as the effects of these salts are comparable to methamphetamine abuse, according to poison control centers and other law enforcement agencies.

Law officers say some of the substances are being shipped from Europe, but origins are still unclear.

The powders often contain mephedrone and methylenedioxypyrovalerone, also known as MDPV, and can cause hallucinations, paranoia, rapid heart rates and suicidal thoughts, authorities say. The chemicals are in products sold legally at convenience stores and on the Internet as bath salts and even plant foods. However, they aren’t necessarily being used for the purposes on the label.

Mississippi lawmakers this week began considering a proposal to ban the sale of the powders, and a similar step is being sought in Kentucky. In Louisiana, the bath salts were outlawed by an emergency order after the state’s poison center received more than 125 calls in the last three months of 2010 involving exposure to the chemicals.

One man, Neil Brown, of Fulton, Miss., got high off the bath salts and then slashed his face and stomach. He survived, but authorities said other people have not been so lucky.

In Brown’s case, he said he had tried every drug from heroin to crack and was so shaken by terrifying hallucinations that he wrote one Mississippi paper urging people to stay away from the advertised bath salts.

“I couldn’t tell you why I did it,” Brown said, pointing to his scars. “The psychological effects are still there.”

Mayor Tom Perciak said he will testify today before the Ohio House of Representatives on the dangers of chemicals found in products like K2 incense and K3 incense.

Perciak said he would also speak about laws regarding Internet sweepstakes cafes.

The K2 issue was raised at a City Council meeting Monday night by Ward 3 Councilman Mark Roth, who called it “a travesty” that dangerous chemicals are available to children.

“We need to draw attention to this synthetic marijuana and nip it,”Roth said.

Products like K2 incense are marketed as “herbal incense,” but teens and adults roll the chemically treated vegetable matter into cigarettes and smoke them for what they call a “legal high.”

But unlike marijuana, it’s not the vegetable matter that produces the high — it’s synthetic chemicals the leaves are treated with. In March, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration outlawed the

five chemicals found in the so-called “fake pot” like K2 incense.

K2 incense  is now illegal to sell or buy.

But manufacturers quickly adjusted, using new chemicals and putting the product back on the market as K3. Police Chief Charles Goss said the producers “never missed a beat” in having new stock on store shelves.

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MADISON: Wisconsin Assembly Bill 57/Senate Bill 54, prohibiting the possession and sale of synthetic cannabinoids passed the State Assembly Wednesday June 8. The synthetic cannabinoids are often marketed as incense under names including K2 incense and Spice.

The chemicals are used as substitutes for whole cannabis and to evade drug testing for cannabis. When smoked, the compounds produce cannabis like effects, but dosing can be erratic because the substance is often sprayed on plant material and may not be evenly distributed.

from the examiner