K2 Incense Information

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  • K2 Incense, Bath Salt Drugs Banned in Ohio as of Monday

    COLUMBUS OHIO– Salty additives to bath water have been used for centuries for their supposed cleansing and healing properties.

    But the scented products found on shelves at health and beauty stores aren’t what police across Ohio will be on the lookout for when a new state law takes effect Monday.

    House Bill 64, signed into law in July, bans the possession, use and sale of products containing an array of specific chemicals. Targeted by the bill are synthetic marijuana products commonly known as “K2 incense” or “Spice” incense and another group of products called “bath salts.”

    Sen. Dave Burke, R-Marysville, and state Rep. Margaret Ann Ruhl, R-Mount Vernon, co-sponsored the legislation.

    “K2 and bath salts have already taken the lives of many Ohioans,” Burke said. “As a pharmacist, I understand the effect these substances have on the human body. Making these products illegal is the only way to stop the shadowy underworld of these designer drugs.”

    With brand names like “Cloud 9,” “Vanilla Sky” and “Blue Magic,” bath salts can be found in small envelopes or lip gloss-sized containers.

    Growing problem

    The popularity of the products, still legal in some states, has risen dramatically in the past year. In 2010, the American Association of Poison Control Centers reported poison centers across the country received 303 calls about the use of bath salts. Centers reported receiving 5,226 such calls as of Sept. 30 this year.

    Chemicals found in the imitation marijuana products also will be outlawed by the new law. A change earlier this year by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration made possession or sale of products containing any of five chemicals illegal by federal law.

    Fremont Police Chief Tim Wiersma said the popularity of “K2” products seemed to spike in 2010, before a DEA decision made the products illegal, and bath salts have become popular just in the past year.

    “I don’t see why someone would want to subject themselves to this huge paranoia that seems to go along with it,” Wiersma said of “bath salts” users. “There is just nothing good about it.”

    MDPV properties

    The Drug Enforcement Agency has listed methylenedioxypyrovalerone (MDPV), a component in many of the bath salts, as a drug of concern. According to the DEA’s fact sheet, MDPV is a central nervous system stimulant that can cause effects similar to those induced by cocaine, amphetamines and ecstasy.

    These effects include feelings of empathy, stimulation, alertness, euphoria and awareness of the senses. Experts also say the drug can cause increased heart rates, higher blood pressure, severe chest pains, suicidal thoughts, paranoia, delusional thinking, violent outbursts and self-mutilation.

    “The chest pains can be so severe that some people have told us they thought they were dying,” Clyde police Sgt. Mark Roach said.

    According to the DEA, the effects from MDPV can last three to four hours, with residual effects continuing six to eight hours after use.

    Drug users

    Port Clinton police detained a man Friday who was apparently under the influence of bath salts and acting out of control. The officer handling the call was not available for comment.

    Brian Weaver, a detective with the Clyde Police Department, said some local cocaine, methamphetamine and heroin users have moved on to drugs like bath salts, some even preferring them to the previous alternatives.

    “We only hear about the extreme cases,” Weaver said. “If people knew what this stuff was, I don’t think they would be happy about it being sold in their community.”

    In Ottawa County, police have handled only a handful of calls related to people high on bath salts.

    In August, a 24-year-old Port Clinton man was charged with abusing harmful intoxicants after police found him intoxicated in public and he admitted to snorting bath salts. An 18-year-old Port Clinton man was charged with the same in September.

    Newly appointed Ottawa County Sheriff Steve Levorchick, who served as a captain at the office before retiring a year ago, said he has heard of cases of people under the influence of bath salts.

    “It’s actually a growing trend,” Levorchick said. “It sounds like it completely alters a person.”

    A 48-year-old Townsend Township man was arrested and hospitalized after Sandusky County Sheriff’s deputies responded to a report of a man acting strangely in a front yard. Deputies said the man was sitting in a planter full of water, wildly swinging a wrench, when they arrived.

    The man told deputies he had used bath salts in the morning and said he was seeing “orbs” and “demons.”

    Weaver said one man under the influence of bath salts had uncontrollable body movements and extreme paranoia after injecting the powder found in the products.

    “He just couldn’t control himself,” he said. “He was talking 100 miles an hour.”

    A York Township couple was arrested on charges of endangering children in April after police reported they were ingesting bath salts, a brand called “Posh.” The husband was found along Sandusky County Road 264 trying to get inside homes; he told deputies his wife was trying to kill him.

    Enforcement efforts

    Fremont police Chief Tim Wiersma said when use of bath salts became popular, he politely asked two businesses selling the drug to stop. One complied, Wiersma said, but the other did not.

    “It’s harmful and it’s harming people,” he said, recounting what he told employees at the businesses.

    Under House Bill 64, penalties for the possession or trafficking of “K2 incense” will be the same as enforced for marijuana — a minor misdemeanor for possession and a fifth-degree felony for trafficking in the vicinity of a school or juvenile.

    Levorchick said deputies plan to enforce the law once it hits the books Monday.

    “Come Monday, obviously, we will enforce any infractions of those laws and we will pursue anyone who is selling it,” he said.

    Wiersma said his department will work to make sure Fremont stays free of the newly illegal drugs.

    “We will check to see who is selling it and take appropriate action,” he said.

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  • Synthetic Marijuana Becoming a New Force in Poison Control Centers

    One type is marketed as “synthetic marijuana.” The other is advertised as “fake cocaine” or “fake meth.” Both are marketed as legal equivalents to illegal drugs. But both cause alarming side effects that are generating a slew of calls to poison centers and spurring concern among doctors across the U.S.

    America’s 57 poison centers first received calls about “synthetic marijuana” in late 2009. During 2010, they received 2,915 calls about these new products. And from Jan. 1 to Sept. 30 this year, they’ve received 5,083 calls. The synthetic marijuana products sell for between $30 and $40 per 3-gram bag, in packages labeled as incense or potpourri and marketed under brand names like “Spice,” “K2 incense,” “Genie,” “Yucatan Fire,” “Sence,” “Smoke,” “Skunk” and “Zohai.”

    In December 2010, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency concerned about reports of people experiencing vomiting, hallucinations, racing heartbeat and elevated blood pressure moved to make the substances illegal. More than a dozen states had already taken this action.

    Late last year, poison centers began to receive calls about products marketed as “bath salts” sold both on the Internet as well as in gas stations and head shops. Packaging is usually a plastic bag filled with a white granular powder. The products are known as “Red Dove,” “Blue Silk,” “Zoom,” “Bloom,” “Cloud 9,” “Ocean Snow,” “Lunar Wave,” “Vanilla Sky,” “Ivory Wave,” “White Lightning,” “Scarface” and “Hurricane Charlie.” They produce increased heart rate, increased blood pressure, agitation, hallucinations, extreme paranoia and delusions. Poison centers took 303 calls about the products in 2010; between Jan. 1 and Sept. 30, 2011, the number of calls had jumped to 5,226.

    Many states have responded to the rising use of bath salts by passing laws to make them illegal, and in September 2011, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration issued a ban of the chemicals used to make these dangerous drugs.

    Keep your poison center’s number near your phone: 1-800-222-1222. Remember: You can call your poison center to ask about these substances even if you have not been exposed to them. Poison centers are open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and take both emergency and nonemergency calls.The American Association of Poison Control Centers supports the nation’s 57 poison centers in their efforts to prevent and treat poison exposures. Poison centers offer free, private, expert medical advice 24 hours a day, seven days a week. We take calls in more than 150 languages and from the hearing impaired.For questions about poison or if you think someone has been exposed to a poison, call 1-800-222-1222 to reach your local poison center.


  • California Bans Synthetic Marijuana Products

    CA, the leading state in pro-marijuana advocacy bans synthetic marijuana. Still think its safe?

    California Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law this week a bill that makes synthetic marijuana all products under the state’s Health and Safety Code illegal.

    Senate Bill 420, sponsored by Sen. Ed Hernandez, D-Los Angeles, bans the same five chemicals that the
    Drug Enforcement Administration classified as Schedule 1 substances in March:

    JWH-018, JWH-073, JWH-200, CP-47,497 and cannabicyclohexanol,

    which are typically added to dried plants of some sort for products marketed as incense.

     “Every person who sells, dispenses, distributes, furnishes, administers or gives, or offers to sell, dispense, distribute, furnish, administer or give, or possesses for sale any synthetic cannabinoid compound, or any synthetic cannabinoid derivative, to any person, is guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by imprisonment in a county jail not exceeding six months, or by a fine not exceeding $1,000, or by both that fine and imprisonment,” the law states.

    That makes the punishment for even small amounts of synthetic marijuana products harsher than that for marijuana. Possession of less than 28.5 grams of marijuana is an infraction and more than 28.5 grams is a misdemeanor, but possession for sale is a felony.

    Synthetic marijuana products include “K2 incense” and “Spice,” which are sold online and in some Santa Barbara smoke shops packaged as incense as of April. Many websites have openly sold these products even since the DEA’s ban, but most say their products contain no banned substances.

    As well as reportedly providing a high, synthetic products don’t usually show up in urine drug tests.

    “The worst part is that these drugs are marketed as a ‘safe’ alternative to marijuana when they are potentially more dangerous than the real thing,” Hernandez said in a statement. “This law makes it clear that these substances are neither safe nor legal.”

    There are synthetic products designed to imitate controlled substances — marketed as incense and bath salts — and manufacturers can be quick to adapt around banned compounds and change formulas just enough to stay legal, according to the Associated Press.

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