Trying to keep up with the newest designer drug is tough. A few months back, Sheila Byrd was reporting in the Washington Post article, Officials Fear Bath Salts Becoming the Next Big Drug Menace Other articles about “bath salts”:
Drugs Sold As Bath Salts Now Illegal in Louisiana
Synthetic Cocaine Being Sold As Bath Salts
There are many ‘designer drugs” and new ones are being created all the time.
“Spice” is another designer drug according to the Huffington Post, Legal Drug ‘Spice’ Grows in Popularity Among Teens
A potent drug known as “spice” is being sold to high school students across the country, ABC News reports.
“Spice,” also known as “K2” or “legal marijuana,” is sold as incense and typically consists of chemicals sprayed on to dried leaves. The product isn’t marketed for human consumption.
However, when smoked, the product has a similar effect to marijuana, but is said to be many times stronger.
The drug is legal and accessible to many teens. Although it should only be sold to people 18 years and older, an ABC investigation found that younger teens were easily able to purchase “spice.”
“Spice” is just one designer drug. As of the publication of this blog post, the newest drug is “smiles.”
Piper Weiss writes in the Shine article, 2C-I or ‘Smiles’: The New Killer Drug Every Parent Should Know About:
The Grand Forks, North Dakota teenager’s fatal overdose has been blamed on a drug called 2C-I. The night before Stai’s overdose, another area teen, Christian Bjerk, 18, was found face down on a sidewalk. His death was also linked to the drug.
2C-I–known by its eerie street name “Smiles”–has become a serious problem in the Grand Forks area, according to local police. Overdoses of the drug have also be reported in Indiana and Minnesota. But if the internet is any indication, Smiles is surfacing in many parts of the country.
“At the moment I am completely and fully submerged, if you can’t tell by my eyes, in a psychedelic world known as 2C-I,” says a man who appears to be in his late teens or early 20s on a YouTube video posted back in October. His pupils are dilated. He struggles to formulate a description of what he’s feeling–it’s hard to tell if its because his experience is profound or if his speech skills are simply blunted. He’s one of dozens of users providing Youtube “reports” of their experiences on the synthetic drug.
Smile’s effects have been called a combination of MDMA and LSD, only far more potent. Users have reported a speedy charge along with intense visual and aural hallucinations that can last anywhere from hours to days.
“At first I’d think something was extremely beautiful and then it look really strange,” another user says in a recorded online account.”I looked at my girlfriend’s face for a minute and it was pitch black…the black started dripping out of her eye.”
Because the drug is relatively new–it first surfaced around 2003 in European party scenes and only recently made its way to the states–the most readily accessible information about 2C-I comes from user accounts, many of which detail frightening experiences….
Over the past few years, synthetic drugs like K-2, Spice and Bath Salts, have become increasing popular with teenagers and young adults. Their ingredients are relatively easy to obtain and until recently, they weren’t classified as illegal substances. But as they come under legal scrutiny, one by one, they’ve triggered a domino effect of newer, altered, and more potent versions.
“I think [the drugs] just keep changing to try to circumvent the law,” Lindsay Wold, a detective with the Grand Forks police department, told Yahoo Shine. “Anytime we try to figure something out, it changes.” Since July, her department has launched an awareness campaign in an effort to crack down on 2C-I’s growing popularity with teens and young adults in the area. While reports of overdoses have increased, Wold says it’s difficult to measure it’s growth in numbers. http://shine.yahoo.com/healthy-living/2c-smiles-killer-drug-every-parent-know-234200299.html;_ylc=X3oDMTNtb3B0ZWJtBF9TAzk2NzE0MzAxMwRhY3QDbWFpbF9jYgRjdANhBGludGwDdXMEbGFuZwNlbi1VUwRwa2cDMzBlYWE1NzktM2RmYi0zZDFmLWJkOTEtNDdhODg5M2UyNWQxBHNlYwNtaXRfc2hhcmUEc2xrA21haWwEdGVzdAM-;_ylv=3
For a really good explanation of how pushers and drug distributors exploit loopholes in the law to push poison, the BBC’s High Above the Law provides details:
Many legal highs are not very different from the current illegal drugs like amphetamines and cocaine, and have similar side effects. These can include heart problems, raised blood pressure, vomiting, anxiety attacks, mood swings, high temperatures and seizures, experts say.
Dr Ramsey says: “People are selling stuff on websites and in head shops to young people who haven’t got the remotest idea what’s in them. We need to get across to the young consumers and retailers that there are serious unknown risks in what they’re doing.”
LEGAL HIGHS
BZP was first trialled as a worming treatment for cattle, but never widely used as it caused fits in some animals.
Khat comes from the leaves and shoots of a plant containing natural speed-like compounds. It’s chewed over several hours and is popular in east Africa.
GBL is an industrial cleaner used to strip paint and remove graffiti taken in liquid form.
Spice is a powerful herbal smoking mixture imported from China that gives a “cannabis-like” effect.
Salvia is a plant related to common sage which gives a short, LSD-style hit when smoked or chewed.
The Connecticut Department of Consumer Affairs has an excellent pamphlet for parents about drug abuse.
According to the pamphlet, The Dangers of Using Synthetic Cannaboids common signs of drug abuse are:
COMMON SYMPTOMS OR SIDE EFFECTS OF K2 OR SPICE:
Symptoms of using this synthetic drug include:
• hallucinations
• severe agitation
• dangerously elevated heart rate and blood pressure
• increased respiration rate
• panic attacks
• dilated pupils
• numbness/tingling
• very pale skin
• vomiting
In some cases, tremors, seizures, coma/unconsciousness have been known to occur. Many individuals stop using the drug because after a week or so of using it, they start getting very bad headaches.
Be alert to signs of abuse.
Dr. Wilda says this about that ©
Dr. Wilda’s new blog, COMMENTS FROM AN OLD FART: http://drwildaoldfart.wordpress.com/2012/09/22/introduction-dr-wilda-as-an-old-fart/
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