Crime & Safety

Herring Moves to Illegalize "Synthetic Marijuana"

Drug that mimics marijuana's effect could have even more dangerous side effects, the senator said



Virginia State Sen. Mark Herring hopes to sponsor a bill to illegalize a drug that mimics the effects of marijuana and can have dangerous side effects.

Herring (D – Loudoun and Fairfax) held a press conference Monday morning, where he outlined some of the dangers of the designer drug, which is also called "spice," or "K2."

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He said that though the drug is thought of as a synthetic—and so far, legal—alternative to marijuana, it can actually have more immediate and dangerous consequences than that drug.

According to Dr. Edward Puccio, director of INOVA Loudoun Hospital's Emergency Department, the side effects of this drug can include paranoia, hallucinations, heart irregularities, seizures and suicidal thoughts. He added that users may display dilated pupils and a detachment from conversations.

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"They're not really looking at you," he said.

"Any inhalation would be considered an overdose because it should not be ingested," Puccio said.

K2 is sold as incense, and usually marketed as not being for human consumption. The herbs in the incense do not produce the mood-altering effects; chemical compounds are applied to them to create these results, Puccio said. The incense can cause mood-altering effects, but not to the degree that one would experience if the drug is directly ingested, which is often what users do, according to Puccio.

Herring said Virginia lawmakers became aware of the drug in the spring, and that prior to June, no calls had been made in Virginia to poison control. As of last week, 70 calls had been made, he said.

He said parents should be on the look out for behavioral changes such as secretiveness, argumentativeness or changes in their children's grades, and also for incense packets of "spice" or "K2."

Leesburg Police Chief Joseph Price said police first became aware of local cases of K2 use in late September, and since then have encountered about a half-dozen cases.

Price said the Drug Enforcement Administration is attempting to declare the compounds in K2 to be temporarily on the Schedule I substances list, which would make possession and sale of the substance a federal crime. The DEA has the authority to do this for 12 months as the Department of Health and Human Services continues it analysis, he said.

Price said when the Leesburg Police learned of the use of this drug among young people, the department worked with Loudoun County Public Schools to educate about its dangers. It is currently an administrative violation to have or use K2 in a Loudoun County school, he said.

While he had heard of no deaths resulting from overdose on the substance, there have been 1,500 overdoses reported nationwide, Price said.

Herring said he had heard of one man who had committed suicide because of mood-changes relating to the consumption of K2.

He said 10 states have already made the drug illegal, and that federal regulation would not abrogate the states' responsibility to act.

"It's time that Virginia do that as well," he said.


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