Efforts
to ban synthetic marijuana prove to be difficultBy Elisha Anderson, Detroit Free Press
Mary Kait Hudson tried synthetic marijuana for the first time last October. The 17-year-old from Lake Orion and her friends bought it from a party store, mixed it with marijuana and smoked it.
< Mary Kait Hudson, 17, along with father Jeff Hudson talk about her addiction to synthetic marijuana.
Willie Archie, Detroit Free Press
Mary Kait Hudson, 17, along with father Jeff Hudson talk about her addiction to synthetic marijuana.
"It worked pretty instant," she recalled.
She began hallucinating and felt like she was in the shower. Then she blacked out. The next thing she remembers is waking up in her bed the next morning.
Hudson got hooked on the drug — often called K2, Spice or fake weed — and ended up in rehab. But the substance has been even more devastating for other users. Police believe two young men smoked it before they attacked a Farmington Hills family with baseball bats in April. A West Bloomfield teen killed by his grandmother tested positive for the substance, the grandmother's attorney said. And police blame it for the overdose death of a young man in Bloomfield Township last weekend.
Now, Michigan lawmakers, police, judges, health professionals and parents say they're on a mission to get the products banned.
It's not the first time the state or federal government has tried to outlaw synthetic marijuana. In the last two years, both have banned certain chemicals that were being used to make the products.
Manufacturers quickly skirted the laws and developed new formulas. Today, it's easy to find across much of the nation.
Synthetic pot back on shelves
By Christian Boone
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Two months after Gov. Nathan Deal signed a law outlawing its sale, distributors peddling synthetic cannabis have found a way around the legislation.
Now, the substance typically known by the brand names K-2 and Spice can again be sold legally in Georgia "at least for the next nine months," or until the General Assembly is back in session, said GBI spokesman John Bankhead.
Even then, Bankhead conceded, it may be impossible to keep up with the chemists.
Nelly Miles, the GBI's chemistry section manager, said, "They changed the molecular structure altogether." The side effects of the new composition can be worse, she said.
Chase's Law, named after a Fayette County teen who drowned in his parent's hot tub after smoking synthetic pot, was authored in part by GBI agents to prevent future chemical modifications by manufacturers.
"They essentially altered the basic structure and started all over again," said state Sen. Buddy Carter, R-Pooler, who authored the bill outlawing its sale.
Convenience store owners recently received notification from the manufacturers that they could put the product back on the shelves, Carter said. Apparently, many have resumed selling the product knowing they can't be held criminally liable.
The substance, composed of plant material and sprayed with chemicals that mimic THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, sells from $5 and it marketed as incense or potpourri. Though sold with a label warning it's "not for human consumption," its target audience has long known it's used for getting high.
And it remains popular, despite the ill-fated ban, said Gaylord Lopez, director of Georgia Poison Control.
"Unfortunately, we're seeing roughly the same pace of reported cases this year as we did in 2011," Lopez said. There were 319 cases reported last year compared to just 74 in 2010.
Lopez said he's heard anecdotally that merchants "can't keep the stuff on the shelves."
It remains attractive to users, he said, because it provides a greater high than marijuana, remains largely undetected by drug tests and is readily available.
Referring to it as marijuana actually may be a disservice since the chemical variety is much more dangerous, experts say.
Side effects include a rapid heart beat, tremors, "seizure-like activity" and a loss of consciousness -- "things that don't typically happen from marijuana use," Lopez said. "This is definitely causing headaches in emergency rooms across the state."
Last September, a Woodstock paint store manager was arrested after getting into a violent confrontation after smoking synthetic cannabis.
Patrick Bynum, 33, allegedly pulled a gun on a female friend, who also admitted to smoking the chemical, and then attempted to carjack several passing vehicles. It took three officers and repeated hits with a stun gun to subdue him, police said.
Carter said legislators will revisit the ban in the next session.
"Make no mistake about it, they are testing our resolve," the state senator said. "It's going to be very difficult to keep up with these guys, but we're going to do whatever it takes to win the battle."