Even Better Than The Real Thing?

So-called “Fake Pot” gets genuine attention from the drug warriors

By Benny Lopez

If you’ve ever wondered about those little packets of herb-like substances sold in smoke shops and convenience stores (and online) under names such as “K2”, “Spice” and “Blaze,” you’re not alone. The United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has had their eyes on these “fake marijuana” products too. In November, the DEA announced it would be using its emergency scheduling authority to, within 30 days, temporarily control five of the chemicals used in these concoctions (for which it uses the blanket term “K2”) for at least 12 months, citing “increasing numbers of reports from poison centers, hospitals and law enforcement regarding these products.” This puts these chemicals in the same drug category as cocaine and heroin—so is such a dramatic move justified?

K2 is a mixture of herbs and spices coated with a THC homologue, a synthetic compound chemically similar to tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana. The substance was originally created by Dr. John W. Huffman, a Clemson University researcher, in the mid-1990s as a means to study the effects of cannabis on lab animals. He lent his initials to three of the chemicals targeted by the DEA: JWH-018, JWH-073 and JWH200 (the other two are the imaginatively-named CP-47,497 and cannabicyclohexanol). Like the real thing, these make users euphoric and mellow.

Within a few years, Huffman’s formulas leaked out and entrepreneurs—originally in Europe, China and Korea apparently—started mixing or buying the resulting compounds and spraying them onto dried herbs, tobacco or even flowers to make them smokeable. By around 2005, what became termed “fake pot” was being used recreationally in Europe and Asia, but it was only in the past couple of years, after numerous European countries banned it, that it made its way stateside (usually selling for about $30 to $40 per three-gram bag).

Though typically marketed as incense or potpourri, and being sold in pouches marked “For aromatherapy use only” or “Not for consumption,” this is just to dodge legal liability. The intended purpose of K2 is common knowledge to the point where, according to the DEA, it has already earned American street names including “Bliss,” “Black Mamba” and the straight-to-the-point “Fake Weed.”  Only its effects are not always blissful.

“There have been more than 2,800 [human exposure cases to THC homologue products] reported nationwide,” says Dr. Alvin C. Bronstein, MD and medical director for the Rocky Mountain Poison & Drug Center (RMPDC) in Denver, Colorado. “The most common clinical effects reported were: tachycardia [rapid heart rate], dry mouth, large pupils, agitation/irritability, tremor, hallucinations, drowsiness and confusion. There was one death associated with use of these compounds, but causality was not confirmed.”

In the first half of 2010 alone, 567 cases were reported as having adverse reactions from “herbal incense products” across 41 U.S. states, according to the American Association of Poison Control Centers—up from just 13 reported cases in all of 2009. Fifteen states have already taken action to control one or more of the chemicals used to make K2. Yet it seems odd that the recorded clinical effects of K2 include racing heartbeats and agitation—exactly the opposite of those commonly associated with marijuana. This has led to speculation that it could be the herbs and spices in “fake pot” rather than the chemicals sprayed onto them that are causing some of the reported physiological effects.

Much of the rationale behind the DEA’s temporary ban on K2 may have been this very uncertainty.

“These THC homologues have more pronounced effects than marijuana,” Bronstein says.

Fool’s Green

It’s not cannabis, but what exactly are television and movie actors smoking (i.e. Weeds or Pineapple Express) when the script calls for marijuana consumption? Answer: herbal tobacco. “They end up smoking so much of it they get very lightheaded, and they don’t like it,”  Weeds executive producer  Roberto Benabib recently told New York’s Daily News. “Sometimes they do take after take, and you will see them getting woozy because it has a strange effect on them. But it’s totally legal, and it is what we are supposed to use.” Ah, the magic of Hollywood.