States Move to Stamp Out Synthetic Pot, Known as K2 or Spice

July 12, 2010— -- A blend of herbs laced with synthetic marijuana known popularly as K2 is being sold openly in head shops and online, often sending people who smoke it to hospitals with symptoms ranging from soaring heart rates to paranoia to near-death experiences, according to health professionals.

Little is known about the long-term effects of the legal substance, also known as Spice, Demon, Genie, Zohai and a host of other names. But authorities believe it could have been behind the death of an Iowa teenager who committed suicide last month shortly after smoking it.

Last week, Missouri became the eighth state in the country to ban the marijuana substitute, which is marketed as incense. Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe signed an emergency order banning K2 earlier this month, and similar legislation is pending in New York, New Jersey, Illinois, Louisiana, Michigan and Ohio.

"Whatever is being done is not being done fast enough," Brendan Bickley, the clinical director of an addiction treatment center in Southern California, said. "It's the perfect drug. It's legal. It's undetectable. It's odorless. It's cheap."

K2 sells for about $40 an ounce.

At the Orange County treatment center, with 75 inpatient beds, Bickley said K2 has become so popular that staff must routinely search rooms for hidden stashes. K2 has also become popular among high school and college students.

"I call it a treatment-center killer," said Bickley, adding that patients are lighting up at treatment centers and group outings. "You can't detect it. It's more powerful than marijuana. People who smoke it say it really does mess you up. It causes a person to become extremely high. The withdrawals are horrible. Clients get very angry and agitated."

Although banned in many European countries, the substance has largely avoided regulation in the United States because it is sold as incense and in packages that state it's not for human consumption.

Dr. Anthony Scalzo, a professor of emergency medicine at St. Luis University, said there have been 567 K2-related calls in 41 states this year, compared to 13 in 2009. Scalzo, the medical director of the Missouri Poison Control Center, first reported a spike in K2 cases earlier this year and immediately started studying the effects of the substance.