I was in a friends convenience store in South Charleston yesterday and of the 5 customers who purchased something, 4 purchased K2. The most surprising customer was an upper middle-aged woman who obviously lived on food stamps... the type you see dressed very poorly at the slot machines. She whipped-out $45 cash to buy a tiny little bottle of this synthetic marijuana. I asked her if that stuff really worked, to which she replied "Honey, I buy this almost every day or two". I also watched a kid (teenager) purchase a small amount in a rolled up piece of bathroom tissue because he didn't have enough money to purchase an entire package. My friend who owns the store said that he could easily make big bucks just on these products and close down the rest of the store. I left thinking that humans will eat, smoke, inject, everything and anything possible, and I have yet to figure out why...
Sprayed with synthetic cannabinoids, the product is more expensive and said to be three to 100 times more potent that marijuana - and can't be detected in THC urine tests.
Teens are getting high on an emerging drug called "fake weed," a concoction also known as K2 and "spice" that is also causing hallucinations, vomiting, agitation and other dangerous effects.
In the last month, Dr. Anthony Scalzo, a professor of toxicology at Saint Louis University, has seen nearly 30 cases of teenagers experiencing these adverse effects after smoking the fake weed, a legal substance that reportedly offers a marijuana-like high.
"K2 use is not limited to the Midwest; reports of its use are cropping up all over the country," Scalzo said. "I think K2 is likely a bigger problem than we're aware of at this time." For instance, Atlanta has seen about 12 cases recently.
K2 has been sold since 2006 as incense or potpourri for about $30 to $40 per three gram bag – comparable in cost to marijuana.
"K2 may be a mixture of herbal and spice plant products, but it is sprayed with a potent psychotropic drug and likely contaminated with an unknown toxic substance that is causing many adverse effects," said Scalzo, who also directs the Missouri Regional Poison Control Center.
Origin of K2
This K2 compound was first created in the mid-1990s in the lab of organic chemist John W. Huffman of Clemson University, who studies cannabinoid receptors. He's not sure how the recipe for what is named JWH-018 (his initials) got picked up, but he did publish details on a series of compounds including JWH-018 in a book chapter. Even before that book came out, he recalls learning that in China and Korea people were selling the compound as a plant growth stimulant.
As for where it was first smoked or used as a recreational drug, Huffman thinks perhaps somewhere in Europe.
"Apparently somebody picked it up, I think in Europe, on the idea of doping this incense mixture with the compound and smoking it," Huffman told LiveScience. "You can get very high on it. It's about 10 times more active than THC," the active ingredient in marijuana.
From a chemist's perspective, that means K2 has an affinity for the cannabinoid brain receptor (CB1) that's about 10 times greater than THC. For the less chemically inclined, it means you can smoke a lot less K2 to get just as high.
The compound works on the brain in the same way as marijuana's active ingredient THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol. Both compounds bind to the CB1 receptors, which primarily affect the central nervous system. JWH-018 also binds to the peripheral brain (CB2) receptors, which are involved in the immune system, Huffman said.
Hallucinations and delusions
Since JWH-018 or K2 acts like marijuana, you'd expect to see the same effects, including sleepiness, relaxation, reduced blood pressure, and at high doses, hallucinations and delusions.
