A new "legal" drug to be wary of?

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K2 JUST LIKE THE REAL THING

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JEFFERSON CITY (Missouri) - There may be nothing like the real thing, but some industrious marijuana users have seized on an obscure but easily accessible substance that mimics the drug's effects on the brain - creating a popular trade in legal dope that has stymied police in the United States.

The users are buying a product known as K2 that is commonly sold as incense.

Produced in China and Korea, the mixture of herbs and spices is sprayed with a synthetic compound chemically similar to THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana.

Users roll it up in joints or inhale it from pipes, just like the real thing.

Though banned in most of Europe, K2's key ingredients are not regulated in the US - a gap that has prompted lawmakers in Missouri and Kansas to consider new legislation.

Authorities in Kansas discovered ex-convicts on probation smoking K2, and said it is spreading to high school students.

K2 costs between US$20 ($28) and US$50 for three grams - similar to the street price of marijuana - but with the key advantages of being legal and undetectable in drug tests. The key ingredients are believed to be the unintended result of scientific research on marijuana's effects.

Dr John Huffman, an organic chemistry professor, was researching the effects of cannabinoids on the brain when his work resulted in a 1995 paper that contained the method and ingredients used to make the compound. That recipe found its way to marijuana users. "People who use it are idiots," said Dr Huffman, referring to K2 smokers.

A proposed Bill in Missouri would make possession a felony punishable by up to seven years in prison, identical to punishments given to users of real marijuana. There is no data on the drug's toxicity. AP

From TODAY, Friday, 19-Feb-2010

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