It’s legal to buy and possess, it can give you a high like marijuana and it doesn’t show up on drug tests.
And it’s here, available to buy at some area retailers.
Dubbed “Spice” by many of its users, it’s a blend of herbs and a synthetic chemical that mimics THC – short for tetrahydrocannabinol, which gives marijuana smokers their high.
The product is packaged by companies overseas and sold in the United States under several brand names, with one dubbed K2 grabbing headlines in recent weeks.
Though sold as incense with labels that read “NOT FOR CONSUMPTION,” people are either rolling the herbs into a joint or packing it into a pipe or bong and smoking it – just like real marijuana.
That’s cause for alarm among anti-drug advocates and law enforcement officials alike, who are warning potential users about possible dangerous side effects while trying to decide how to deal with a substance that is not covered by any Indiana law, including those that govern impaired driving.
“It’s going to be an interesting enforcement problem,” said Allen County Sheriff Ken Fries, who had never heard of the substance until contacted by The Journal Gazette.
The product
K2 is packaged in Hong Kong, according to its website.
Officials said it’s laced with either JWH-018 or JWH-073, or both. Both of those compounds were created years ago in a Clemson University laboratory. Somewhere along the line, companies overseas obtained the compounds and started producing the herbal blends now being sold in the U.S.
“I want to stress that these compounds were not meant for human consumption,” John Huffman, a Clemson professor whose group created the synthetic chemicals, wrote in a statement. “Their effects in humans have not been studied and they could very well have toxic effects. They should absolutely NOT be used as recreational drugs.”
Huffman wrote that the chemicals were created for research “aimed at understanding the relationship between chemical structure and the biological activity of substances known as cannabinoids,” which could lead to new therapies for liver disease and some forms of cancer.
Instead of that, though, local high school teachers began to talk about kids using it to get high.
“We heard a little bit about it four or five months ago,” said Jerri Lerch, executive director of the Drug and Alcohol Consortium of Allen County. “High school personnel heard kids were sprinkling it on cereal and also smoking it.”
Packets of K2 priced between $30 and $60 can be bought at shops like Twenty Past Four & More at Broadway and Taylor Street. When asked how sales of the product were, a sales clerk said, “We’ve got no comment on that, dude.”
In news articles and online blogs, people have discussed smoking K2 and compared its effects with smoking marijuana. The results have been mixed. Some have said it’s similar to medium-grade to slightly above-average pot, while others have panned it.
What concerns people such as Lerch are the side effects, since the chemical has had little testing in humans.
Some of those side effects can include hallucinations, severe agitation, dangerously elevated heart rates and high blood pressure along with panic attacks, tremors, seizures and vomiting, according to a pamphlet provided by Lerch. She also said that some users have complained of headaches.
Even Huffman, the synthetic chemical’s creator, wrote in his statement that little is known about what the chemical does to humans and emphasized that anyone who smokes it is taking a big risk.
A few who took that risk have found themselves in the Parkview Hospital emergency room in recent weeks, according to officials there.
“They came in with rapid heart rates and were definitely out of sorts, to the point where the people working on them were very concerned,” said Dr. Tom Gutwein of Parkview.
Gutwein also said the chemical is undetectable on drug screens and will be for some time. For such a chemical to show up on a drug test, cooperation from the company that manufactures the chemical would be needed, he said.
Not against the law
Products such as K2 are banned in Kansas and Missouri as well as many parts of Europe.
So far, though, there has been little public discussion from Indiana legislators about coming up with a ban here.
Lerch said such a ban would have to have a wide-ranging effect and should not focus on K2 or similar products specifically. Some other product not covered by such a ban would just pop up, she said, which would cause more problems.
“We can’t change the laws fast enough,” she said. “I think the discussion should be, ‘What we can do about banning mind-altering substances?’ ”
Without such a ban, police officers are bound to encounter people under the influence of this synthetic chemical. That’s a cause for concern, officials said, especially when dealing with someone behind the wheel of a vehicle.
That leaves some in law enforcement, at least on the police side, a bit befuddled.
Fries said he was not sure whether someone could be charged with impaired driving while under the influence of K2, saying that if a motorist drove erratically enough he or she could be charged with reckless driving.
Indiana State Police spokesman Sgt. Ron Galaviz, who had only recently heard of the chemical, said his agency’s officers have good relationships with local prosecutors. If they found someone behind the wheel with K2, they would probably be on the phone to a prosecutor to discuss what charges could be filed.
Allen County Prosecutor Karen Richards declined to comment on K2 or its other incarnations.
Stephen Johnson, president of the Indiana Prosecuting Attorneys Council, reviewed the law and found there would probably be no way to charge someone with impaired driving if that person was only under the influence of a substance like K2.
“I don’t think you could,” said Johnson, who first heard of the product when contacted by The Journal Gazette. “I don’t think this is included in federal regulations.”
Likewise, people can use the product while serving time on probation and not be hit with a violation.
Juveniles serving time in probation have reported using it in place of marijuana, said Jamie Mann, chief probation officer for the Allen County Juvenile Probation Department.
The only way that violates a juvenile’s probation is if a child’s parent or parents set a rule with the probation department beforehand that the child cannot use the product, Mann said.
But in adult probation, there’s nothing stopping anyone from using K2.
“It’s in violation for them to do illegal drugs. But for them to sit down and do legal drugs, that probably isn’t going to be in violation of their probation,” said Eric Zimmerman, of the Allen County Adult Probation Department.
Money to be made
Nick Bowker does not recommend products such as K2 and does not sell them.
Just the same, he is profiting from people looking for a legal alternative to marijuana, even if the products he sells are intended to be used as incense for aromatherapy and are not to be packed into a bowl or rolled into a joint.
Bowker is part-owner of Spirituall Spice in Fort Wayne, a company that distributes herbal incense through the mail. It has been open barely more than a month, and in that time the 31-year-old said he has made more than $5,000 selling his varieties of incense.
Some of his products have names like Blew Berry Spice, Blue Lotus Spice and Euphoria.
According to Bowker, these types of products have been used for centuries, mainly for rituals involving civilizations like the Aztecs of Mexico.
In the mid-1990s, these types of herbs became more popular, and this year he started his company.
Though someone can send for these through the mail, Bowker also hawks them to local retailers, he said. His brand of incense differs from K2 in that his is mostly natural, with a minimal amount of common chemicals added for aroma.
These chemicals are not unknown and are not dangerous, he said.
“K2 is giving everything a bad name,” Bowker said. “With K2, nobody knows what they’re using. Everything I’m using is all-natural legal herbs and spices.”
Bowker’s products on the Spirituall Spice website carry a warning similar to K2’s, reading, “Not for Human Consumption.”
But that hasn’t stopped people from smoking them, as evidenced by comments left on the site.
“This stuff really works – I get the high I want and I don’t have to test dirty,” reads one review from February.
One comment rife with spelling and grammar errors reads, “Well who need’s pot i’m on probation and i still pass and get high whats better.”
Another with spelling and grammar errors reads, “If I was on probation id be smokin the hell out of this (expletive) its just like ganja and it is a must get if you cant smoke the chronic.”
Bowker does not condone smoking his products, but at the same time, he can’t control what people do with it after it’s bought.
“Well, I’m sure there are people trying that, for sure,” Bowker said of people using his spices as alternatives to marijuana. “But that’s not what you’re supposed to be doing with it.”
Still, business is “rocking,” said Bowker, who is also a cook with the Fort Wayne TinCaps and an employee at a liquor store.
And he’s not worried about any pending bans or laws against products such as his, as he insists they contain no dangerous chemicals that will be outlawed anytime soon.
“I thought I’d make a little bit of money here and there, but not this,” he said.
