k2 smoke

Synthetic marijuana has law enforcement agencies and state legislatures buzzing. Last week, Missouri became the sixth state in only a year to ban the substance, which is touted as a legal alternative to pot and widely available across the country.

Also known as K2 smoke, the combination of herbs mixed with a lab-produced strain of marijuana is usually marketed as incense or bath salts.

But K2 smoke is being blamed in at least one death, that of 18-year-old suicide victim David Rozga in Iowa, as well as hundreds of emergency room visits and 567 calls to poison-control centers this year alone. In 2009, there were a mere 13 calls to poison-control centers.

As lawmakers debate legalizing genuine weed, they’re now coping with burgeoning use of the fake stuff. All while aficionados, like 25-year-old Albert Kuo, keep smoking.

“I know k2 smoke is not going to kill me,” Kuo told The New York Times. “It’s a waste of time, effort and money to ban something like this.”

A Drug Produced In — and Designed for — the Lab

K2 smoke originated at Clemson University, where researchers developed synthetic cannabinoids in an effort to create therapeutic drugs. But the cannabinoids also have effects akin to THC, the key ingredient in marijuana.

And since K2 smoke is largely created by individual sellers, it’s anyone’s guess what else is added to the mix.

“Our biggest concern is that this particular chemical is likely manufactured in a dorm-room setting,” Dr. Gaylord Lopez, head of the Georgia Poison Center, told CNN. “And these dorm-room scientists are not going to be exhibiting a lot of quality-assurance techniques.”

That’s why side effects, thought to include heart palpitations and breathing problems, can’t be pinpointed. Cannabinoids were created for entirely different purpose, and their toxicity — not to mention the toxicity of other ingredients in K2 — is unknown.

A Trend That Lit Up Online

Already illegal in Britain, Germany, Poland and France, K2 smoke is slowly being banned in states across the U.S. But even if you can’t buy it at a head shop in Missouri anymore, it’s widely available on the Internet — which seems to be where K2 smoke rose to popularity in the first place.

For $35, users can buy 3 grams of K2 “incense” with nothing more than a credit card or PayPal account.

And while the Internet is helping purveyors sell more K2 smoke, the Clemson researcher who created the cannabinoid compounds, Dr. John Huffman, told British newspaper The Guardian that if it wasn’t K2 smoke, it’d be something else.

“I’ve lived around the world a long time,” he said. “I’ve come to the conclusion that if an enterprising person wants to find a new way to get high, they’re going to do it.”