Synthetic marijuana, more accurately called synthetic cannabinoids, are manmade mind-altering chemicals. They can be either sprayed on dried, shredded plant material in order to be smoked or sold as liquids to be vaporized and inhaled in e-cigarettes and other devices. These cannabinoids are similar to chemicals found in the marijuana plant, and they are often touted as safer alternatives.
The people who manufacture these synthetic drugs advertise them as legal and natural, but this is misleading. They aren’t legal so much as completely unregulated, which means there are no safeguards on how or with what they are made. The active ingredients are typically made in a lab, and the only thing natural is the plants they are applied to. These claims, along with easy availability and the fact that the synthetic drugs aren’t easily spotted in drug tests, make them appealing to young people. There are hundreds of brand name synthetics, including K2, Spice, Joker, Black Mamba, Kush, and Kronic.
Synthetic cannabinoids act on the same brain cell receptors as THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, but some of them have much stronger effects. One study of a synthetic cannabinoid, published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2016, found that it was 85 times as potent as THC. The chemical composition of these drugs can change from one batch to another, so there’s no way of predicting exactly what the effects will be. Some possible symptoms are elevated mood, relaxation altered awareness of surrounding objects and conditions, symptoms of psychosis (delusional or disordered thinking detached from reality), extreme anxiety, confusion, paranoia, and hallucinations. They can also cause health problems like rapid heart rate, vomiting, seizures, kidney failure, and suicidal thoughts.
Synthetic cannabinoids are addictive, and withdrawal symptoms include headaches, anxiety, depression, and irritability.
While there are no fatal overdose deaths linked to marijuana, deaths caused by synthetics are on the rise. In 2010, an American teenager shot himself in the head an hour after smoking K2. Authorities believe the mind-altering effects of the drug led to his suicide, and the public outcry eventually led to the Synthetic Drug Abuse Prevention Act of 2012, which banned synthetic compounds commonly found in synthetic marijuana.
In April 2018, four people died and over 150 others were hospitalized in Illinois with severe bleeding from the eyes, ears, and other body parts after using synthetic cannabinoids. The products were contaminated and been purchased from a variety of places, including convenience stores. Some of these patients tested positive for a rat poison called brodifacoum, which stops blood from clotting, and investigators could not determine whether someone had purposely contaminated the drugs or if the cannabinoids were simply mimicking rat poison.
Despite the attempts at controlling the manufacture and distribution of these synthetics, new versions continue to appear on the market. Manufacturers are able to circumvent existing laws by changing their chemical compounds to create a new drug.
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