Last updated : November 18, 2024
Poison control centers across the country received 3,572 calls for emergencies concerning synthetic marijuana from the start of the year to the end of May. During the same time frame in 2014, those centers fielded only 1,085 calls on the same subject. That’s a 229% increase and nearly 12 percent of the cases were seen as life threatening. Georgia alone saw 30 calls, up from 16 the previous two years, January to May. As of July 19th, 2015, the AAPCC indicates that 4,696 calls regarding synthetic marijuana use have come in to centers across the United States.
Just in 2015 alone, the Center for Disease Control reported that emergency calls for synthetic marijuana-related incidents saw a similar rise, from 349 calls by the end of the first month to 1,501 in April—a jump of around 330%. Colorado, where recreational use of marijuana is legal, has seen a similar significant increase.
Synthetic and Deadly
Synthetic marijuana was originally intended to be an all-natural substitute for marijuana. Manufacturers claimed to use a combination of herbs to achieve the pot-like effects of the drug. It was not the herbs, but the numerous cannabinoid, or cannabis-related, chemicals that had been sprayed on them. While the active component in marijuana is THC, the synthetic product gets its power from chemicals that fit into the same basic class as THC but have different properties. The chemical process can be identical, but if manufacturers use different chemicals, each batch is different, meaning one may be fairly innocuous while another may have lethal effects.
Spice
The drug goes by several different street names: Spice, Funky Monkey, Twilight, 3X, and TenX among others. Perhaps the most appropriate is “Dead Man Walking.” There were 15 deaths from the drug in the reporting period. Those that are calling are reporting symptoms like:
• Agitation (most common)
• Tachycardia (faster than normal heart beat)
• Drowsiness and lethargy
• Nausea and vomiting
• Confusion and/or paranoia
• Muscle spasms, seizures, and tremors
• Hallucinations
The medical issues aren’t the only problems that come when there is an increase in calls. More calls indicates more use and more use indicates more violence and crime. In one instance, a man being attended to bit EMTs as they worked to help him. The five most commonly-used drugs in Spice manufacture have such a high probability of abuse that the DEA classified them as level 1 Substances; meaning it is a felony to sell, buy, or even possess them.
The biggest market for the synthetic marijuana is young people. More than one-in-ten high school seniors reported trying it. Most of these were boys. In Georgia, Governor Nathan Deal signed “Chase’s law’ in 2012, after a campaign started after a 16-year-old boy was found dead after using the drug. Felons convicted of a first offense face five to thirty years imprisonment; second-time offenders are looking at sentences of ten to forty years, and may even be sentenced to life. It seems that in spite of the law, three years hasn’t seen a decrease in use, but instead, an increase.
