'Fake Marijuana' Landing Colorado Kids In ER

DENVER, Colo. -- It looks like marijuana and gives users a similar high, but unlike marijuana, a substance known as K2, Spice or Zohai, is legal in the United States and for sale in head shops all over Colorado.

Dr. Alvin Bronstein, medical director of the RMPC, is leading federal research on K2. Bronstein said though K2 is considered a legal pot substitute, the symptoms appear more serious.

"People get agitated," said Bronstein. "They can become irritable, they can get confused. They can be tremulous. Their blood pressure goes up and their heart rate goes up."

K2 is sold in small packets, purportedly as incense. Bronstein said K2 is made up of herbs, mixed with a powerful synthetic chemical that mimics the effects of THC, the active ingredient in marijuana.
http://www.thedenverchannel.com/health/23300796/detail.html

...for those with even a marginally 21st Century Rational Mind, to support the upcoming legalization of Marijuana in California.

And then, everywhere else.

Globally.

Forced to use synthetic THC mimics because the real thing apparently is too damned dangerous.

Legalize the real thing and just let's get on with it, I'm so sick of all the bullshit!

Making a plant illegal! Jeezus. How stupid can you get?

Everyone should take a step back and think about how ridiculous the whole thing is... making a plant illegal. As IF that could work! As IF it makes sense! As IF we don't ruin millions of people's lives while enforcing laws to "protect" them!?

It is insanity! Free it! Legalize it!

Advertise it, don't criticize it!

I've done a devil's advocate teaser in the subject line, because I happen to think they should all be legal.

You could make the argument that cannabis is different, in that the others are usually processed into a concentrated drug, while cannabis is usually just dried and cured.

You could make the argument that the others are addictive, though only the opium is physically addictive. Cocaine isn't, though many will want to disagree with me on that.

I say legalize it all. Both coca and poppies can be used without a lot of processing. You can make a tea out of the entire poppy plant, (minus the roots), or you can score the pods and collect the raw opium to smoke or inject. You can chew coca leaves like the indigenous South Americans.

If you have the desire and the knowledge to process the plants into concentrates for your own use, then go for it. I would likely favor restrictions on sales of the coca and opium, since they can be quite dangerous. Cannabis should be legal for adults to use or sell to other adults, since it is harmless. If you are selling more than a certain amount, it would require paying a tax.

That's what I would like to see. :hippie:

It is idiotic and frankly scary to have a government that is so oppressively powerful that they think they can outlaw a fucking plant. Period.

So many lives ruined, and once again, by right wing propaganda.

Fuckers!

...they are plants for crying out loud.

Coca has been used in the Andes for millenia, it has a salutary effect on altitude sickness among other things. The main ill effect is turning the user's teeth brown. Opium has also been used for millenia, and it has always had medicinal uses. In fairness, there were always problems of addiction with opium.

Now cut to the modern age, where the more advanced cultures get their hands on these plants and begin to extract and refine the essential intoxicants contained therein: cocaine and heroin.

These refined products are much more problematic. It is our own appetite for said refined products that makes the market, and yet we punish growers in other countries for doing what they have done for ages without problems until we came along and refined the stuff.

Don't get me wrong: for opium poppies in particular, there were always social ills associated with it. But opium is nothing like heroin if you want to talk about highly addictive substances.

However, if you score the pods to extract the latex, that's illegal. Other states may have stricter laws.

That's one reason to make opium tea instead. You take the entire plant (a bunch of them), after they have matured and made pods, and boil them in water to make tea. Then drink a couple big glasses of the tea. The taste is really nice. Not bitter or anything like you would think. It makes a great iced tea. Works great! You will have amazing dreams that night.

For seeds to grow them, look for bread seed poppies (Papaver Somniferum), and save a mature pod for seeds for next time.

it's not only a plant but also a ubiquitous WEED.

I'm not at all "religious," but how do people who believe in "God" rationalize making one of "his" plants illegal? (Just a curious thing I've wondered about).

There is not ONE sensible reason that can be given in favor of the ridiculous laws against pot use, cultivation, possession, or sale -- especially when things like cigarettes and booze are readily available and accepted. Misguided, totally IDIOTIC, a colossal waste of resources in terms of law enforcement, lives ruined by criminal record and incarceration, and costs of that legal process and incarceration--not to mention the potential revenue lost by growers and municipalities and the health benefits lost (FINALLY we have some legal medical marijuana--but as we've seen, even that is not without hazard for users and growers because of the federal dicks who want to engage in the stupendously stupid waste of busting med mj growers).

War criminals, traitors, Wall St. pyramid schemers, and global environmental polluters are amply rewarded with millions and billions of dollars while pot smokers go to prison. Go figure. Somebody's making some money somewhere by keeping it illegal.

real cannabis has been proven safe over thousands of years of human use

Did you know LSD will not show up in drug tests after 24 hours? Also, most places of employment don't do an LSD drug test!