Unlike designer clothes, designer drugs are easy to obtain and inexpensive. Referred to as designer drugs because they’re created in labs, not because they’re upscale, these synthetic drugs are not regulated and are often laced with dangerous chemicals. In recent years, designer drugs have become more of a problem thanks to drugs that aren’t regulated because they’re sold as bath salts or incense and are labeled as "not for human consumption." Older synthetic drugs such as Ecstasy and Methamphetamine have recently given way to drugs that can be purchased legally in convenience stores and gas stations in many states.

Unknown Ingredients
It’s impossible to know exactly what chemicals are in drugs like bath salts and synthetic marijuana products, sometimes  referred to as incense or spice. It’s also impossible to know the potency or how relatively safe a dose might be. According to drugabuse.gov, these unknown mixtures can cause dangerous side effects, such as seizures, memory loss, coma and even death.

False Marketing
How can drugs be legal?  These substances are sold legally as incense, cleaning products or bath products, allowing teens to easily skirt the law. A popular “incense” called Jazz recently contributed to a teen’s death in Safety Harbor, Florida. 19-year-old Logan Kushner drowned after smoking the incense and swimming. Jazz can cause side effects like hallucination and dizziness.

Bath salts, marketed under many names, is an amphetamine-like chemical that may have long term side effects similar to meth, making it a highly dangerous yet not always illegal substance. It has the potential to cause overdose, severe hallucinations, and even death. Over the past few years, emergency rooms have seen an upswing of patients suffering intense side effects from snorting these so-called “bath salts.”

Dangerous Combinations
Because these drugs are created in labs, they can be changed easily to avoid government bans on certain chemical formulations. This also makes it difficult for drug tests to accurately detect these drugs in the body. The combination is creating a dangerous situation ripe for substance abuse, overdose and accidental death due to intoxication from designer drugs. This presents additional danger in cases of overdose, because hospitals aren’t always aware of the specific toxicology in the synthetic drugs, making it difficult to diagnose and treat overdose appropriately.

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We’ve got good news and we’ve got bad news. The good news is that fewer teens are doing illegal drugs. The bad news is that more teens are abusing prescription drugs. From 2002 to 2008, illegal drug use declined from 11.6% to 9.3% among teens. However, greater than 60% of teens said that drugs were available and sold at their school. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration stated that there has been more than a 400% increase in abuse of prescription painkillers. This increase in prescription drug abuse has increased the number of related deaths, as 7 Floridians die every day from them.

In addition to prescription drugs, an unlikely drug that teens have been using is synthetic stimulants marketed as bath salts. They’re also called Aurora, Stardust, Cloud Nine, Vanilla Sky, Bliss, or Hurricane Charlie, just to name a few. They are legal in some states, but have been banned in Florida since February 2011. Bath salts, which are usually ingested by sniffing or snorting, are similar to amphetamines or cocaine. Over 3,470 calls have been made to poison control centers nationwide this year. Theses substances can cause paranoia, seizures, rapid heart rate, chest pains and vomiting.

Another teen drug trend that’s on the rise is Spice. It’s known as legal marijuana, but its effects can be 10 times stronger than marijuana as it’s made from synthetic cannabinoids. The biggest concern with Spice is that it doesn’t show up on drug tests. It has recently been banned by the federal synthetic ban on marijuana (K2 incense/bath salts). In 2010, over 1,500 calls were made to poison control centers in just the state of Florida. Spice can cause bad trips, paranoia, illness and lung damage.

While marijuana abuse had declined for the past decade, it is again on the rise. Unfortunately, so is Ecstasy. However, parents can help prevent drug abuse in teens! Parents who talk to their teens about alcohol and drugs and their associated risks are up to 50% less likely to abuse drugs and alcohol than teens whose parents do not. By being involved with their teens on a daily basis, parents can influence their decisions and help them to make the right choices.

The LiveFree! Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition of Pinellas County is dedicated to helping teens make good choices. Visit us online to find out how you can help the teens in your life say “no” to drugs.

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If Floridians didn’t have enough to worry about with the pain pill epidemic, now they are dealing with a new DEA-related problem: synthetic marijuana. The DEA, along with the FDA, is having a hard time making the substance illegal because it is not actually a drug. States are quickly recognizing the seriousness of allowing synthetic marijuana to be sold, and there has been a chain reaction as one by one they ban the products. So far, more than 10 states have banned the sale of synthetic marijuana, and hopefully more will follow.

Florida is among the states that are pushing to ban the substance and are pleading with owners not to sell the products in their stores. There has also been an Army Corps–wide ban with at least nine bases participating, as well as a ban in many European countries.

So what is this over-the-counter novelty that is causing such a commotion? It is usually found in gas stations and head shops in small, tea-bag sized packages. The most common brands out there include:

• K2
• Spice
• Mr. Nice Guy
• Peace of Mind
• Mr. Kwik-E
• XXX
• Demon
• Genie

Don’t let the package size fool you— these little packages pack quite a punch! Some of them contain chemicals that are ten times more powerful than marijuana and cost as much as $10 to $30 an ounce.

The biggest concern is that there is no regulation on the products. There is no telling how much of what chemicals are in any given brand, and so consumers have no guidelines about what they are buying and how much of it they can use at a safe level (if there is such a thing). The FDA actually pulled the substance in a year-long ban to research its contents and do more testing on its effects. Persistent shops are getting around the ban by marketing it as incense and placing a “not for human consumption” label on it.

For teenagers, however, this means nothing. Synthetic marijuana has already been marketed as a way to get high, and as long as that’s what teens are after, then they will continue to buy it.

“You’re basically playing Russian roulette with these chemicals,” said Gary Boggs, a special agent with the DEA. “Hallucination, increased heart rate, increased blood pressure … these chemicals appear to bind to certain parts of the brain, so the potential for long-term effects are very deadly.”

It has been reported that the American Association of Poison Control Centers fielded 1,670 calls this year from emergency room doctors and “panicked members of the public” regarding the fake pot substances. The symptoms that have been reported so far include:

• Dizziness
• Nausea
• Agitation
• Abnormally fast heartbeat
• Hallucinations
• Heart dysrhythmia
• Coma

In Florida, the poison control centers report an average of one call per week pertaining to the substance, and Palm Beach County alone has received five calls this year.

Along with the poison control calls throughout Florida, there have been several hospital admissions due to the consumption of synthetic marijuana. According to the Florida Department of Health’s Bureau of Environmental Public Health Medicine, six people since June 21 have been admitted to hospitals in Pinellas, Hernando, Pasco, Hillsborough and Citrus counties. All but one patient were younger than 18.

It doesn’t end with hospitalization—there have also been two teen deaths linked to the smoking of the substance. A teen in Iowa was reported to commit suicide directly after smoking it. There is a looming investigation on the direct correlation, but there was no history or signs of depression reported in the teen before he committed suicide. The other death involves a car accident after the driver had been smoking the substance.

So what EXACTLY is it and where did it originate?

Synthetic marijuana started as a laboratory experiment developed to study how TCH-mimicking compounds affect the brain. The study was done at Clemson University by Dr. John W. Huffman in 1995 and a research paper on the compound was disclosed in 1998.

Huffman explains that it was not created to get thousands of people stoned, but to investigate the biological effects of compounds with biology similar to marijuana.

The base of the substance is a plant of some kind (it depends on the brand) that is sprayed with a chemical called JWH-018.

Hopefully the state of Florida will push through legislation to ban the selling of the substance, but it’s important for parents to be well informed of the issue. Make sure you are talking to your children about the dangers of this substance and the consequences that could ensue upon consumption. Livefree! has plenty of resources to help when it comes to talking to your children about drugs and alcohol. Visit our website by clicking here.

Sources:

The Palm Beach Post

The St. Petersburg Times

CBS News

ABC News

The New York Times

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