DEA makes fake pot a Schedule 1 substance

There will be five chemicals that became illegal on March 1. These all act like the active ingredient in weed, tetrahydracannibinol (THC). In a press release, the DEA claims it exercised the agency’s emergency authority to make possession or sales of the synthetic weed chemicals, also as fake pot products that contain them — such as K2, Spice, Blaze and Red X Dawn — a crime. In accordance with the DEA, five fake pot chemicals are now Schedule 1 substances, including JWH-018, JWH-073, JWH-200, CP-47, 497 and cannabicyclohexanol. The most restricted chemicals are put in DHA’s Schedule 1 classification. Anything that does not have medical merit, and could be abused more effortlessly than others, is put in that category. The Drug Enforcement Agency claims synthetic weed products have triggered side effects including hallucinations, anxiety attacks, elevated heart rates, vomiting and convulsions.

Beginnings of fake pot

John Huffman worked in the 1990s at Clemson University in Clemson, South Carolina, as a chemistry professor. He did research on medical weed where the cannabinoid JWH-018 was synthesized. Then, the JWH-018 formula was published. The American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics did this. The news of JWH-018 spread quickly in Europe. In the U.S., it started to spread as well along with other synthetic cannabinoids. Huffman has issued warnings not to smoke herbs treated with JWH-018 for years because he said nobody has determined exactly how toxic the substance is. High school and college students started to use merchandise often such as Spice and K2 in 2009. Since then, over 3,000 calls on synthetic cannabis goods have been received by United States poison control centers.

Getting passed DEA bans

Before the nationwide DEA ban on synthetic marijuana chemicals, fake pot bans had been adopted by at least 16 states. The ban is in impact for a year, with a possible six-month extension while the Department of Health and Human Services conducts studies to conclude whether the DEA should permanently ban the chemicals. Manufacturers keep switching to new chemicals. This is because the Food and Drug Administration has already banned fake pot chemicals in the past.

Articles cited

USA Today

usatoday.com/news/nation/2011-03-02-rw_spice01_ST_N.htm

NPR

npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2011/03/01/134164794/dea-bans-fake-pot-products-that-emulate-marijuana

TIME

healthland.time.com/2011/03/01/deas-emergency-ban-on-chemicals-in-fake-pot-goes-into-effect/

Star Telegram

star-telegram.com/2011/03/01/2886549/dea-imposes-ban-on-fake-pot.html

Smoking Fake Pot Now As Illegal As The Real Thing is a post from: WiredWriter