High Science: Synthetic Marijuana Is Legal, and It Might Get You High -- But Is It Safe?

Animal tests conducted last year by the DEA concluded that one synthetic cannabinoid compound was 66 times more potent than THC in rats, and 80 times more potent than THC in pigeons. Lab tests conducted by medical doctor and pharmacist Christian Steup at Germany-based research company THC Pharm concluded that another compound is "four to five times more potent than tetrahydrocannabinol, more commonly known as THC."

"When I smoke weed instead of spice, it's just not the same," Jones says. "Weed will never be the same again — and I only smoke really good weed. I think I've overloaded my cannabinoid receptors with spice, and now when I smoke weed, they're just like, 'What the hell is this?'"

Jamie Peachey

Valley smoke shops usually stock tons of herbal incense blends (including K2, pictured) that people smoke to get high.

Jamie Peachey

Jamie Peachey

Jamie Peachey

Related Content

• Chandler Police and the Drug Enforcement Agency Want You to Fork Over Your Old Prescription Pills
  April 15, 2011
• Arizona's Medical-Marijuana Pioneers Don't Know the Final Rules of the Game Yet -- But They Are Certain of the Prize
  February 3, 2011
• Why Snorting "Bath Salts" Is Popular -- and Dangerous
  January 13, 2011
• Border Agents Find 22 Pounds of Heroin in Truck Engine
  October 25, 2010
• High Times: Valley Smokers Buy, Steal, and Inhale JWH-018 to Get High – and They Say It’s Working
  February 4, 2010

More About

• Anthony Jones
• John Huffman
• U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration
• Psychoactive Drugs
• Marijuana

Like this Story?

Sign up for the Weekly Newsletter: Our weekly feature stories, movie reviews, calendar picks and more - minus the newsprint and sent directly to your inbox.

Privacy Policy Cancel Continue

"My tolerance started to build within days of my first use," Jones adds. "Days. That's scary."

Perhaps equally scary are the horror stories being reported about people suffering seizures, suicidal feelings, chest pains, hallucinations, and severe anxiety attacks after smoking herbal incense blends (identified most often in reports as K2 or Spice). The American Association of Poison Control Centers reports more than 866 calls related to K2 so far this year, an increase from 13 calls in 2009.

While medical personnel are still learning about the effects of these new compounds, almost all agree the symptoms they're seeing from spice are not the same symptoms associated with marijuana. Arizona Poison and Drug Information Center managing director Keith Boesen described some spice patient symptoms as agitation, hallucinations, seizures, vomiting and nausea, and severe difficulty breathing — symptoms not often reported with smoking pot.

Dr. Anthony Scalzo, a professor of emergency medicine at St. Louis University, told the New York Times that he didn't know if people under the influence of K2 were reaching for doughnuts after smoking, but the cases he's seeing are "very anxious, agitated people that are requiring several doses of sedatives."

There have been numerous cases — including at least two in Arizona — in which people were hospitalized after smoking synthetic cannabinoids.

In May, four high school students in Surprise who'd smoked spice called 911, complaining of nausea and feelings of impending death. Surprise Police Department Lieutenant Penny Riherd told local media that one student had been found on one of the high school's tennis courts, "in the fetal position sucking his thumb."

On July 6 in Prescott, two men and a teenage boy were taken to the Yavapai Regional Medical Center West Campus after smoking Spice. The teen had reportedly "freaked out" and was "combative" with medical personnel; one of the men was reportedly talking about seeing Jesus and demons.

The anonymous smokers New Times interviewed report mixed reactions — from no effects to a lack of motivation to migraines.

Anthony Jones says he hasn't experienced freak-outs or seizures, but as a daily smoker of synthetic marijuana for the past year, he describes the cumulative effects on his body as "disturbing."

"I've had headaches, and I feel it in my muscles all the time," he says. "My body is just always stiff and achy. I don't like it."

But the scariest experiences for Jones happened when he was driving, and experienced a temporary loss of vision. "All my other faculties were still working — I could hear, and smell, and feel things. I was totally conscious, but my vision went totally black," Jones recalls. "It was like somebody put a blinder over my eyes for about four or five seconds."

Jones said that's happened twice in the past few months.

"It was scary," Jones says, taking a hit of spice off his pipe. Then, through a cloud of white smoke, he says, "I'm fairly convinced this stuff is poison."