While browsing the newspaper I came upon this article on the perils of this new type of drug called K2. Apparently teens are getting high on this emerging drug also called “fake weed,” which is basically a concoction of K2 and “spice” that is also causing hallucinations, vomiting, agitation and other dangerous effects. What is K2 you might ask?? K2 has been sold since 2006 as incense or potpourri for about $30 to $40 per three gram bag – comparable in cost to marijuana.
In the last month, Dr. Anthony Scalzo, a professor of toxicology at Saint Louis University, has seen nearly 30 cases of teenagers experiencing these adverse effects after smoking the fake weed, a legal substance that reportedly offers a marijuana-like high. “K2 may be a mixture of herbal and spice plant products, but it is sprayed with a potent psychotropic drug and likely contaminated with an unknown toxic substance that is causing many adverse effects,” said Scalzo, who also directs the Missouri Regional Poison Control Center.
Since K2 acts like marijuana, you’d expect to see the same effects, including sleepiness, relaxation, reduced blood pressure, and at high doses, hallucinations and delusions whereas when you smoke high amounts of marijuana you generally do not hallucinate. While some patients between the ages of 14 and 21 were showing up with hallucinations, other symptoms, such as increased agitation and elevated blood pressure and heart rates, didn’t match up with marijuana.
The creator of K2, organic chemist John W. Huffman of Clemson University, first created the substance in mid 1990’s. He himself agrees that K2 is dangerous. The symptoms such as fast heart beat, dangerously elevated blood pressure, pale skin and vomiting suggest that K2 is affecting the cardiovascular system of users. It also is believed to affect the central nervous system, causing severe, potentially life-threatening hallucinations and, in some cases, seizures.
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