News from the DEA
 

http://www.newsherald.com/articles/r...synthetic.html

This agency shouldn't even exist.

How DARE they ban untested chemical-laced tweaks to things that are already illegal? DON'T TREAD ON ME!

Seriously though, I'm pretty sure this stuff should be illegal even before actual marijuana. We can make an argument to legalize pot, but there appear to be markedly more potential downsides here. Not a good battle to pick.

I know someone who smoked K2 and said they got a really bad migraine headache from it..... I can see why now.

I know several people who have smoked the synthetic marijuana substitutes, and I feel like I've heard a whole lot of bad and very little good. The reactions they described...the accelerated heart rate/panic attack...are ones I've heard the synthetic smokers complaining of often whereas I rarely heard it from my friendly local potheads back in high school, and only then from people who were inexperienced and smoked too much at once.

To me marijauna should be legal (though of course I'll give the disclaimer that I do not smoke it because it is illegal and I won't risk any blemish on my record) but as the article said, that's a drug we know a lot about...this stuff, not so much. And everyone seems to think it's no big deal, because it's "basically pot" (I've heard that phrase several times lately)...and it's not.

It's like pills...people just assume it's totally safe. (And don't get me started on the stupidity of that).

Kind of like when people argue that certain drugs are "safe" because they grow naturally..... mmmmkaaaay. Arsenic and anthrax are two things I can think of that occur naturally but I don't see anyone running to inhale or ingest it.

Exactly. Or because a doctor prescribed it (to someone else) it's totally fine. Never mind that drugs can interact and certain people shouldn't take certain medications.

The whole "pot is ok because it's natural" argument is stupid. Smoking out of bongs and pipes means it isn't filtered and horrible things are coating your lungs. And it might not be chemically addicting, but it can definitely be psychologically addicting. I'm just of the opinion that it's no less safe than alcohol, for instance, but just like with alcohol there ARE negative side effects and consequences.

I have to say I don't get trying the synthetic stuff...we know what kinds of health problems cigarettes, alcohol, and marijuana (and many other illegal drugs that have been around for a long time) can cause down the road, but not that stuff. But then I'm not the risk taking type.

When I was doing my Occupational Therapy internship at a state mental health hospital, I worked with an 18 year old kid from a flagship university who destroyed his life when he and some buddies decided to make synthetic heroin in their dorm room. He had extreme brain damage and was functioning like a 2 year old. He was the first of the group to try it and, well, he essentially gave up his whole life because of it. Tragic.

I can't comprehend that. What makes anyone want to try heroin in the first place?

And making heroin? What motivated them to do that? That is really unfortunate. I hope the rest of the group learned their lesson.

Well, the main problem is that the MD prescribed the medication for a particular problem in a specific dosage for a specific time frame. The people abusing these drugs are taking them in unsafe dosages over long periods of time often with alcohol which leads to addiction. The medications are fine AS PRESCRIBED for the person for which it was prescribed.

My experience with people my age and younger is that they generally take medication that has never been prescribed for them at all and that they don't do it over a long period of time, but they DO tend to do it and then drink. It's usually Klonopin, Xanax, Adderrall, or Loratab, none of which should be mixed with alcohol. It's gotten to the point with one group of friends that a couple of us have just stopped hanging out with them. They'll pop a couple of Klonopin and then have a "wine night"...needless to say not only is it incredibly unsafe it also makes them impossible to be around.

At one point during my college career I had to hide some of my medication because there was someone who would take a couple here and there thinking I wouldn't notice. We never could nail down with certainty who it was (shared living situation with people constantly dropping by to visit myself and roommates, no locks on the bedroom doors), but it bothered me someone was that desperate for it. It happened three or four times before I hid it all.

They do tend to do it over a long period of time. Every time they want to get drunk they do it. And for some people it turns into a daytime habit, as well. This got to be a big thing at my school right after I graduated. I had a friend who got her car stolen because she left it unlocked with her purse in the passenger seat because she was intoxicated on Xanax and alcohol. Stupid. Didn't teach her a lesson, though. She kept doing it. Ended up calling her parents trying to call a guy for a booty call! :eek: