A legally purchased herbal blend called ‘Purple Haze’ comes ready to smoke. (Adrian Hedden/The Washtenaw Voice)
Actress Demi Moore was rushed to a Los Angeles hospital recently after she allegedly smoked a mysterious blend of herbs. A friend who made the 911 call on Jan. 23 was concerned when the star lost consciousness and began convulsing on the floor of a Beverly Hills home.
Euphoria hasn’t been easy for Brenden Liss to achieve either. The 20-year-old Brighton resident fearfully recalls a medical emergency he suffered while experimenting with a legal, smoke-able blend of herbal incense.
Once the smoke cleared, Liss found himself further from the party than he had ever been. It was the summer of 2009, and he was down for the count.
“I got dizzy, next thing I knew all my friends were helping me off the ground,” Liss said. “It’s like every possible negative thought I could have ran through my head and it only took one big hit.”
Users experience a psychedelic, paranoid sensation upon inhaling the smoke from the incense. The blends are being smoked through various paraphernalia such as small hand pipes and rolling papers.
Herbal incense blends have been available across Michigan for years, but only until recently have they been marketed as alternatives to illegal drugs. Customers can now purchase these products in small plastic baggies, under brand names such as “Spike Maxx” or “Zombie Matter.”
Like tobacco, the legal age to purchase these products in Michigan is 18. But at age 17, Kaleb Franks has had no problem acquiring it.
“Getting your hands on the stuff is easier than buying cigarettes,” Franks said.
The Brighton resident has noticed several business owners making age exceptions. He’s even seen some cashiers go as far as recommending certain blends of the incense for their potency.
“We are selling the hell out of the stuff,” said Wanda, a manager at Smoke ‘N’ Gifts, a Brighton head shop.
Wanda refused to reveal her last name to avoid association with the potential misuse of her products.
Psychoactive herbal blends contain a variety of different chemicals. Each spice blend has its own, unique, chemical makeup. The active chemicals in these products are designed to stimulate the cannabinoid receptors in the brain causing the euphoric effect.
This incense is very popular amongst those who are looking to achieve a marijuana-like high without failing a potential drug screening.
‘It’s keeping me out of jail,” said Nathan Spence, a music production major from Brighton. “It gets me high, and I won’t fail a drug test.”
While public knowledge and awareness of the relatively new product have recently increased, potential dangers have been brought to light. The Drug Enforcement Agency has been consistently placing bans on known harmful chemical compounds in the incense.
Any product containing these newly controlled synthetic cannabinoids are now Schedule I controlled substances and illegal to possess without a license. Purveyors have removed them to maintain the products’ viability.
“Young people are being harmed when they smoke these dangerous fake pot products and wrongly equate the products’ ‘legal’ retail availability with being safe,” said DEA Administrator Michele M. Leonhart in a press release on the DEA’s website.
The DEA has concerned itself primarily with keeping the dangerous drug out of reach of children.
“Parents and community leaders look to us to help them protect their kids, and we have not let them down,” Leonhart said. “The ban’s action, while temporary, will reduce the number of young people being seen in hospital emergency rooms after ingesting these synthetic chemicals to get high.”
Although certain compounds in the herbs have been made illegal, creators of the products continue altering the chemical makeup just enough to keep it on the shelves. Thus far, the creators have been successful in keeping ahead of the legal curve.
And Wanda says she is certain that sales have not dropped.
Since the March 1, 2011 ban, when manufacturers succeeded in removing the dangerous chemicals, Wanda asserts that the sale of spice incense is at a ratio of 10-1 compared to any other product.
“Even on a slow day, 50 customers come in to purchase spice,” Wanda said.
She has observed that some regular customers purchase up to four grams, or $60 worth from her store, daily.
Although efforts have been made by law enforcement officials to keep these new drugs off the streets, the incense producers continue to unintentionally make a profit off those looking to achieve a legal high.
BREAKOUT:
All aforementioned items in this report are labeled not for human consumption.
On March 1, 2011, the DEA published its final notification of the temporary scheduling of five synthetic cannabinoids on the list of Schedule I narcotics. These five synthetic cannabinoids banned are: cannabicyclohexanol, CP47 497; JWH-018, JWH-073 and JWH-200) all have been found in Spice-like products (Spice, K2, etc).
