Words cannot describe the anger I feel that they call it "synthetic marijuana".

that shit is for the birds...

just say no

Why wouldn't you just buy a bag of weed? Don't understand this stuff.

The actual psychoactive compound is JWH-018 which was synthesized at Clemson in 1996, I believe.

@careful_w_that_axe_Miller said:

so is she 16 in that picture? .... her eyes are pinned the f*** out. Very pretty eyes at that, huh....tried to read the whole article but no luck, did skim it and it is very sad; too sad. I suspect that the family is getting paid for this story which is also sad but maybe good if info gets out there. I suspect acetone is the cause of her ailment, i suspect her homelife is rocky, I suspect that her step dad may be very much like rodney Dangerfield in Nat Birn Killers, I digress

I have a very good friend that uses this stuff frequently, he is an advanced user and basically buys the chemistry and applies it himself to white owl cigars; not good stuff.

The taste is poor. The buzz is sloppy, comes on like nicotine but is very dirty almost like smoking a headache, also tough on the lungs and after smoking it you weaze a bit. the buzz is certainly a mood change but it is like a drunk buzz in that your head is throbbing and you kind of feel stoned perhaps like smoking an oz of the shwaggiest, pretty sure it is more physically addictive than marijuana, mental addiction would be pretty close, base this only on my observations of my buddy and what he has told me regarding headaches and lack of sleep when he doesnt smoke, though that could be his mental state. He smokes around 5 cigars dipped in various (root) chemicals a day, maybe more, ya i think more

he is a captain in the US army, 2 deployments, father of 3; continual urinalyis and that shit doesnt come up

She doesn't look like an opiate user, I don't think her eyes are pinned because of that...It could have been the flash on the camera, or the natural light beaming down.

@bobbob said:

The actual psychoactive compound is JWH-018 which was synthesized at Clemson in 1996, I believe.

Wrong, 2-3 years ago this would have been the chemical found in the legal bud stuff, but that and four other derivatives were banned in 2011. JWH-018 actually wasn't that bad, not ideal but not nearly as bad as the stuff that is on the market today. Now there are different chemicals used that are neither legal nor illegal, they are simply unrecognized by the state or anyone outside the companies that produce the chemical.

JWH-018

This stuff can actually cause you to fail a drug test, just ask Tyron Mathiue (sp) from LSU.

@themindpilot said:

Of course the FDA bans good ol' ganja but allows this toxic garbage to be consumed.

Not true. It is not FDA approved. The stuff is banned in 41 states but still finds its way onto the shelves from local peddlers who make it by the masses in concrete mixers.

Isn't it ironic?

Michigan just signed an emergency law last June and made all these synthetic "spice" mixtures illegal. Towards the end every "ghetto" gas station and liquor store sold them. (I put that in quotes because many were in the suburbs too...but you know what I mean) Usually they came in pre-packaged envelopes for $10-20 apiece. The common names going around here were K2, Spice, Kush, Purple Haze, and all sorts of names. The envelopes were all blatant with pictures of Bob Marley huffing a spliff on the front or 420 KUSH written across the top.

Back in Summer 2009, I had a friend start smoking the stuff because he had to keep his system clean for a child custody suit. Back then the active ingredient, as others have mentioned above, was a synthetic "cannabanoid-like" organic compound called JWH-018. JWH for the scientist who "discovered" and first synthesized it, and 018 for some isomer identification. I believe it was indeed at Auburn University in about 2002. It was a Dutch chemist or something.

This stuff is not synthetic TCH or "synthetic pot". It is, however, a chemical that stimulates many of the same receptors that THC does...but it isn't a straight up copy cat of THC.

People call it fake pot because it looks like it. 80% of the green leafy matter that you smoke is the straight up marshmallow plant...a common additive because it isn't harsh to smoke. There are other "spices and herbs" in there too. This stuff is all harmless.

They spray the chemical on there and package it. At first the chemical was JWH-018 but they caught wind of that around 2009 and made it illegal. Now here comes the legal loophole...in order to outlay a substance, they have to identify it. JWH-018 easy enough. But all they had to do was tweak a hydrogen here and an amino group there and voila...you have an isomer that's close enough. The possibilities were endless. JWH-038...JWH-024...as soon as they would outlaw one another isomer would pop up. There was no way to keep up, it was a cat and mouse game that could quite literally go on forever.

Eventually the got 6 or 8 basic ones outlawed. What followed were variations that were so far from the original (and not too bad) JWH-018.

I smokes this stuff a few times int he Summer of 2009. At first it kind of felt like a mild-ish commercial weed buzz, but with about 50 times the paranoia!!!!

It was weird...it just felt dirty and you started to get that nasty head trip where you start to think this was not a good idea! The overall buzz only lasted about 30 minutes but then you surprisingly snapped back to normal. Surprisingly mild let down.

The tolerance builds quick. A few hours later it hardly did anything. Towards the end of the summer someone had a weird off brand name (original was just "K2" ) with Bob Marley on the cover.

Guys...to this day...that is the worst, most God awful high I've ever felt in my life. And believe me I've had a few. I've never smoked PCP (nor do I know anyone who has), but I imagine that's how dirty and jittery it makes you feel. The best way I can describe it is that I lost 100% of all immediate short term memory. It was like nothing made sense. If you've ever snorted lines of Ketamine you might know what I'm getting at. Then the paranoia!!!!! God you just wanted it to end.

I remember thinking there is no way IN HELL an 18 year old kid should be able to go to the corner gas station and buy an envelope of this stuff for $10. It was just a matter of time before we started having problems.

I'm surprised it took 3 years before parents and teachers caught on to what this shit was. It was being sold under their noses the whole time. I mean lets face it...folks like us notice this shit. But how many multi-colored envelops and packages and cigars and air fresheners are hanging behind the counter at a gas station? People just didn't notice.

There was a case here where a "good" high school kid snapped and killed his parents. He blamed it on the shit he smoked. It was illegal a few months later.

Stay away from that shit. It is so bad for you...it's almost like those "bath salts". It's only been around for a decade, who knows what the long term effects are? I see lots of young kids when I visit rehab centers to give talks and stuff. It's amazing how many of them smoked this shit and how they all said it made them insane for a half hour.

I mean, when it happened to me I at least had 2 decades of drug experience to fall back on to know I wasn't about to die or anything crazy. But a kid who only knows pot and alcohol? It must have freaked the living f*** out of them!

@mgh2001, Im flipping the channels and this movie North and South is on, I stopped for a second to check it out and its patrick swayze and some chick, both have the eye color of the young woman in the picture,
both looked like they were pinned out; though that is possible its more lkely i could have been wrong for sure.

I should of put "speculating about small details of strangers lives" in the net hobby thread bc I enjoy it

Stick to the real deal = grow old and write a book

One of my favorite past times is snowcapping a bowl of spice with bath salts...

except urine - that shit tastes almost as good as the real deal

Yeahh it's pretty f***ed that the stuff is legal IMO

Smoked it once and got an instant headache "high"

Wouldn't ever do it again. Only one word comes to mind when I hear about it now and that word is carcinogens