Pubdate: Mon, 28 Jun 2010
Source: Jamestown Sun (ND)
Copyright: 2010 Forum Communications Co.
Contact:  http://www.jamestownsun.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/4603
Author: Mike Nowatzki

NEW DRUG FAD IS LEGAL IN MINN., NOT N.D.

A middle-aged woman in the pink halter top strolled into the Moorhead
store and headed straight for the herbal incense.

Flipping through the shiny plastic packets, she found  one she hadn't
tried before, a black bag labeled "Smoke  XXXX."

After shelling out $50 for the 3-gram pouch, she  climbed into her
minivan and tore open the package.

Carefully, she poured the potpourri-like substance into  her "Stairway
to Heaven" hitter box (a small container  normally used for
marijuana), loaded up her  cigarette-style pipe and fired it up.

She took a drag, drawing the smoke deep into her lungs,  and waited
for the high to arrive.

The woman confessed to a Forum reporter by her side  that she had "not
a clue" about the name or nature of  the mind-altering substance
sprayed on the incense.

The packaging didn't list the drug in the ingredients,  but it did
warn that the incense was "not for human  consumption."

"But actually it is," she said.

Asked how she knows, she said, "Because I smoke it and  I'm still
alive."

The woman spoke to The Forum on condition of anonymity,  fearful she
would lose her job at a local financial  institution.

With the rest of the incense still in her hitter box,  she drove away
from the parking lot and turned toward  her home in North Dakota,
where the substance she'd  just ingested was outlawed in February.

As she crossed the Red River into Fargo, she committed  a felony.

And she's not alone.

Since May 1, Fargo police have arrested or sought  charges against at
least a dozen people for possessing  synthetic drugs that mimic the
high produced by smoking  marijuana, Lt. Pat Claus said.

The chemically enhanced incense is legal in Minnesota.  It's commonly
known as Spice or K2, but also sells  under a host of other names.
Among those seized by  Fargo police are Spark 10, Fire N' Ice, Karma
Kind and  California Dreams.

'Not a good thing'

Nowhere on the packaging does it instruct the user to  smoke the
incense in a pipe. But the way the product is  marketed often appears
to be less of a "wink, wink" and  more of an emphatic nod. For
instance, one website  selling a brand of premium Spice offers a free
pipe  with an order of 2 grams for $34.99.

"They know that the manufacturer who put that stuff on  there intended
them to smoke it and get the  hallucinogenic benefits," said Howard
Anderson,  executive director of the North Dakota State Board of
Pharmacy.

The woman who recently purchased incense in Moorhead  used to have it
delivered to her Fargo home after  purchasing it online. But since the
Board of Pharmacy  issued an emergency rule on Feb. 25, defining
several  chemicals that are sprayed on the incense as controlled
substances and thereby making them illegal to possess  or sell, the
company will no longer mail it to her  home.

So, she goes to Moorhead, where the incense is sold at  Discontent,
Mellow Mood and Mother's Music.

Moorhead police know it's being sold, but they haven't  encountered it
on the street or received any reports  from hospitals that it's
causing health problems, Lt.  Brad Penas said.

Still, he'd like to see Minnesota follow the lead of  North Dakota and
a growing number of states racing to  ban it.

"It's not a good thing for us to be having for sale  over here, making
it legal for somebody that's 18 years  old to walk in, purchase it and
turn around and walk  out and sell it to a kid that's 14 and there's
no  repercussions for anybody," said Penas, who oversees  the
department's narcotics division.

Minnesota Board of Pharmacy Executive Director Cody  Wiberg said his
office had "not received a single call  from anyone about this" until
a phone call from The  Forum last week.

The board just finished a major revision of its  Schedule I controlled
substances a couple of months  ago, he said.

"Based on what I know right now, even though we have to  do more
research, I probably will have our board begin  the rulemaking process
to place these in Schedule I,"  he said.

Mother's Music co-owner Brady Bredell said the store  carries the
product because its competitors do, and  will continue as long as it's
legal. He said he hopes  North Dakota will reconsider and make
possession of the  substance a misdemeanor offense, at most.

"The potential is, they're going to be locking up their  own sons and
daughters and putting them in prison for  this," he said.

Usage blossoms

Every morning at the Missouri Poison Center, Director  Anthony Scalzo
sits down and scans through the list of  calls from the day before.

In November, he noticed one call referring to a  marijuana substitute.
He noted a few similar calls in  December, and about a dozen more in
January.

The callers, he said, were mostly emergency room  doctors reporting
patients who had smoked K2. They had  become extremely agitated and
anxious, with accelerated  heart rates and blood pressures as high as
200/110 (for  adults, 120/80 is considered healthy).

The symptoms aren't typical of someone who smokes  marijuana, he said.
In a few cases, K2 users reported  tremors and hallucinations.

By mid-May, poison centers nationwide had logged 352  similar cases in
35 states. As of Thursday, the total  stood at 545 cases in 41 states,
according to the  American Association of Poison Control Centers.

"It's just blossoming around the country," Scalzo said.

K2 lab tests found the incense had been sprayed with a  compound
called JWH-018 -- a chemical originally  synthesized in 1995 by a
graduate student of research  professor John W. Huffman at Clemson
University -- or  the related JWH-073.

The chemicals, known as synthetic cannabinoids, act on  the same brain
receptors as THC, the active ingredient  in marijuana.

Huffman said JWH-018 "was not designed to be a  super-THC." He points
out there are no valid,  peer-reviewed studies of the compound's
effects on  humans, or any data regarding its toxicity.

"It should absolutely NOT be used as a recreational  drug," he wrote
in a blanket response to e-mailed  questions.

Scalzo said the unknowns of chemically enhanced incense  is what
concerns health officials.

"You don't know what you're getting. You don't know  what's in there.
There's no quality control," he said.

Emergency action taken

The North Dakota Board of Pharmacy raised similar  concerns when it
took emergency action classify JWH-018  and six other chemicals as
Schedule I controlled  substances earlier this year.

North Dakota law states that the board shall place a  substance under
Schedule I if it has "high potential  for abuse" and no accepted
medical use in treatment.

North Dakota is one of three states where JWH-018 and  other drugs
used in incense blends are illegal, the  others being Kansas and
Kentucky.

Bans take effect Thursday in Alabama, Georgia and  Tennessee.
Lawmakers in seven other states have either  approved bans that are
awaiting a governor's signature  or are considering bans.

North Dakota's emergency rule took effect Feb. 26, the  day after the
board passed it. The board adopted it as  a final rule in May and is
waiting for Attorney General  Wayne Stenehjem's review and approval,
said Anderson,  the board's director. It will be introduced as
legislation in 2011, he said.

For law enforcement purposes, it's already in effect.

Under state law, anyone found in possession of a  controlled substance
without a doctor's prescription  may be charged with a Class C felony,
or a Class B  felony if they're within 1,000 feet of a school.

However, in the case of marijuana, possession of one  ounce or less is
a misdemeanor -- in other words, the  law is harsher when it comes to
what some consider  imitation marijuana than for the real thing.

Ryan Zueger, co-owner of Big Willies in Mandan, N.D.,  where customers
used to be able to buy Spark 20 and 10  other brands of the incense,
said 50 percent or more of  his sales came from the product prior to
the board's  action, which he criticized as overreaching and being
done in an emergency meeting without public notice.

The board action was prompted in large part by two  teenagers who
wound up in a Bismarck emergency room  after injecting stardust, a
stimulant mixed with bath  salts that produces a high that's been
compared to  cocaine or methamphetamine. (The Moorhead shops don't
carry stardust.)

Zueger said his shop stopped selling stardust two days  before the
board outlawed its active ingredient,  mephedrone, and a second
stimulant.

"If people are going to get hurt, I don't really want  to carry that
product," he said.

But the board went a step further in also banning  JWH-018 and four
other drugs sprayed on incense.

"We just decided, let's schedule them all and make it  illegal to
possess or sell them," Anderson said.

Zueger said the board jumped the gun without evidence  the incense
causes negative health effects. The incense  is sold as aromatherapy,
he said, and some people  prefer it to prescription painkillers. One
customer  from Montana dropped by every two to three weeks to buy  it
for his son who was in a debilitating car accident,  he said.

But Anderson said the lack of information on the  packaging is what
creates the potential for harm.

"People buy this stuff and they think, 'Well, it's for  sale, must be
OK.' But it isn't," he said.

Staying competitive

Bredell, the Mother's Music co-owner, said the only  reason his record
store carries the incense is because  customers requested it "and we
got sick of giving  people the address of our competitors."

"The music business is struggling, and we're just  trying to stay
competitive to similar businesses," he  said.

As for how customers are using the product, he said,  "We sell it as
incense, and I guess that's all I can  say about that."

A manager at Mellow Mood who spoke to The Forum about  the incense
refused to give his last name for  attribution. He provided the e-mail
address of the  store's owner, who didn't return a message seeking
comment.

Staff at Discontent also declined comment and provided  a phone number
for the store's owner, who couldn't be  reached for comment.

The Mellow Mood manager said he believes some customers  from North
Dakota still don't realize it's illegal  there. He said he won't be
surprised if the product is  eventually outlawed in Minnesota, given
the reaction in  other states.

Legislation likely in Minnesota

It's uncommon for a drug to be banned in North Dakota  and not in
Minnesota, but there are exceptions --  although one of them is about
to expire.

Salvia divinorum, a mint herb native to Mexico, and its  active
ingredient, salvinorin A, were banned by the  North Dakota Legislature
in 2007.

Minnesota lawmakers caught up last spring, approving a  ban that takes
effect Aug. 1.
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MAP posted-by: Matt