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The state will now come after your fake weed
The Web site for the award-winning alternative weekly, the Philadelphia City Paper.
The state will now come after your fake weed
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UPDATE: This hearing has been cancelled. Oh well.
Press release just in from state Rep. Jennifer L. Mann, D-Lehigh:
Judiciary Committee Vote Wed., Sept. 15 on Mann's Bill to Ban Synthetic Marijuana
HARRISBURG, Sept. 14 â The House Judiciary Committee will vote tomorrow on HB 176, the Act to Ban Synthetic Marijuana, sponsored by Rep. Jennifer Mann, D-Lehigh.
The meeting will be held at 9 a.m. on Sept. 15 in Room 205 Ryan Office Bldg., State Capitol Complex, Harrisburg.
âI look forward to attending the Judiciary Committee meeting on my bill, and will urge the committee for a unanimous vote to send it to the full House for consideration,â Mann said.
âWe must enact legislation banning synthetic marijuana to protect our children and get this dangerous new drug off the streets. My bill will give the police the tools they need to prosecute people who sell or use synthetic marijuana,â Mann said.
Synthetic marijuana, the most common brand called âK2,â is a blend of herbs treated with chemicals to produce a marijuana-like high in users.
The bill would ban the sale or use of synthetic marijuana, a drug responsible for numerous emergency room visits by adults and children, and even linked to deaths nationwide. Mixes of synthetic marijuana sold on the street contain various dangerous chemicals which present real health risks to users.
Its use almost always causes unwanted and dangerous side effects in its users. Due to the fact it is not a controlled substance, it is sold openly on the internet and in head shops under the names âDemonâ and âHawaiian Haze.â
Emergency rooms across the Commonwealth and country have started seeing an influx of patients who are suffering the ill effects of synthetic marijuana use. Many of the users need heavy tranquilizing to calm down. The drug can cause symptoms such as fast heart rate, confusion, nausea, agitation, anxiety, elevated blood pressure, hallucinations, and seizures in its users.
I tend to be skeptical about these almost always overwrought âthink of the childrenâ anti-drug campaigns — Slate, for instance, has done a wondrous job knocking down those âpharma partyâ stories that seem to pop up every now and again — but hey, the Internets tell us this stuff is bad news, so let's just assume they're correct. According to CNN:
"K2" is a brand name for a dried herbal blend that can be smoked. It produces a high similar to that of marijuana but doesn't contain tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the psychoactive chemical in marijuana. Instead, K2 contains synthetic chemicals, known as JWH-018 and JWH-073, that mimic THC by acting on the cannabinoid receptors in the brain.
JWH-018 and JWH-073 are produced in China and unregulated in the United States. Similar products have been produced and marketed under names such as Spice, Genie, Blaze, Red X Dawn and Zohai. Since 2009, the Drug Enforcement Administration has been receiving reports of the abuse of these herbal products.
K2's key ingredients were invented by Dr. John Huffman at Clemson University in 1995 during medical research on the effects of cannabinoids on the brain. He found no medical benefits -- only negative side effects. Unfortunately, marijuana users reproduced the recipe, creating a legal alternative to marijuana.
According to the Times-News, those side effects include:
rapid heart rate, confusion, nausea, agitation, anxiety, elevated blood pressure, hallucinations, and seizures
You know what doesn't cause any of those things? Actual marijuana. Just saying.
[...] The state will now come after your fake weed. [...]
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