It’s legal. It’s as easy to buy as aspirin. And a teenager you know has probably tried it. It’s “synthetic pot,” sold in corner stores as herbal incense or potpourri, and doctors and politicians say it’s becoming a dangerous scourge in the city.
Dozens of people looking for a quick high are winding up in emergency rooms with alarming symptoms ranging from hallucinations and seizures to panic attacks and violent behavior.
The problem is growing so fast that a major medical journal issued a warning last week about about the substance, often referred to as K2 or Spice.
And Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) is pushing for a nationwide ban that would make it illegal to hawk the condom-sized packets, which sell for $15 to $75 at stores and online.
“People have the mind-set that this is ‘just pot,’ but it’s not,” said Dr. Lewis Nelson, a medical toxicologist at NYU Langone and Bellevue hospitals and director of training at the city’s poison control center.
“Synthetic marijuana is really a misnomer. It’s really quite different, and the effects are much more unpredictable. “It’s dangerous, and there is no quality control in what you are getting.”
There have been several reports of people acting irrationally and violently after a few tokes of the counterfeit kush.
Several teen deaths have been blamed on the Mary Jane substitute:
Last week, a 17-year-old who was reportedly high on it fatally stabbed a sleeping schoolmate, Jasmyn Tully, 17, in Washington State because he felt “an urge to hurt someone,” authorities said.
Last June, Max Dober, 19, was killed after he bought Aroma at an Illinois mall and crashed his car into a house at 100 mph.
In June 2010, Iowa teen David Mitchell Rozga, 18, committed suicide in a frenzy of anxiety that his parents believe was triggered by K2.
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