What's the deal with K2, synthetic pot?

Whether you call it “K2” or “Spice,” synthetic marijuana is keeping local and national authorities on their toes.

In late September, the New York City Police Department seized $10 million worth of the street drug. A joint effort between local police, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Department of Homeland Security, the East Bronx bust was part of a larger effort to quell K2’s growing influence in the New York metropolitan area.

Acting quickly, the New York City Council passed new legislation that imposes “penalties for the manufacture, distribution or sale of synthetic cannabinoids and synthetic marijuana” by a unanimous vote on Sept. 30—just days after the East Bronx seizure.

“This is a scourge on our society, affecting the most disadvantaged neighborhoods and our most challenged citizens,” NYPD Commissioner William J. Bratton said in a statement released one week before the bust. “It affects teenagers in public housing, homeless in the city shelter system, and it’s quite literally flooding our streets.”

So what exactly makes K2 so dangerous? What are authorities doing to control the drug’s circulation? And will their efforts even work?

K2 is a type of herb sprayed with man-made chemical compounds to mimic the effects of marijuana. “They act at the same receptor marijuana does,” Barbara Crouch, executive director of the Utah Poison Control Center, told NTRSCTN in a phone interview.

When smoked or eaten, marijuana has psychoactive properties that activate the “cannabinoid receptor” (CB1) in the human brain, Crouch explained. But unlike THC, the active chemical compound in pot, K2's man-made compounds can trigger the CB1 receptor in “a more potent manner.”

Synthetic cannabinoids are marketed as a safer alternative to marijuana, but the drug’s packaging often suggests otherwise, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). GreenMagic, a blend of synthetic marijuana available for sale via online retailer Organic Spice Blend, is one of many “incense blends” clearly labeled “not for human consumption.”

But what contributes to the danger of using K2 has a lot to do with the unpredictability of the synthetic compounds used in their production. The chemical compounds in synthetic marijuana “have a high potential for abuse and no medical benefit,” according to NIDA.

In 2011, the DEA listed five of the most commonsynthetic cannabinoid compounds as Schedule I controlled substances under the Controlled Substances Act, making them illegal to manufacture, distribute, and possess. But manufacturers consistently adjust the chemical compounds used in K2 to get around DEA efforts to ban it.

Because of this constant evolution in synthetic marijuana’s chemical makeup, side effects vary from package to package, causing a “different spectrum of effects than you would experience from, say, smoking a joint,” Crouch said, adding that there are “hundreds of these compounds.”

Spice Addiction Support, launched by a former synthetic marijuana addict, is a website where users can share their experiences with K2. It notes that the drug can produce some of the “pleasant” side effects of pot-smoking, including “elevated mood, relaxation, and altered perception,” but also lists a wide range of negative effects.

In testimonials posted to the site, people describe having anxiety, chest pains, and vomiting after using K2; some have also experienced withdrawal symptoms.

“All of the effects that I have seen are all on that spectrum of a stimulant-like effect—racing heart, agitation—and have even led to seizures and more serious cardiovascular heart problems, and, yes, even into death,” Crouch said, specifying that some of those deaths are due to users “putting themselves in harm’s way,” rather than from K2 itself.

It’s difficult to identify which cannabinoid compounds cause which reactions because users who show up in emergency rooms rarely arrive with a sample of the drug in hand, she added.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that of 3,572 calls to Poison Control related to synthetic marijuana usage between January and May 2015, the most common complaints included agitation, abnormally elevated heart rate, drowsiness or lethargy, vomiting, and confusion.

The New York Times also described a pocket of East Harlem, on 125th between Park and Lexington Avenues, as a “street full of zombies”—a symptom that also appears in many of the Spice Addiction Support testimonials. In New York specifically, the overuse of K2, especially by the homeless and people in low-income communities, is partly due to its affordability. The Times reported that a single joint of K2 costs around $1, while a joint of actual marijuana would go for about $5.

In addition to the DEA’s list of five synthetic cannabinoid compounds that are already prohibited, federal and state governments are racing to ban new compounds. Despite their efforts, though, manufacturers still manage to stay one step ahead.

In response, U.S. President Barack Obama signed into law the Synthetic Drug Abuse and Prevention Act in 2012. The law permanently banned 26 types of synthetic cannabinoids and cathinones (i.e. bath salts, a type of cathinone closely related to amphetamines), and enabled the DEA to temporarily ban any new substances that fit this criteria “to avoid an imminent hazard to the public safety,” according to the Controlled Substances Act.

But how would such legislation avoid damaging the lives of the people in communities affected by synthetic marijuana, much like the detrimental effects that federal drug enforcement has had on black communities in the U.S.? Since the 1980s, the War on Drugs has been a major contributing factor to the mass incarceration of American black men for minor drug offenses.

But authorities say there will be safeguards this time around.

“It’s not about criminalizing the users. These bills will deal with the stores that distribute and sell K2, and not being used to stigmatize the vulnerable populations that are statistically likely to try the drug,” New York City Council​ speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, who represents the East Harlem district, said at a meeting last month.

The New York American Civil Liberties Union is looking into how these regulations will affect communities like East Harlem, a spokesperson told NTRSCTN via email, but declined to provide further comment.

Lawmakers appear to have found the solution to combating K2 in New York's five boroughs, but will it actually work, or will drug manufacturers find another way to sell product to eager users?