Spice/K2 - After the 3/1 Ban

Superior Training Solutions

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SPICE/K2 - After The 3/1 Ban

This short article is an update to Bulletin Board articles on Synthetics that STS published earlier this year.  It answers three questions:  1. Can Spice still be purchased at the usual places after the DEA ban?  2.  Are the psychoactive ingredients the same as those used prior to the ban?  3.  Have the ingredients been changed so the drug could remain 'legal'?  

The final March 1st DEA ban included five commonly used Spice chemicals: JWH-018, JWH-073, JWH-200, CP-47 and cannabicyclohexanol. Prior to the ban, many law enforcement personnel were quoted in the news media as saying that, based on what they understood about the drugs used to make Spice, the manufacturers would just change the formula, special order whatever the new ingredient was from China - as usual - and continue to sell it here in the U.S.  

Based on the lab results from our last purchase that appears to be exactly what is happening.  First, it remains easy to purchase Spice at the local curb market and, in fact, vendors seem to have an even larger selection.  Second, the results from our latest Spice 'buy', while testing positive for  two of the banned DEA chemicals - JWH - 018 and 073, also tested positive for JWH - 250 and 81.  These two formulas/drugs were not found in any of our prior samples, and neither of them is on the banned/DEA list. (Although we could not ask, the packets with the banned chemicals may well have been stock left over from pre-DEA ban days.) 

Although all of our purchases have been made in Nashville, TN, and it is clear that new versions/formulas of Spice/K2 are being sold here, it is logical to assume that the same is true nationwide.

There is some positive news about this current drug threat.  Synthetics, including Spice and Bath Salts, are gaining a higher profile in the scientific community.  Dr. Howard Taylor, our training associate of many years and research laboratory connection, reports that a fellow toxicologist has compiled data from samples of synthetics collected from all over the country, including our last 'buy'.  The data will be used in a presentation and workshop at the Society of Forensic Toxicologists (SOFT) meeting in two weeks in San Francisco. 

Dr. Taylor will report back to us after the SOFT meeting and we will pass that information along to you in our usual email format. You might want to be on the lookout for that in early October.

BATH SALTS UPDATE:  The drug(s) found in our first sample of Bath Salts purchased three months ago are the same as the DEA proposed to ban in the Federal Register last week - add to Schedule 1 around mid-October.  They include Mephedrone, 3,4 methylenedioxypyrovalerone (MDPV) and Methylone.  These are the drugs that users say cause the "cocaine-like" feeling produced when using Bath Salts/Plant Food.

DANGEROUS:   Lay people continue to ask us, and probably you, if these drugs are dangerous.  A recent quote in the New York Times by the director of the Northern New England Poison Center, Karen E. Simone, when asked about using Bath Salts pretty much summed it up:  "Some of these users are not right for a long time afterward.  If you gave me a list of drugs that I wouldn't want to touch, this (Bath Salts/MDPV etc.) would be at the top."   

Respectfully,

     Mac

J. Mac Allen

Superior Training Solutions, Inc

www.stsfirst.com

mac@stsfirst.com

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