Activity 3

Spices and Ecstasy

Schneir et al (2011) is a case report that discussed two women who called 911 after each using synthetic cannabinoid also known as "Spice". The case study explained that shortly after smoking a product called "Banana Cream Nuke", a product purchased legally in a local smoke shop; each girl experienced disorientation and anxiety and reported to not know where they were. The study concludes by proposing possible explanations for the appeal and desire to use spices; the legality of the product, the inability to show up on drug tests, and the lack of literature and studies done on the product to prove negative effects.
Mir et al (2011) is a case report discussing three users of synthetic cannabis in K2, what they call a "designer drug". All three patients were 16-year-old boys who reported chest pains after using K2 recently but also having smoked marijuana within weeks prior. These cases resulted in myocardial infarction after smoking K2; heart attack. The conclusion does state that there has been some literature to link marijuana to MI in adolescents yet the more recent use of K2 by the boys implicates a possible correlation with synthetic marijuana as well.
I personally have known someone who has over dosed on synthetic cannabinoid, unlike actual marijuana, which you cannot over dose on. It is interesting because in class we have discussed how E-Cigs were created to lessen harm and help wean smokers off, yet have had reverse affects and how now E-Cigs have become a fad and have encouraged younger children to begin smoking who were not before. This is a perfect example of the issue with Spices. Both E-Cigs and Spices have been used to replace a harmful drug yet instead have posed an even more dangerous outcome.
Halpern et al (2011) was a field study analyzing the neurocognitive performance among ecstasy users and non-users. The findings showed no results that proved extensive use of the drug cause any sort of residual effects on the user. This is pretty interesting because, just like we spoke about in class the studies showing these residual negative neurocognitive effects were on animals, yet because ecstasy is a schedule 1 drug it cannot be used, many research options are extremely limited in the U.S.
After reading all these articles, its interesting to compare the use of spices to ecstasy. Ecstasy is a schedule 1 drug, yet in my opinion spices such as K2 can be just as dangerous and possibly more dangerous than ecstasy, yet is nowhere near Ecstasy in terms of scheduling. In fact, up until the past couple year's synthetic cannabis was completely unregulated.

That's all I got for now!

Tootles~~