Hello everyone, I hope all is well with you. While I was at the Laundromat washing a couple of comforters, they won’t fit in my washing machine at home, I happened upon an article in Time Magazine about synthetic pot.
The title sparked my interest, “The Rise of Fake Pot.” To get a glimpse of the article click here: http://time.com/57167/rise-of-fake-pot/
The gist of this article claims there’s a new drug in town and it’s not heroin, cocaine, or even marijuana. It’s synthetic marijuana and the reason it’s so scary is that it’s for sale legally as Botanical Incense. It also goes by the names Herbal Incense and Potpourri.
This synthetic marijuana originates in Asia,is transported to the USA, and sold in convenience stores and gas stations. It comes in heat-sealed foil packets. Users smoke the Potpourri and it acts on the same receptors in the brain as THC.
In fact, this synthetic drug is even more hazardous to your health than the real stuff. Why? Because it contains toxic chemicals that cause severe reactions such as seizures, strokes, cardiac arrest, and kidney and brain damage.
Read what happened to Emily Bauer here: http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/health/miracle-progress-teen-near-death-synthetic-marijuana-article-1.1456099 She smoked the stuff for two weeks straight and had multiple strokes that left her paralyzed and partially blind.
The scary thing about all of this is the fact it’s unregulated and sold legally. Your child can stop at a gas station and pick up as many foil packets and he or she wants.
The problem with regulation is regulatory agencies don’t know how to regulate it, because it’s only dangerous if someone ingests it. To make matters worse, manufacturer’s state on the packet, it’s not for human consumption. Therefore, they’re covered legally if someone dies from ingesting their product.
Right now, there’s a push to legalize marijuana and this is muddying the waters even more for those regulatory agencies. According to this article, http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2014/05/28/e-cigarette-poisoning.aspx?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=poisonings-from-e-cigarettes-and-synthetic-pot-are-surgi the legalization of Marijuana would obliterate the synthetic drug market. Why would teens need all that toxic, synthetic crap when the real stuff is available?
Hmmm…makes you think, doesn’t it? Parents and Educators need to be aware of this drug. It has long lasting, harmful side effects that can derail a young teen’s life.
What are your thoughts on Synthetic Pot? Should we legalize the real stuff that’s actually safer? Please leave a comment, I’d love to hear from you!
