So, I have a confession to make. This isn’t a confession just to capture an audience. Its something of relevant importance. It affects my daily life. I made the mistake of doing something I would normally NEVER EVER do. I smoked ‘incense’ that was a synthetic chemical made to give you the same high as marijuana. The outlawed version is called Spice. They sell it at head shops and label it as incense not designed for human consumption. The employees at the head shop will strongly indicate to you that what you do with it is your own business, but they smile slyly and give you suggestions on which are best to try knowing exactly what you will be using it for. For me, they even threw in a single hitter pipe to smoke from for free. This is a legalized drug that is chemically made and we have no idea the long term effects of it. I was enticed by my boyfriend, whom never does anything to do this drug. He said he heard about it from a friend and that the friend didn’t mention any side effects of this, only that it was hardcore. I will spare you the details of the midst of the moment of smoking this substance only to tell you the ramifications. We thought we were going to die, so much so that we called his mom, an RN, to make sure nothing bad happened to us and then no one knew. We were listening to music that turned to carnival music and we had to turn it off. We also had very bad leg tremors that we had no control over. The hallucinations were the worst. Suicidal thoughts occurred as well as a lot of old emotional baggage that had been put to rest. My boyfriend started vomiting intensely. He then became very delirious. I became more lucid by the time his mother arrived and was able to sit up. I still had tremors and felt as though I was in a dream, but at least I was getting better. The rest of the night was a blur. I barely made it to bed and woke up at 5 am the next morning. Head was pounding and I was very parched. I felt weird and had an after shock the next 2 days. I had also become very spiritually numb. This was the worst side effect for me as I was very far along on my work towards ascension ( although a part of me wonders, if so-why did I do such a dumb thing). Only 1 week later have I been able to feel some sort of spiritual connection. This morning I did a chakra balancing yoga practice. It helped…until my boyfriend picked me up for work. I keep getting irritated with him over little things. Its involuntary and annoying as we have been getting along lately. This is besides the point however, as I am trying to share my life changing event with you in hopes to raise awareness about this toxic drug.
Here are some of the things on the internet about the very similar drug , Spice, that I have found. It is basically the same thing, just with a few component chemicals changed.
Synthetic cannabis is a psychoactive herbal and chemical product which, when consumed mimics the effects of cannabis. It is best known by the brand names K2[1] and Spice,[2] both of which have largely become genericized trademarks used to refer to any synthetic cannabis product. (It is also for this reason that synthetic cannabis is often referred to as spice product, due to the latter.) A type of synthetic cannabis sold in Australasia is known as Kronic.
Resource: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spice_(drug)
Spice side effects are some of the most troubling aspects of this synthetic cannabis compound also known as JWH-018 or K2. While many people have experienced a “high” that is comparable to other drugs, some people experience heart rhythm problems, severe agitation, hallucinations, and problems that may either be related to the chemical itself or the medium (usually some kind of herbal mix) that it is added to. One spice side effect, vomiting, is almost the exact opposite of what people use the natural version of the drug to combat. Spice is sold as an herbal incense and marked “not for human consumption” even though it is generally accepted that people are going to consume the material by way of smoking. In one case there is a report that a teenager committed suicide while on the drug, though as with any such even it is necessary to see to what extent that Spice may have made a bad psychological situation worse.
Resource: http://www.spicesideeffects.com/
Hallucinations and delusions
Since JWH-018 or K2 acts like marijuana, you'd expect to see the same effects, including sleepiness, relaxation, reduced blood pressure, and at high doses, hallucinations and delusions. While some patients between the ages of 14 and 21 were showing up with hallucinations, other symptoms, such as increased agitation and elevated blood pressure and heart rates, didn't match up with marijuana.
Scalza speculates either another compound is responsible for the nasty side effects, or the concentration of JWH-018 is too high.
To answer this question, Scalzo is having doctors test patients' urine for JWH-018 and other compounds, but he is having trouble getting patients to agree to the test.
"This is not something that people are agreeing to," Scalzo said during a telephone interview. "Here's a legal substance that we don't know really that much about that people are putting into their bodies without quality control."
And even though doctors like Scalzo say they'd like to help the teens, that's not enough. "Phenomenally, people are saying no. They're afraid someone is going to find something," though Scalzo has no idea why they'd be afraid.
Dangerous drug
Both Scalzo and Huffman agree the drug is dangerous.
Further testing is needed, but Scalzo says the symptoms, such as fast heart beat, dangerously elevated blood pressure, pale skin and vomiting suggest that K2 is affecting the cardiovascular system of users. It also is believed to affect the central nervous system, causing severe, potentially life-threatening hallucinations and, in some cases, seizures. "It's like playing Russian roulette. You don't know what it's going to do to you," Huffman said. "You're a potential winner of a Darwin award," referring to the tongue-in-cheek awards given to people who "do a service to humanity by removing themselves from the gene pool." In addition to the compound being made without strict quality control or any regulation, as far as anyone knows, the compound itself has never been tested on humans. And when it was tested on mice, Huffman said, the animals were euthanized at the end of the experiment, so scientists don't even know how it affects mice long-term. "And mice are not humans," Huffman said.
Resource: http://www.livescience.com/6149-fake-weed-real-drug-k2-causing-hallucinations-teens.html
