NARCONON NEWS
Drug Rehab
When we think of Chinese imports, we think of household goods, toys, etc. What we probably don’t think of is drugs.
Yet, even the Chinese are capitalizing on the fact that Americans like their drugs. However, the Chinese aren’t using dangerous cartels as pushers – they are legally exporting synthetic marijuana (or K2) to the states. The imported mixture is then sold legally in head shops. Narconon of Georgia has recently received a few phone calls inquiring about help available for this new drug and in doing research on K2, we were surprised what we found.
Head shops are now the” one stop shops” for K2 pot smokers. The combination of herbs, spices and synthetic THC (the ingredients of K2), the rolling papers and pipes used to smoke it, can all be conveniently purchased in one place. No more hassle of dealing with prescriptions or breaking the law – it’s easy now.
Customers range from high school students to ex-convicts and as online forums continue to tout the virtues of K2 it is likely that the customer base will continue to grow and drug treatment centers such as Narconon will be called on to help.
Current research on the new drug is lagging behind the sales. It seems to be based on statistics and data are being gathered after the fact in emergency room visits. Emergency rooms report symptoms of anxiety, hypertension, vomiting, severe paranoia and hallucinations related to K2 use and the poison control reported 766 cases of K2 related calls. Narconon of Georgia learned that there were 12 emergency room visits recently in the Atlanta area due to K2 abuse.
Law enforcement so far has been slow to respond and only one state has made K2 illegal. Two more are assessing such legislation.
In the future, attorneys are likely to find themselves involved in K2 cases, whether legalized or not. People under the influence of any mind altering drug tend to do stupid things and some of them eventually wind up in the hands of the law. Just because a drug is legal, does not mean that a user can escape from the dangers of drug addiction.
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