Pot or Not?

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Pot . . .

Or Not?

By Corey Hutchins

Synthetic Compound Tempts Smokers, Confounds Experts

It

was on the Friday that Free Times editor Dan Cook took off for a weeklong vacation in California that the rest of the paper’s editorial staff decided to call a rather unconventional cover story meeting. Upstairs, in a conference-space loft area, we kicked off the discussion by passing around an orange glass “tobacco pipe” and a yellow Bic lighter. We were on a mission: Everybody was going to get as absolutely baked-out, Bob Marleyhigh as humanly possible.

Photo by Jonathan Sharpe

coverstory

Whoa, whoa, chill with the blue lights and cop sirens in your head, reader; we weren’t smoking pot — well, OK, maybe we should take that back. Could be it’s all in how you define it, right? Wait, I’m kinda getting off on a tangent here, sorry. Damn … I’m, ah … yeah, I’m freakin’ high-eye-eye.

Before we go any further, let’s go back to the beginning. For the record, I don’t think I’m high anymore. I hope not anyway — I just got off the phone with a cop. Did he know? Does everybody know? Man, I should get a glass of water. OK, backing up now; where were we? Right.

For several months, an apparently new form of over-the-counter, brain-bending substance has been popping up across the country on a mind-altering mission to make it into nearly every alternative weekly paper before the year is out. It’s called “Spice” or “K2” or “Pep-pourri” — or by a dozen or so

other names — but basically they’re all the same. It’s legal weed, and it pretty much does the trick: It. Gets. You. Stoned.

Straight Outta Clemson

For years, companies advertised the sale of faux marijuana in the back pages of magazines like High Times, but the products were notoriously bunk. It might have looked like killer bud, but stuff known as “Wizard Smoke” or the like would never actually get you high.

The new stuff sweeping the country, though, is different — it has science behind it. And coincidentally enough, that science came out of a research lab in the heart of South Carolina.

In the summer of 1995, an undergraduate student working in a Clemson University laboratory found out a way to synthesize THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana that affects the brain’s chemistry in a way that gives you the giggles, bakes your cake or whatever metaphor you like that basically says you’re chillin’ like Bob Dylan on Amoxicillin.

The synthetic compound used in much of the legal weed these days is known as JWH-018 and is named after the initials of one John W. Huffman, a Clemson University organic chemist out of whose lab the phony weed phenomenon was born.

For the past year, Huffman has found himself overcome with media inquiries ever since his JWH-018 compound started showing up in the commercial market in products all over the country and making news headlines. In a recent email to Free Times, Huffman says he’s stopped responding to individual requests except from certain media outlets and professionals who work in July 7-13, 2010 | free-times.com

drug abuse or law enforcement.

But he offered some background on how all of this seems to have gotten so out of hand.

“The compound was prepared in connection with our research investigating the relationship between chemical structure and biological activity for the indole class of cannabinoids,” he writes in the kind of esoteric technical-speak of a true scientist. And as far as we know, he wasn’t stoned when he wrote it.

“The compound was first disclosed in a paper in 1998,” he writes.

Inside the Hunter Laboratories on the Clemson University campus in Anderson County, it wasn’t like anyone was actually getting high for science (except maybe a few mice that were euthanized shortly afterwards). Huffman, however, offers a terse warning to those looking to fire up the synthetic compound for a good time.

“People who use it are idiots,” he told the Associated Press in February when talking about users who smoke products laced with synthetic THC. In his email to Free Times, Huffman says there just aren’t any valid, peer-reviewed studies about the effects of the compound in humans, nor any data regarding its toxicity.

He was more blunt in a previous interview with WebMD. “It is like Russian roulette to use these drugs,” he said. “We don’t know a darn thing about them for real.”

Also in his email to Free Times, he emphasized that the compound was not designed to be a super-THC. “It is simply one of many compounds synthesized by my group and others for the purpose of investigating the relationship between chemical structure and biological activity,” Huffman wrote. “It should absolutely not be used as a recreational drug.”

Who’s Got the Goods?

Apparently, companies using the compound in their products do so by spraying it onto an organic, ingestible substance and then packaging it for sale as incense to be sold in stores. And despite Huffman’s warning, many people around the country are using it as a recreational drug — even in the Capital City.

Imitation marijuana can be purchased online via several varieties, but local stores that sell it often black out the web addresses on the products so buyers don’t try and get it cheaper off the Internet. As for bricksand-mortar establishments that sling Spice around here, there are a few, but they might be getting fewer and fewer.

The College Mart in Five Points, for instance, couldn’t keep enough of a product called “Gonjah” on the shelf in recent months because it was selling out. For $20, you could buy 1 gram that came in a small plastic canister with a picture of a lion on it with a tail the color of the Jamaican flag. And that stuff got you high. free-times.com | July 7-13, 2010

Photo by Jonathan Sharpe

Around midnight on a recent Thursday, an employee of a telecommunications company was smoking a freshly rolled joint of Gonjah behind a bar in Five Points for the first time. His company makes him take random drug tests for his job, he says, so he hasn’t smoked real marijuana in a while.

The legal weed doesn’t show up on drug tests, according to Alicia Anderson, the director of drug court at the Lexington Richland Alcohol and Drug Council, now known as LRADAC. Anderson says she’s been hearing a lot about synthetic marijuana, especially in the past two weeks.

“Some of our clients have been using it,” she says. “They smoke it; it’s like the same

synthetic pot.

Back behind the bar in Five Points, the effects of the Gonjah were starting to take hold.

“I like it,” the smoker said of the legal weed, taking deep pulls and passing the joint. “I can definitely feel it.”

Later, after he’d gone home and smoked the rest of it the following day, this time sober, he said he felt it shared similar effects of the real marijuana, but didn’t have the staying power.

A 33-year-old Columbia photographer also sampled some of a similar product recently, this one called Pep-pourri, also bought locally in town. One gram cost about

“People who use it are idiots.”

— Clemson University organic chemist John W. Huffman, whose lab synthesized the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, THC, as part of a study in 1995 effects of smoking marijuana; it’s just undetectable on a drug screen. I don’t think it’s something that’s been studied or that there’s been enough research on it. It’s fairly new to the drug trade.”

In other words, for those wishing to keep their jobs and still burn one down, switching out the synthetic for the real stuff would definitely do the trick — as long as you aren’t worried about any possible long-term effects, of course.

For Anderson, though, there’s a big drawback for workers at LRADAC who are trying to help clients complete successful treatments. The truth is, she says, it could look like they’ve had a positive outcome, but the whole time been getting high on

$30. After a solid bong hit and three tokes off a pipe, he said he could feel an effect coming on — but not one as strong as regular pot.

“It did help my hangover, though,” he said. He took another monster hit, held it in for a while, and blew it out. He sat for a minute then shrugged.

Talking about the experience later, he thought about it for a moment before answering.

“On a scale of Bonnaroo to Thailand … it’s like the Three Rivers Music Festival,” he said and laughed. He wasn’t too impressed.

The list of ingredients in Gonjah sounds like a Harry Potter spell: Colt’s Foot, Mugwort, Scullcap and Siberian Motherwort, among others. It doesn’t list JWH-018

anywhere and the product is advertised as “herbal incense.” In big capital letters on the side of the canister it reads, “Not for human consumption.” It also bills itself as all natural.

You can get it in several flavors, like apple and peach.

Despite the warnings and disclaimer that it’s only supposed to be used to make a room smell nice, behold the product’s slogan: “Just a bit and you’re … Gonjah.”

College Mart used to have a large sign on its door and another one on the counter advertising that it sold Gonjah. Not anymore. Several weeks ago, they abruptly quit selling it.

“They outlawed it,” said one store clerk recently, when asked where all the Gonjah had gone. She added that other stores around town still sell products like it, though.

In fact, the product has not been outlawed in South Carolina. Another College Mart clerk said she didn’t know if they were just out of it for the day or if it was gone-jah for good.

“I don’t know what’s going on with it,” she said on the phone, sounding a bit annoyed.

Local Deadhead-type stores Natural Vibrations and Loose Lucy’s in Five Points say they don’t sell any of the legal weed products. An employee of Loose Lucy’s said it might have something to do with a franchise agreement; there are also Loose Lucy’s stores in Charleston, Savannah, Hilton Head and Myrtle Beach. The owner wasn’t available; he was on a three-day tour following the jam band Phish.

Disorderly Conduct on Harden Street, however, does sell products that will get you high. It is, in fact, where Free Times scored most of its stash. They used to sell K2, the most well-known variety of “fake weed,” but cut it out about six months ago after a

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newspaper article started circulating around about it, according to one employee. They do sell Pep-pourri, although the employee insisted it was incense only.

Colorful bags of Pep-pourri about the size of a condom wrapper accompany plastic canisters of Gonjah in a glass display case near the register. A different store clerk said they started selling the product about a year ago, but only recently started doing brisk business with it.

Like most employees familiar with the linguistic dance involved with selling similar paraphernalia, those at Disorderly Conduct appear schooled in the art of innuendo.

At American head shops in areas where the laws are murky about the sale of merchandise commonly used to smoke pot, certain words are often banned. Ask if a store sells “bowls” or “bongs” and you’re likely to get kicked out. The glass pipes are for “tobacco use only,” or the term “water pipe” will also work.

When Free Times bought its bag of Pep-pourri, the store clerk that night was careful when answering questions about the product. All he’d say, with a smile, was that it would be worth the money.

According to one longtime marijuana user who tested the Pep-pourri recently, the store clerk might have been onto something.

The 33-year-old employee of a local bar was impressed with it and says it has similar effects of traditional marijuana, but not in toto. He’s used to smoking pretty good reefer,

He pointed to the Pink Panther baggy and nodded his head conspiratorially when asked if it was like the real thing.

On a recent Saturday, a local restaurant worker who has smoked marijuana consistently for about 30 years was puffing on a pipe of K2-like Spice bought at the head shop. It was his first time trying it.

He said he didn’t feel anything, but admitted he’d smoked real marijuana before work earlier that day.

“It’s like Mexican brown weed,” he said of the Spice product. “For thirty bucks a gram, I’d go with the real stuff.”

Another marijuana user who works in the graphic design field said the Spice product was definitely similar to pot, after recently trying it for the first time. She said it made her scalp tingle. She grinned.

“I might buy some on the way home,” she said, impressed.

Cops Know About It

Sergeant Melron Kelley works with the narcotics unit at the Columbia Police Department and says he first heard about a legal alternative to marijuana around this time last year.

So far, the department has fielded only one complaint that he knows about: a mother overhearing her kid talking about trying to buy some online.

“We don’t have a law saying that it’s ille-

“It is simply one of many compounds synthesized by my group and others for the purpose of investigating the relationship between chemical structure and biological activity … It should absolutely not be used as a recreational drug.”

— John Huffman

he admits, so his opinion could be biased. It was the first time he’d ever tried it.

“It would be good in a pinch,” he says, like if his dealer couldn’t come through one night. “It would be good emergency weed.”

But Pep-pourri is like a candy cigarette compared to actual K2-like products, which are sold in at least one area head shop. For $30 a gram you can score a rather dubiouslooking baggy with the Pink Panther’s face on it. The “Spice” sold there, however, doesn’t list any ingredients at all on the package, nor are there any warnings not to consume the product. According to an employee who didn’t want to be named, it’s super potent.

The employee says K2 is a brand name and that the entire genre of legal weed goes by the term “Spice.” The employee smirked when asked about Pep-pourri and Gonjah.

“Incense,” he said.

gal,” Kelley says of the product. He adds that Georgia does. “Of course, we haven’t caught up to them,” he says.

For Kelley, though, it’s not something he would consider a serious problem in Columbia. Crack cocaine — that’s a problem.

“Heroin,” he says, “we’re seeing a lot of heroin.”

Young people between the ages of 15 and 24 certainly might be buying legal weed, but what they’re abusing around here mostly are prescription drugs, Kelley says.

“They’ll just go see what grandma or grandpa is taking and they’ll dump it out at a party and take it,” he says. “They call it a pill party. We’re seeing a lot of that.”

According to what Kelley’s been told, the chemical compound that’s sprayed on the leaves causes what he calls “some type of euJuly 7-13, 2010 | free-times.com

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phoric high similar to marijuana.” He says chemists at the federal Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) have been getting reports from throughout the state about parents calling with inquiries about how dangerous it is or the legality of the product.

But “as far as it being a widespread problem, we’re just not seeing it in the street and in public,” Kelley says. He says if someone was caught with it they’d do a chemical field test and if it didn’t show up as THC they’d have to let them go, unless they failed a sobriety test while driving.

“We’re testing for THC,” he says. “That [product] is giving you a THC-type effect on your brain but the chemical bodies aren’t there.”

Bottom line for Sgt. Kelley?

“We really need to lobby our legislators and be ahead of the curve as it relates to getting this thing illegal if it’s having a harmful effect on our kids,” he says.

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With our boss gone for the week, three Free Times staffers decided to try some of the stuff and see how the rest of the workday went. We took notes and conferred with each other about the effects.

According to written notes and a tape recording of our pseudo-psychedelic session, at least one of us admitted to being “real high” within three minutes of taking the first hit. Though we all felt stoned, our eyes never got red like they would with real pot.

Nor did any of us get the munchies. We did, however, get the classic “cotton mouth” that most pot smokers often complain of. One of us complained of an elevated heart rate and sweaty palms, while another complained of being wracked with nervous energy. Two of us felt paranoid.

Fifteen minutes later, one of us said, “OK, I can definitively say I’m high now, because I have literally looked at my phone and said to myself ‘OK, what am I doing again?’ probably three times.”

All of us said we would rather not drive after smoking it but might if we had to.

Other effects we experienced similar to real marijuana: loss of concentration (it took one of us multiple times to dial a correct phone number), trouble text messaging, irresponsibility (one of us missed a meeting) and finding it hard to get work done.

Two hours later, we all agreed that the effects of the synthetic pot didn’t last as long as real marijuana would. It also made us all feel pretty irritable after a while. One of us got a

headache. All said and done, none of us enjoyed the experience and all agreed we would probably not do it again.

The legal weed gives the smoker more of a body buzz than a cerebral high like real marijuana does. And along with the tidal waves of paranoia some of us felt, was the looming possibility that what we’d just inhaled could be a potentially toxic chemical.

“So if I grow another arm out of my back in 20 years, we’ll know why,” one of us remarked.

Will It Stay Legal?

Because of the possible heath risks, legal weed has been legislated out of some states and is banned in several countries in Europe.

One state senator Free Times recently spoke with about the product said he wasn’t familiar with it. He examined the product but declined a toke.

“I wouldn’t do it, but I’m not against it,” he said.

Lawmakers in Kansas, Kentucky, Alabama, Georgia, Missouri and Tennessee have voted to ban imitation marijuana, while legislators in Illinois, Louisiana, Michigan, New Jersey and New York are considering bills to outlaw the drug, according to a May story in USA Today.

Poison Centers across the country have reported more than 350 cases in 35 states, according to Anthony Scalzo, director of the Missouri Poison Center in St. Louis. He says patients often complained of a rapid heart rate, dangerously high blood pressure and paranoia.

Captain Rocky Senn, a narcotics officer with the Richland County Sheriff ’s Department, says use of legal weed around here might not be widespread enough to have gotten the attention of the Legislature.

Like Kelley, Senn says the major drug problem in Columbia is crack cocaine.

But since Spice products are so far legal in South Carolina, the drug could cause headaches for officers not familiar with it when detaining suspects on suspicion of smoking marijuana. Senn himself admits he’s never smelled it burning.

“Most of the officers on the street have some experience knowing what marijuana looks like and smells like,” he says.

Regardless of whether legal weed remains so in the Palmetto State, the bigger question is how far people will go to catch a buzz even when they know they might doing whoknows-what to their bodies in the process.

As for the Free Times staffers who chose not to worry about it, we might not have set the best example.

But no matter what you think about it, as Captain Rocky Senn says, “It’s not making you any smarter or better looking.”

Let us know what you think: Email editor@free-times.com.

July 7-13, 2010 | free-times.com