CANDIDATES, EX-USER WANT 'SPICE' HERB ILLEGAL

Derek McQueen pulled down the collar of his T-shirt, exposing two ugly
scars on his neck.

Those, the 21-year-old Greenfield man said, are the souvenirs of the
one terrible night when he stabbed himself in a paranoid delusion
sparked when he smoked "spice" -- the herb laced with synthetic
chemicals that make it more powerful than marijuana.

Spice is legal in Indiana, but McQueen joined a state representative
Wednesday to argue that it's time for the state to join at least eight
others in outlawing it.

State Rep. John Barnes, an Indianapolis Democrat, said that if
re-elected this November, he'll seek legislation to make synthetic
marijuana illegal, along with a long list of chemical compounds used
to make it.

Barnes said he had not heard of spice -- which is sold as incense
under brand names such as K2 -- until he read an Indianapolis Star
story about it earlier this year. Barnes, a teacher at Warren Central
High School, said he asked students what they knew about it. One
smiled and said he knew it was legal.

That, Barnes said, needs to change.

"All summer long, we've had case after case of kids using this
substance," he said. "Instead of it having an experience similar to
marijuana, it's similar to speed. It speeds up the heartbeat. It
causes palpitations, hallucinations, delusions."

In some cases, he said, it's even caused death.

McQueen said he doesn't smoke marijuana or cigarettes. But about four
months ago, when a friend suggested he try spice, he did.

"In about 15 minutes, I was just on fire," he said. "I just wanted it
to stop. I was paranoid. Didn't know what to do, so I ran to the
kitchen, grabbed a sharp object and tried to end it all."

His mother, Annette Emge, said she heard her son yelling, "Make it
stop." She found him bleeding on the floor. If she hadn't have been
home, she said, he would have died.

When she learned the substance he'd smoked was legal, Emge said, she
felt "outrage."

"It needs to be banned so no other parent has to go through what I
went through."

Indiana has the largest number of reported cases involving spice in
the United States, according to Julie Saetre, a spokeswoman with
Drug-Free Marion County. As of June 30, 41 cases involving youths 6 to
19 with adverse effects from spice were reported to the Indiana Poison
Center. An additional 25 cases involved adults older than 19.

"As it gets more attention, it is still legal, and people want to try
it out. . . . They want to experiment, they think it's legal and so
they say, 'Why not?' " Saetre said.

Barnes and Democratic legislative candidate John Voorhies, who joined
him at the news conference, said that until it is banned, they will
encourage retailers not to sell spice. Standing near a Marathon gas
station where he'd just purchased K2, Barnes noted they were only a
few blocks from Beech Grove High School.

While spice is marketed as incense, he said, it was sold alongside
cigarette papers.

"If this is incense that's not for human consumption, and you're
selling it with rolling papers right under it, that's what we call a
wink and a nod," Barnes said.

Raj Choudhari, manager of the gas station, said he won't voluntarily
take the product from his shelves. It's too big of a seller, he said.

But, he said, if the government makes it illegal, "we'll just quit
selling it."

Barnes said the only opposition he knows of to making spice illegal
comes from those making money from selling it. But Chris Spangle,
executive director of the Libertarian Party in Indiana, questioned the
wisdom of creating another drug crime.

"After 40 years, the war on drugs has been a miserable failure," he
said, saying it merely fills up prisons without changing behavior.

Still, T.J. Thompson, a Libertarian candidate for Congress, said he'd
support making spice illegal.

Thompson said he sells it in the two Check Masters stores his family
owns in Franklin and Shelbyville. He'd voluntarily stop, he said, "if
it is pinned down that this stuff is causing these effects."

And, he said, he'd support banning it "as long as they do it in a
purely legal and constitutional way" with a "legitimate base and
reasoning behind it."

Cindy Kirchhofer, the Republican running against Barnes for the House
District 89 seat, said she supported making spice illegal. But, she
said, "I don't think it's a top priority right now. I think education
and how we are going to make a budget work in 2011 is much more important."

Republican state Rep. Phil Hinkle, whom Voorhies is challenging for
the House District 92 seat, could not be reached for comment.