DAYS OF 'LEGAL POT' COULD BE NUMBERED IN BALTIMORE COUNTY

County Council Member Talks Up K2 Ban

The Peace of Sunshine store off the main drag in Catonsville has
lately been making more than half its weekly sales in K2, a "legal
pot" known also as "spice." But owner Lawrence J. Zwick says he has
sold his last bag. As soon as he heard Monday morning that Baltimore
County might make it a crime to sell the smokable leaf, he says, he
packed up his inventory of two boxes and shipped it back to the distributor.

"Oh, I'm going to miss it," said Zwick, a 44-year-old retired Coast
Guard warrant officer who for four years has owned the the store
specializing in T-shirts, jewelry, incense and hookahs. "But I'd
rather run a legitimate business than not running a business at all."

Minutes before, Kevin Kamenetz, a member of the County Council, had
wrapped up a news conference across the street announcing his plans
to introduce a bill next month making it illegal to sell, distribute,
possess, buy or use K2, or any product with chemical compounds that
are known to mimic the effects of marijuana. The bill proposes
penalties of $500 fine, 60 days in jail or both.

The potpourri-like product appeared in the United States about a year
ago, and has already been banned in several states in the Midwest and
across Europe. Ocean City Police Chief Bernadette A. DiPino says
local shops there have been cooperating with her written request in
June to voluntarily take K2 off the shelves.

The product sells in plastic bags for about $20 a gram. That's nearly
six times the price of marijuana, according to Agent Donny Moses of
the Baltimore Police Department.

Kamenetz, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for county
executive, said K2 "has become an issue for parents in this area. .
If the state is not going to act, if the federal government won't
act, local government" has to step in, he said, to "protect our kids
and help our parents do a better job."

A former Baltimore prosecutor, Kamenetz says he got wind of the issue
recently when a Catonsville newspaper did a story about K2 being sold
in the area. He couldn't say how widespread the product is in stores
in the county.

Susan Flaherty of Catonsville was troubled about the newspaper
article that focused on Zwick's store, especially because she has two
teenage sons.

"For them to be able to go into a local shop and buy this, it's
ridiculous," said Flaherty. She said as far as she knows, her sons
have not tried K2 - she said they hadn't heard of it until she spoke
to them to warn them away from the stuff.

Zwick, who has two children of his own, says he's been selling K2
since January, and it's gotten up to $4,000 and $5,000 a week in
sales. He said the customers are from "all age ranges," and he never
sells to anyone under 18.

Kamenetz emphasizes reported side effects, including racing
heartbeat, high blood pressure, nausea, vomiting and headaches. He
called K2 a "fairly dangerous drug."

Jessica Wehrman, a spokesman for the American Association of Poison
Centers, says the country's 60 poison centers have received 1,018
calls about K2 this year. As a comparison, in 2008, the most recent
year for which complete statistics are available, Wehrman says
over-the-counter and prescription painkillers accounted for more than
331,000 calls.

Dr. Bruce Anderson, operations director at the Maryland Poison
Center, says the center has received few calls about K2. Anderson
said he was not dismissing the potential danger of K2, but he said
many of the reports about the ill effects of K2 are "consistent with
anxiety" reactions that could have more to do with user's
psychological state than the substance itself. It's hard to know, he
says, because it's hard to know what the ingredients are.

"It's not even regulated at all," said Anderson. "Who knows what it is?"