FAKE POT, REAL HIGH

Ban Targets 'Synthetic Marijuana'

DAYTONA BEACH -- Rob Smith reached to the floor behind his store's
front counter, pulled a thin, green packet from its box and dealt it
like a playing card on the glass.

"Anyone from bikers to lawyers to doctors," he said. "You'd be
surprised if you sat here for one day. I've had 67-year-old people
coming in here for this stuff. I've had people on chemo."

The "stuff" in the packet is Lux Stimulus, the newest brand of herbal
incense available at Pumpernickel Pops, a beachside smoke shop on
International Speedway Boulevard open since 1978. Smith, the new
owner of the store, keeps each packet stored out of sight, where a
customer has to specifically ask for one.

At least it's legal, though.

Late last month, the Drug Enforcement Administration announced plans
to outlaw certain substances used in what officials call "synthetic
marijuana" -- blends of chemical-sprayed herbs sold near the food
court in the Volusia Mall and in shops like Smith's all over the
country. Enforcement of the ban is scheduled to begin Friday, or 30
days after the government announced it.

Many brand-name incense blends -- K2, Spice, Blaze and Red X Dawn are
a few of the most popular -- will be outlawed for their banned ingredients.

But the teabag-sized packet of Lux -- featuring a bold sticker
bearing the words "NOT FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION" -- contains 3 grams of
blended leaves, roots and plant extracts that can elicit a high when
smoked. This is one route around the ban on "synthetic marijuana,"
and Smith said industrious chemists will find others by tweaking
chemical compounds and creating new, nonbanned ingredients.

"As much as they've amended the constitution," the 21-year-old owner
said with a smile, "there's still a little bit that lets us do what we want."

Emergency Ban

The DEA's emergency measure outlaws several brands of herbal incense
as Schedule I substances, in the same category as cocaine and heroin.
After a year, the agency will decide whether to make the ban permanent.

A dozen states already have enacted laws against "synthetic
marijuana," but Florida is not one of them.

"Makers of these harmful products mislead their customers into
thinking that fake pot is a harmless alternative to illegal drugs,
but that is not the case," DEA Acting Administrator Michele Leonhart
said. The ban, she said, "will call further attention to the risks of
ingesting unknown compounds and will hopefully take away any
incentive to try these products."

Officials at local schools and law enforcement agencies said incense
blends have not been an issue. But people who enter the drug court
system -- a program that offers reduced penalties for offenders who
undergo substance abuse treatment -- often use the blends to get
around mandatory drug tests, many of which don't detect the ingredients.

The blends are mostly sold online or in specialty shops. One local
supplier, the smoke shop Purple Haze on Atlantic Avenue, has a kiosk
set up in the Volusia Mall with several brands displayed for sale
behind glass. Prices are in the $30 range for about 3 grams.

"It's not the end of the world," store owner Yohan Cohen said of the
upcoming ban. "I'm sure the government has a good reason to ban it."

Cohen said he'll simply pull the incense from his shelves to obey the law.

Volusia Mall manager Wayne Bohl simply said any vendor leasing space
in the building "has to comply with the local, state and federal
laws, and so far, (Purple Haze) is in compliance."

At Pumpernickel Pops, Smith said he sold all his remaining inventory
of K2 or Spice to one customer. Then he ordered a shipment of the
new, more organic Lux to stay within the law -- which he still
doesn't agree with.

"I think the government has too much control over our lives," he
said. "I don't really think they should be able to tell us what we
can ingest and what we can't."

Roots in Science

The chemicals themselves started out innocently enough, in a research lab.

Clemson University chemist John W. Huffman developed the "JWH" series
of chemicals in 1995, while researching cannabinoids and the brain's
receptors for them.

"I would emphasize the risk people are taking when they smoke these
products," Huffman told The Daytona Beach News-Journal in an e-mail,
explaining that he never intended his research to wind up for sale in
a smoke shop. "We simply don't know what the health effects might be."

The brain's cannabinoid receptors, Huffman said, "don't (just) exist
so that people can smoke marijuana and get high," they also regulate
appetite, nausea, mood, pain and inflammation. They may be involved
in the development of osteoporosis, liver disease and some types of cancer.

"I want to stress that these (research) compounds were not meant for
human consumption," Huffman said. "Their effects in humans have not
been studied, and they could very well have toxic effects. They
absolutely should not be used as recreational drugs."

In another interview earlier this year, Huffman was more blunt.
"People who use it," he told The Associated Press, "are idiots."

A Substitute High

Incense use has not been a major issue for law enforcement in Volusia
or Flagler counties perhaps because it has been legal for years.

"We at the Sheriff's Office, we're not seeing it," said Volusia
County Sheriff's Office spokesman Brandon Haught.

It's a different story in the court system.

People who enter Volusia County Adult Drug Court -- a program for
offenders arrested on drug charges or who have a history of substance
abuse -- use the blends to get high and avoid detection on routine
drug tests, a condition of their treatment.

"They're using it to substitute their high," said Kathryn Clay,
director of adult outpatient treatment at Stewart-Marchman-Act
Behavioral Healthcare. "They're drug addicts, so they're going to try
to use something else. They're cheating themselves."

She said the synthetic drug is like being addicted to any type of
drug that gives mind-altering results, including the inability to
quit despite negative consequences.

Although the program is employing newly developed drug tests that can
detect a variety of substances, new chemicals are emerging just as fast.

State officials, for example, recently circulated an e-mail about
"Ivory Wave," a product marketed as bath salt that, when snorted,
smoked or swallowed, has effects similar to ecstasy or cocaine. Like
the K2 blends, Ivory Wave's most common active ingredients originated
as research drugs.

Clay said that one hasn't surfaced among drug court clients -- "not
yet," she said -- but the herbal blends are "extremely common," and a
ban is a long time coming.

"It's infested," Clay said of the synthetic movement. "It's become
really, it's just real bad."

Chemists 'A Step Ahead'

In the Volusia County school district, the rare student caught with
an herbal or synthetic blend might as well be caught with the real thing.

"It falls under our student code of conduct -- a toxic plant,"
district spokeswoman Nancy Wait said. "The definition for us is any
plant, tree or shrub that causes a mind-altering state." A student
who brings a "toxic plant" to school faces suspension, alternative
education, community service or even expulsion, Wait said.

But the incense itself has not been an issue over the past two years.

In neighboring Seminole County, the School Board held a lengthy
discussion Tuesday on K2 and "legal weed" and voted unanimously to
specifically ban it.

At his smoke shop, Smith said he has an 18-and-up policy and
generally doesn't allow children to set foot inside. While he doesn't
actually encourage anyone to smoke the incense marked "NOT FOR HUMAN
CONSUMPTION," he also doesn't believe in legislating the many
substances people choose to use.

"There's so many different chemicals, and the chemists are a step
ahead of the lawmakers, and it's never going to end," Smith said.
"It's kinda funny, man. We just all sit back and watch."