POLICE NEED HELP CURBING THE SYNTHETIC WEED

FORT WAYNE -- With the help of a friend, a woman came into the Butler
Police Department's lobby one day last summer gasping for breath.

Her friend immediately placed her on the floor and frantically asked
officers to call an ambulance. The woman, described by Butler police
as in her early to mid-20s, wheezed as she said it felt as if an
elephant were sitting on her chest.

Later, medics and police learned she had been smoking synthetic
marijuana - a substance becoming popular among those who want to get
high legally and resistant to state lawmakers' attempts to eradicate
its sale, distribution and use.

"It's a massive problem in this area," Butler Police Chief Jim Nichols
said.

Though synthetic marijuana was banned by Indiana legislators last
year, the law outlawed only certain chemical compounds that go into
making such substances. Companies have already circumvented the ban by
coming up with new compounds not covered by the law.

But a bill being introduced in the General Assembly this year is
designed to widen the ban and, legislators hope, get rid of the "spice
problem" once and for all.

"We're trying to broaden our definition of what will be illegal," said
Sen. Dennis Kruse, R-Auburn, who said that he is helping with the
bill. "We're trying to ban compounds that produce the same effect on
the human body that marijuana does, to be more comprehensive."

Increase seen

Synthetic marijuana began making its way into the news about two years
ago, as products called "K2" or "Spice" began grabbing national headlines.

Those products, made from a chemical compound inadvertently invented
by a Clemson University professor nearly a decade ago, were being sold
in gas stations and specialty shops as incense but being used by
nearly all of their buyers as an alternative to marijuana.

Soon, news reports began circulating of people suffering from a
multitude of symptoms - such as headaches, dizziness, hallucinations
and even death.

Many states began banning the substances, including
Indiana.

But it didn't take long for companies manufacturing synthetic
marijuana, most of which are overseas, to change chemical compounds by
just one or two molecules, making them legal again.

Those in law enforcement and medicine caution that the long-term
effects of the substances are untested in humans, and the fact that
synthetic marijuana is labeled as incense allows companies to package
the product without listing ingredients.

Nichols, the Butler police chief, said he sees the substance
frequently and even three months ago had to deal with a naked man who
had smoked it and thought it would be a good idea to go outside in
30-degree weather.

"A lot of people are gambling with their health," Nichols said. "We've
seen an increase in medical runs here. People can't breathe, they
think they're having a heart attack or they're having an anxiety
attack. There've been several (traffic) accidents we feel can be
attributed to people smoking Spice."

This month, New Haven police found eight small jars of synthetic
marijuana in a woman's purse during a traffic stop. Fort Wayne police
detectives said they find the substance sporadically during various
cases, and Allen County sheriff's detectives report a definite
increase in the synthetic marijuana they see on the street.

A problem, though, arises when this happens: There's currently no
definite and reliable field test to determine whether the product
officers find is of the legal variety or the kind previously banned by
the legislature.

"It's legal," said Cpl. Jeremy Tinkel of the sheriff's department, who
said that he saw the product often while a school resource officer at
a local high school. "They've changed one molecule or whatever, and
you can't do anything about it."

Currently, the Indiana State Police lab in Fort Wayne has 50 to 60
samples of synthetic marijuana picked up by police agencies during a
multitude of cases in northeast Indiana. These samples, dating back to
June or July, are to be tested to see if they are legal or illegal
substances, according to Sgt. Ron Galaviz of the Indiana State Police.

Galaviz added those tests are at times delayed or pushed back to meet
higher priority cases.

Concerns voiced

Though many companies that make synthetic marijuana are listed as
overseas, one is right in Nichols' backyard.

Nathan Bowker, the co-owner of a store called Urban KAOS in Butler,
along with his brother, Nicholas Bowker, make and sell their own blend
of synthetic marijuana but list it, like most manufacturers, as an
incense-only product.

Nathan Bowker declined to comment for this story, but he told the Star
newspaper in DeKalb last month that he gears his product toward those
who want to get high.

"The whole market is for people who want to smoke marijuana, but they
can't," Bowker said in the newspaper. "I made it because there's a
market for it."

In a 2010 interview with The Journal Gazette, Nicholas Bowker said
that all his products were made with natural ingredients. He did not
condone smoking the products he made at the time but added that he
could not stop customers from using them however they wanted.

"Well, I'm sure there are people trying that, for sure," Bowker said
of people using his spices as alternatives to marijuana. "But that's
not what you're supposed to be doing with it."

Nichols said he asked the Bowkers to quit making their product. They
first agreed, Nichols said, but within weeks he heard they were
selling it in their store again. Soon afterward, Nichols went to Kruse
to voice his concern.

He wasn't the only one.

"Two police chiefs in my district, and a detective, met with me,"
Kruse said. "They think that several hundred people are taking this
'Spice' and bath salts, and it's a huge problem in DeKalb County."

Kruse said he hooked onto a bill being written and introduced by Sen.
Ron Alting, R-Lafayette, that deals mainly with bath salts, a drug
that many in law enforcement have likened to methamphetamine. But the
bill also aims to widen the ban to include not only known compounds
used to make synthetic marijuana, but compounds that resemble those
compounds.

Kruse said the bill has a provision banning any substance that tries
to mimic the effects of marijuana.

"It's actually hurting a lot of people and families," Kruse
said.

For Nichols, who said he's seen people of all ages across the
socio-economic map smoking the substance, he hopes this bill finally
stomps out the problem.

It's taken a toll on police and emergency responders, he said, who've
had to make extra runs to deal with people suffering from the
product's ill effects. And it in turn takes a toll on the taxpayers
who ultimately foot the bill for such runs, Nichols said.

And he's seen more and more people who have sons or daughters or other
relatives come to him in tears, distraught that they've found a loved
one smoking the substance.

"We're seeing the result of this," Nichols said. "It's destroying
families."