By: Lakeview Health
An article was recently written on a study done that showed 1 in 9 high school students are getting high off synthetic marijuana referred to as K2. The hazardous effects of this type of drug are just as bad, if not worse than good old THC. K2 is made in home labs where people add chemicals to leafy substances to induce the effects of a hallucinogen. Kids who smoke this drug report feeling high. The other side effects are paranoia, loss of consciousness, high blood pressure, vomiting and headaches. The article reports that an 18 year old was driving under the influence of alcohol and K2. He drove his truck into another kid who was standing next to his car, crushing him. It seems that synthetic marijuana is a growing epidemic and according to this article the rate of use is increasing along with marijuana use. Different states are trying to ban the chemicals used in making synthetic marijuana; however, the makers are finding new ways to change the chemical compounds and change the name of the chemical(s) to avoid the law and being banned. For example, K2 is now K3 and Spice is now Splice. The desperate attempts of kids getting high is leading them to ingest substances that are extremely harmful and the short term and long term side effects are still being researched. For these kids the gamble of getting high outweighs the damage that might possibly be done. Abuse of these new drugs must be treated the same as a marijuana addiction, they are not substitutes.
