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March 19th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda MONDAY, March 19 (HealthDay News) — The recent advent of
so-called “synthetic pot” is a rising public health concern, researchers
warn, sending kids to the emergency room and prompting parental calls to
poison control centers.
The concoction was originally conceived in a laboratory setting as a
research aid for animal studies involving THC, a key stimulative
ingredient in marijuana, the new report noted.
But purely recreational street use of this widely varying mix of plants
and herbal ingredients is growing. It’s widely available and is currently
undetectable by commercial drug tests.
“The concern is that we’re going to really see this grow in
popularity,” said study author Dr. Joanna Cohen, an assistant professor of
pediatrics and emergency medicine at Children’s National Medical Center,
in Washington, D.C. “Because it’s really easy to get, and because kids
know that it doesn’t come back on typical clinically useful urine drug
screenings that we would use in an ER.”
According to the American Association of Poison Control Centers,
roughly 4,500 calls have come in since 2010 regarding toxicity stemming
from synthetic marijuana use.
The new study appears online March 19 and in the April issue of
Pediatrics.
Commonly referred to by a host of street names — such as “K2,” “Spice”
and “Aroma” — synthetic pot isn’t made according to a fixed recipe and
can differ from lab to lab and batch to batch.
The resulting product often includes some combination of blue and pink
lotus, red clover, honey, vanilla, bay bean and marshmallow.
The blend — which can be ingested either orally or via smoke
inhalation — is sprayed with chemicals that render the composition
toxic.
Until recently, these synthetic mixtures were legal to purchase and
readily available in corner stores and gas stations throughout the United
States and on the Internet. In February, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency
classified synthetic marijuana as a controlled substance.
That, Cohen cautioned, has done little to slow its popularity.
And because of it’s strong impact on cannabinoid brain receptors, as
little as 1 milligram of synthetic marijuana can be intoxicating, the
study said. The impact can be stronger than that with naturally grown
marijuana, sometimes prompting bouts of paranoia, anxiety, agitation, high
blood pressure, profuse sweating, palpitations, irritability, muscle
rigidity and, at times, convulsions.
The researchers noted that when users seek medical attention, the
varied composition of synthetic pot can make it hard to quickly pinpoint
the most dangerous ingredient.
Individual symptoms are usually short-lived, the researchers said, and
treatment is available to help control some of the reactions.
In their report, Cohen and her team describe three case examples of
teenaged patients who were hospitalized after using the drug, one girl and
two boys.
Overall, the patients demonstrated varying degrees of catatonia, an
inability to respond to verbal or physical stimulation — including
pain — an elevated heart rate, agitation and anxiety, dizziness,
headaches, excessive sweating, slowed speech, and confusion.
Two of the patients recovered normal function in three to four hours,
while the third patient was kept in hospital overnight before being
released.
“What’s important with this is that parents and schools are aware that
this is out there,” Cohen said. “And that they look for signs and symptoms
of use. If you see a teen who’s agitated, sweating a lot, or acting
abnormally in some way it could, of course, be a sign of a serious medical
problem, or it could be a sign of drug toxicity. Either way you need to
seek medical attention right away.”
“The long-term the goal should be to prevent repeat use,” she added,
“because these kids are kids. They’re teenagers and their brains are still
developing. So there can be long-term effects, like psychosis and memory
loss, from the use of something like synthetic marijuana.”
Steven Shoptaw, a clinical psychologist and a professor in the
department of family medicine at the University of California, Los
Angeles, suggested that while current concerns surrounding synthetic pot
use have some merit, they are dwarfed by the enormous popularity of real
marijuana among teens.
“Because [synthetic marijuana] is a relatively new drug, the surveys
that measure and monitor drug use in children over time haven’t had a
chance to look at this yet, so we don’t know how big a problem this is
across the country,” he said.
“But what we do know is that the prevalence of marijuana use among
eighth, ninth and tenth graders is very, very high,” Shoptaw said. “And I
would say that that’s a much greater problem than ‘Spice’ use. Marijuana
is actually way more available to teens, and it is very rich in potent
THC. And that, as the authors point out, can pose a lot of problems for
developing brains.”
More information
For more on marijuana, synthetic and “natural,” visit the U.S. National Library of Medicine.
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