Synthetic Marijuana Popular Among Nation's Youth

In December MMC blogged about the rise of synthetic marijuana known as "K-2" or "Spice" among the nation's youth. The synthetic marijuana is a mixture of common herbs sprayed with synthetic chemicals that mirror the high of marijuana.  Smoking the synthetic marijuana does not result in a positive drug test.  A recent report out of Iowa sheds more light on the dangers of "K2" and how little the public still knows about the substance. 18 year old David Rozga had apparently been smoking the synthetic marijuana prior to his own suicide. David's father believes that K2 led to his son’s death. Indianola police chief, Steve Bonnett, had commented on the incident by saying, "David had a severe panic attack after smoking K2, which resulted in his death.”

The synthetic product is sold as incense in head shops, tobacco stores, gas stations, malls and convenient stores. So far, twelve states have banned the sale of Synthetic Marijuana - (Kansas, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, Missouri, Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, Oregon, Illinois, Michigan, and Kentucky). The American Association of Poison Control Centers reported that within the past year there have been over 500 cases of negative reactions to the still legal yet dangerous drug.

Jay Schauben, Director of the Florida Poison Control Center says, "It’s a danger to anybody who thinks this is a legal way to get high without being caught.” Schauben added, “The possible side effects include significant hallucination, cardiac effects, seizures, rapid heart rate, hypertension, severe agitation, passing out, and panic attacks.”

On the national level the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) recently designated certain chemicals that are present within Synthetic Marijuana to the same drug category that heroin and LSD are part of and further emphasizes the need to be able to test blood and urine for Synthetic Marijuana use.

Pittsburgh based Mobile Medical Corporation (MMC) with offices nationwide, offers a vast array of compatible screening solutions designed to meet any Drug Free Workplace initiative nationwide. MMC's certified collection technicians all pass a rigorous DATIA training course. MMC partners with the largest accredited laboratories in the nation which allows us to truly be involved from start to finish on every drug test we perform for our clients. All of Mobile Medical Corporation's laboratory partners are certified by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) to meet all strict government requirements.