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InvisibleveggieM

Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 17,538
Attempts to Ban Fake Marijuana Are Further Proof of Prohibition's Failure
    #13246515 - 09/25/10 07:44 PM (13 years, 7 months ago)

Attempts to Ban Fake Marijuana Are Further Proof of Prohibition's Failure
September 25, 2010 - Huffington Post

Perhaps as early as next week, Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm is expected to sign a series of bills that would outlaw K2 -- one of several names given to synthetic cannabinoids ("fake marijuana") that are sprayed onto different herbs and sold legally in smoke shops across the country.

Such products are labeled "not for human consumption," but people use them anyway, because, when smoked, they can mimic the effects of marijuana, but they don't show up on drug tests. More importantly, unlike marijuana, K2 is legal to buy -- though perhaps not for long. In just six months, 13 different states have moved to ban the substance, fueled primarily by reports of K2's adverse health effects. With Granholm's signature, Michigan would become the 14th.

At first glance, these actions might appear to be a reasonable way to protect the public from a dangerous substance. But -- as I'll explain -- they're really just a testament to the folly of our nation's marijuana laws.

First, some background: K2 was created in 1995 by John Huffman, a chemistry professor at Clemson University who was researching the effects of cannabinoids, marijuana's unique, active components. Only in the last year has it become widely available and used by consumers. Now, the effects of K2 might indeed be exaggerated in order to further demonize the substance (as a marijuana reformer, I'm all too familiar with this phenomenon), but papers across the country have published reports of K2 users suffering from accelerated heart rates and increased blood pressure, sometimes even ending up in the emergency room.

It's unclear whether these reactions are caused by the substance itself, or the various herbal concoctions that vendors spray it on. What is clear, however, is that natural, whole-plant (aka, "real") marijuana has no such adverse effects on users. In fact, a recent study from the University of Michigan showed that marijuana leads to fewer emergency room admissions than virtually any other legal or illegal drug.

Put more simply, our country's insane prohibition on marijuana -- a safe, non-toxic, and well-studied drug -- is now leading consumers to experiment with lesser-known, and potentially much more dangerous, alternatives.

Professor Huffman himself has said that people who use K2 are "idiots." But are they? Being arrested and convicted for marijuana possession can bring life-long consequences, such as the loss of a job or financial aid for college. Using K2 comes with no negative consequences -- except, perhaps, to one's health.

All this K2 nonsense is simply one more reason -- alongside more important issues like sensible law enforcement, personal liberty, racial justice, and potential tax revenue -- why America needs a legal, regulated marijuana market. Whereas the full health effects of K2 are largely unknown because they haven't been studied, marijuana is perhaps the most studied plant in history -- one that a former DEA judge once called "one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man." In a regulated market, consumers would know exactly what they're purchasing and putting into their bodies. This is not the case when somebody buys K2 -- or one of its various knockoffs -- that's been sprayed onto some mystery plant matter.

I don't have a solid opinion one way or the other as to whether K2 should be banned or regulated like other drugs. But I do know this: The only reason anyone uses K2 and not marijuana is because K2 is legal and marijuana is not. It's as simple as that. Make marijuana legal, and few, if any, consumers will waste their time seeking out K2.

It's for this reason that K2 bans are misguided, because they don't address the core issue: millions of Americans want to use marijuana, or something that will mimic its effects, and if they're afraid about illegal means of doing so, they will continue to seek out legal alternatives. In fact, the Associated Press has reported that in states where K2 has been banned, merchants have simply changed its name, altered its chemical makeup slightly, and continued to sell it to customers. That's right: people in those states are now seeking legal alternatives to the legal alternative to marijuana. And round and round we go.

Californians will have a unique chance to end this lunacy once and for all this November, when they vote on Proposition 19, which would allow adults to grow and possess -- and localities to regulate -- natural, whole-plant marijuana. If Prop. 19 does pass, I have a feeling there won't be much of a market for K2 in the Golden State.

Oh, and just for kicks, what does Huffman, the creator of K2, think about attempts to ban it?

"It's not going to be effective," he told the AP. "Is the ban on marijuana effective?"

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InvisibleSimplepowa
In Pursuit of Knowledge


Registered: 03/06/09
Posts: 4,310
Re: Attempts to Ban Fake Marijuana Are Further Proof of Prohibition's Failure [Re: veggie]
    #13246583 - 09/25/10 08:04 PM (13 years, 7 months ago)

Quote:


Oh, and just for kicks, what does Huffman, the creator of K2, think about attempts to ban it?

"It's not going to be effective," he told the AP. "Is the ban on marijuana effective?"




Huffman is surely a funny character.

:smirk:


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Carl Sagan - "Who are we? We find that we live on an insignificant planet of a humdrum star lost in a galaxy tucked away in some forgotten corner of a universe in which there are far more galaxies than people."

---

Robert Pirsig - "When one person suffers from a delusion it is called insanity. When many people suffer from a delusion it is called religion."

---

Brian Cox - "[One] problem with today’s world is that everyone believes they have the right to express their opinion AND have others listen to it. The correct statement of individual rights is that everyone has the right to an opinion, but crucially, that opinion can be roundly ignored and even made fun of, particularly if it is demonstrably nonsense."

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Offlineskatealex2
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Registered: 07/04/08
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Re: Attempts to Ban Fake Marijuana Are Further Proof of Prohibition's Failure [Re: Simplepowa]
    #13246983 - 09/25/10 09:54 PM (13 years, 7 months ago)

Prohibition :ilold:

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Offlineskatealex2
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Re: Attempts to Ban Fake Marijuana Are Further Proof of Prohibition's Failure [Re: skatealex2]
    #13247212 - 09/25/10 10:39 PM (13 years, 7 months ago)

It's not really funny though. Prohibtion is total bullshit

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Invisibledarius33
Cogito Ergo Nom

Folding@home Statistics
Registered: 04/04/09
Posts: 129
Re: Attempts to Ban Fake Marijuana Are Further Proof of Prohibition's Failure [Re: skatealex2]
    #13247414 - 09/25/10 11:51 PM (13 years, 7 months ago)

I agree that prohibition isn't funny. However, prohibitionists are. No matter how much evidence piles up that all they are doing is harming our society they continue to bull forward in their (delusion)ignorance.

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InvisibleAnastomosisJihad
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Registered: 01/01/08
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Loc: Ohio
Re: Attempts to Ban Fake Marijuana Are Further Proof of Prohibition's Failure [Re: skatealex2]
    #13247473 - 09/26/10 12:13 AM (13 years, 7 months ago)

It blows my mind that the politicians are so stupid with these bans. It's not like the K2 people had to go out and invent something new to get around the ban, they just pulled another chem off the shelf and moved on. I'm sure new molecules will come along. I'm sure there are very bright and industrious people working on them right now. But all the state laws only ban a handful of molecules. There are so many known replacements available, why ban just three? Did they not know about the others? Why didn't somebody's staff member say "Hey Mr. Governor, This ban will not work because there are other legal cannabinoids currently on the market."? Why didn't some congressman inform his colleagues of the gaping hole in the legislation? 

I bet a lot of them knew about the other cannabinoids, but they wanted to look tough on crime and take an anti-drug stance -for the children-. They knew the law would be ineffective, but few want the flack that would come with being on record as against the ban. Either that or politicians really are uninformed about these things. It's hard take them seriously if the latter is the case. It's one thing to chose getting high as your enemy, and to fight against it with all your power, but it is quite another to flail around with the sword of legislation, not knowing who or what your enemy is.


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InvisibleSykey
Oscar2dope
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Registered: 04/09/05
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Re: Attempts to Ban Fake Marijuana Are Further Proof of Prohibition's Failure [Re: veggie]
    #13247657 - 09/26/10 01:26 AM (13 years, 7 months ago)

Quote:

veggie said:
Put more simply, our country's insane prohibition on marijuana -- a safe, non-toxic, and well-studied drug -- is now leading consumers to experiment with lesser-known, and potentially much more dangerous, alternatives.




Amen

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OfflineAsAboveSoBelow
The matrix has you


Registered: 02/06/08
Posts: 2,515
Last seen: 12 years, 7 months
Re: Attempts to Ban Fake Marijuana Are Further Proof of Prohibition's Failure [Re: AnastomosisJihad]
    #13247706 - 09/26/10 01:45 AM (13 years, 7 months ago)

Quote:

AnastomosisJihad said:
It's not like the K2 people had to go out and invent something new to get around the ban, they just pulled another chem off the shelf and moved on. I'm sure new molecules will come along. I'm sure there are
.




New molecules already have come along. Now there's RCS-4, RCS-8; it's hilarious. By the time the morons in power ban THOSE(and it'll take at LEAST a year before they're even aware of them), there will be 20 new compounds to replace them


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You're gonna get hurt real bad :smile:

They that sow the wind, shall reap the whirlwind

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OfflineLearyfanS
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Re: Attempts to Ban Fake Marijuana Are Further Proof of Prohibition's Failure [Re: Simplepowa]
    #13247758 - 09/26/10 02:16 AM (13 years, 7 months ago)

Quote:

Simplepowa said:
Quote:


Oh, and just for kicks, what does Huffman, the creator of K2, think about attempts to ban it?

"It's not going to be effective," he told the AP. "Is the ban on marijuana effective?"




Huffman is surely a funny character.

:smirk:




I think it'll disappear forever if it's banned.  The only good thing about it is that it's a legal alternative to weed.  It's not good enough for underground chemists to waste their time making. 










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Mp3 of the month:  Sons Of Adam - Feathered Fish


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Offlineguest1
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Re: Attempts to Ban Fake Marijuana Are Further Proof of Prohibition's Failure [Re: Learyfan] * 1
    #13247977 - 09/26/10 04:34 AM (13 years, 7 months ago)

Quote:

I think it'll disappear forever if it's banned.  The only good thing about it is that it's a legal alternative to weed.  It's not good enough for underground chemists to waste their time making. 




Exactly. You can't buy K2 from drug dealers, only from legal vendors. They don't tell you how to whip up K2 at home using common things bought from common stores with no suspicion. If they ban it, it will be like salvia, it will be gone. Nobody is going to set up a lab at home and make and sell it to their friends, it isn't practical. The only reason people are using it, is because they won't go to jail/prison or get fines and all that other BS that comes from choosing to use the safer alternative "cannabis" which can be grown from a seed and dried and smoked and everyone is able to do this at their home (if it was legal) or have friends to either help them, or share from their own home or would be bought from stores from large corporations that have reputations to look after and worry about.

People say "well they will make new ones and they won't be able to keep up."
Actually, thats a load of bull. The fact is, They could pass 1 federal law that would stop 100% of the ones out and any future ones made.:facepalm:

Read this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Analog_Act

The solution, is to realize, that people are willing to put their health and life at risk for death or any unknown short/long term side effects, in order to not be punished as they would for using an alternative that is illegal but proven safe. This proves that people WANT to use cannabis, and by banning cannabis, your forcing people to find ways to get what they can that is legal in order to fill the need.

If gasoline became illegal, would people invent a legal gasoline alternative?
If cotton became illegal, would people stop wearing clothes?
If rubber became illegal, would people stop driving cars?

When you don't allow people to use what they want, you give them 3 choices:
1) do it anyway (most common)
2) find a legal alternative (rare)
3) give up (almost non-existent)



My question is, which is more harmful? K2 or Alcohol or Tobacco?

Edited by guest1 (09/26/10 04:56 AM)

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OfflineAsAboveSoBelow
The matrix has you


Registered: 02/06/08
Posts: 2,515
Last seen: 12 years, 7 months
Re: Attempts to Ban Fake Marijuana Are Further Proof of Prohibition's Failure [Re: guest1]
    #13249291 - 09/26/10 01:17 PM (13 years, 7 months ago)

so why haven't they passed the One Law to Ban Them All, yet?

If I were a politician, I wouldn't want to apply the analog act. Why would I want to blow my load all at once when I could keep banning new substance after new substance? It's good political business


--------------------


You're gonna get hurt real bad :smile:

They that sow the wind, shall reap the whirlwind

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