KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Area law enforcement put up big numbers when they busted scores of stores selling synthetic marijuana this week.
This week law enforcement officers from both states and multiple metro-area cities arrested 44 people, nabbed more than $300,000 in cash, and confiscated millions of dollars worth of K-2.
Scott Hassler from First Call said most people who smoke K-2 are in their 40’s and younger.
He said it got popular in part to take the place of regular marijuana because it hits the same receptors as T.H.C. and it doesn’t show up in a typical drug test.
Hassler warns people who use K-2 often don’t know what they’re getting into.
“The calls that we do get for it are pretty serious. People are really worried about the effect that it’s having on them or their family members,” said Hassler.
Hassler said some of the more serious effects deal with mental health.
“It causes hallucinations, delusions, other types of psychosis in some people at high doses,” Hassler said.
He says K-2 is made when a chemical is sprayed onto herbs then it’s smoked, but not every batch is the same.
“These aren’t held to the highest standards of manufacturing,” Hassler said.
So he warns while some batches may not be potent, others can give users a high they don’t expect.
“There are former smokers of it that tell me this stuff is worse than PCP,” he explained.
