Mary Jane’s Ugly Step Sister: Spice

A recent lawsuit has been filed over the death of a 19 year old, Nicholas Colbert, that occurred in Colorado Springs in 2011 at the hands of a rather new recreational drug, synthetic marijuana, a.k.a. “Spice”. The lawsuit is being filed on behalf of Nicholas’ mother, reportedly “in an effort to stop convenience stores, gas stations, and other retail outlets from selling deadly Spice and other synthetic drugs, which contain harmful, and often illegal, chemicals.” Though Spice has been, and to some extent still is, believed by many in the general population to be a safe and legal marijuana alternative, it is truly the exact opposite of that. So many synthetic marijuana users have found themselves in hospitals over the last two years that Spice and other synthetic cannabinoid products were banned in the US in December of 2011. In Denver, as of September 10^th of this year, the health department identified 150 patients who suffered from symptoms that were thought to have resulted from using synthetic marijuana, and three deaths have also been reported in connection with the drug. So, what makes this synthetic form of marijuana so dangerous?

According to Fantegrossi, Moran, Radominska-Pandya, and Prather (2013), synthetic cannibinoids (SCBs) yield toxicity levels in users that are not typical of the primary psychoactive component of marijuana, ∆⁹-tetrahydrocannabinol (∆⁹-THC). Spice is more toxic to users primarily due to where it binds and how it is metabolized (Fantegrossi et al, 2013). SCBs are cannabinoid type 1 receptor agonists and elicit a characteristic cluster of effects in tested lab animals: hypothermia, analgesia, catalepsy, and locomotor suppression, termed the cannabinoid triad; ∆⁹-THC also tends to produce these effects, but to a lesser degree (Fantegrossi et al, 2013). Moreover, Fantegrossi et al report that the potency of SCBs required to elicit the desired psychoactive effects seems to be higher than ∆⁹-THC. This means that a user needs more Spice in their system to feel “high”, so the effective dose of the drug may be too close to the lethal dose to even make it worth taking. The metabolism of SCBs is still a large area of research; however, it is clear that SCB metabolites retain a high affinity for cannabinoid receptors and exhibit a range of activity at binding sites (Fantegrossi et al, 2013), making the psychoactive outcome of each successive SCB product fairly unclear. This only serves to potentiate the possible dangerous side-effects of this already precarious recreational drug.

In addition to all this, Fattore and Fratta (2011) maintain that SCB products are dangerous because access to them is relatively unlimited, thanks to the world-wide web; Spice and the other 150 identified products like it are still legal in many countries and are relatively affordable compared to natural marijuana products. Overall, I hope that people take from this evidence at least one lesson: synthetic marijuana is NOT a safe alternative to real marijuana. In no way am I promoting recreational drug usage, but I do live in the real world, and I believe that if people are going to partake in recreational drugs, they should understand the potential consequences of their decision. 

References:

Fantegrossi, W.E., Moran, J.H., Radominska-Pandya, A., Prather, P.L. (2013). Distinct pharmacology and metabolism of K2 synthetic cannabinoids compared to Δ⁹-THC: Mechanism underlying greater toxicity. Life Sciences. doi: 10.1016/j.lfs.2013.09.017

Fattore, L., & Fratta, W. (2011). Beyond THC: The new generation of cannabinoid designer drugs. Behavioral Neuroscience, 5. doi: 10.3389/fnbeh.2011.00060

News articles:

http://kdvr.com/2013/09/12/health-department-several-synthetic-marijuana-products-tied-to-illness-outbreak/

http://www.9news.com/news/article/356529/222/Lawsuit-filed-over-teens-death-from-synthetic-marijuana