Spice is potent, and can have intense side effects, but efforts to ban it at both the federal and state levels have proven tricky. Walk into any head shop, and even some gas stations and convenience stores in Maine, and you can probably find colorful foil packets with innocuous-sounding names. Nice Guy. Officer Knight has a couple of the packets tacked to the wall next to his desk. And they are intended — and marketed — for human consumption.
In many cases, the immediate effects are hallucinations, anxiety, heart palpitations, vomiting and disorientation. In a few cases, in other states, Spice has even been linked to deaths. Sixty percent of those were for patients 25 and under. A national study found that one in nine high school seniors have tried Spice. Cameron says Spice first came on her radar about a year ago, and that its popularity seems to have exploded in the last six months.
And Officer Daniel Knight says the versions that are currently on the market are technically legal. The federal government banned Spice in And by now, at least 41 states — including Maine — have banned some versions of synthetic cannabinoids. Manufacturers design new chemical iterations to evade laws and meet demand.
In June alone, ten overdoses occurred outside the largest homeless shelter in the District. The drug is thought to be linked to growing violence in the city. Just last week, D. Two men face federal charges of possession with intent to distribute and each faces a possible 20 years in prison. But that only catches people that are in the court system.
There is no usable field test at this time that can accurately detect the ever-changing chemical complexities of synthetic drugs. Drugs samples must be sent to a lab for analysis.
The name changes, as does the formula, according to Wilson. You get stuck. Sometimes the high will be a calm, zombie-like sensation. Other times it leaves users violent and paranoid. The drug will impact each person differently and no one really knows what is in the package.
But other times, users hallucinate. Wilson recalls seeing a man on the street who took off his clothes, jumped onto a bike rack on the front of a Metro bus and refused to come down. A quick Google search can pinpoint a dozen wholesale online marketplaces, making it clear that synthetics are far easier to come by than natural marijuana.
Synthetic drugs are far cheaper than their alternatives, and this has greatly contributed to the widespread effects the drugs have had on homeless and low-income communities. In July, Mayor Bowser signed into law emergency legislation to punish businesses for selling synthetic drugs. This has only pushed the drugs onto the streets according to Wilson. We know that these drugs produce really psychotic effects, we know that they are causing people to act in very irrational ways, violent ways….
Wilson believes the problem is that stores caught selling synthetic marijuana in the guise of incense or potpourri are treated similarly to if there were a health code infraction: the business is made to temporarily close. This puts synthetics in the same category as heroin, LSD and ecstasy, which means their use or possession with intent to sell merits the same legal ramifications. Somebody needs to pay. People are dying from this drug. People are burning up brain cells that are never coming back.
MPD is trying to deter users from taking the synthetic drug in the first place because it endangers them and the community. Police engagement has proved to be an effective means of addressing the problem for the Church of the Epiphany, located downtown in Northwest, D. The church, which hosts breakfasts and programs for over people experiencing homelessness each Sunday, has recently seen dealers and addicts on the grounds while parishioners try to run the programs inside.
None of them are regular program participants. In response to what she had seen three Sundays in a row, Gardner made a preemptive call to on the fourth Sunday. It was at that time that two neighborhood policemen, officers who know everyone by name just as well as the church staff, offered to come by during the program.
In this way, they were able to focus on crisis prevention rather than crisis management. Gardner said that this proactive measure gave everyone a chance to exhale. I wanted everyone to feel like this is a sanctuary. The church courtyard is also a place where Julie Turner, a social worker, often meets with her clients.
Many of them are Street Sense vendors. Turner has noticed that during the week, when there are many people around, K2 is not a problem.
0コメント