Montgomery, Al. Public officials working to ban “legal pot” products know the drugs are dangerous. They’re just not all in agreement on how dangerous the substances are.
With an ordinance banning chemical compounds found in products sold under names like “spice” and “k2,” Oxford on Friday became the latest city to outlaw “synthetic marijuana.” Banning the substances is a growing trend in Alabama, as the drugs have been blamed for teen suicides and countless calls to local poison control centers.
Two weeks ago, Heflin issued a similar ban on the products and an ordinance is also scheduled to be discussed at Anniston’s next council meeting.
Last month, after holding a public forum on the dangers of synthetic marijuana products, Alabama State Health Officer Don Williamson said testimony from the District Attorneys Association of Alabama claims these products are anywhere from 40 to 100 times more potent than regular marijuana. Lt. Mike Reese of the Alabama Beverage Control Board pegs the number at 80, while Jessica Cornwell, also on the Beverage Control Board, said the figure can be as high as 800 percent.
In other words, a lot of numbers are floating around yet very little data actually backs up any of them.
In March, five chemical compounds commonly found in synthetic marijuana products — CP 47,497, HU-210, HU-211, JWH-018 and JWH-073 — were listed as Schedule 1 controlled substances by the DEA. On its website, the Drug Enforcement Agency lists these compounds as aiming to produce effects similar to THC.
None of the banned substances, however, had any research or tests done on human subjects, and none mentioned any effects being more or less potent than regular types of marijuana.
In a phone interview on Friday, Williamson said the discrepancy in numbers comes from the difference in available products. Because the drugs are unregulated, it’s impossible to know how much of, and what kinds of, the chemical compounds are in the products. Citing a study from 2010 in Drug and Alcohol Dependence, Williamson said the relative potency of the drug has more to do with the amount of compounds contained within the product.
But there’s another problem with these studies, too. The chemical compounds researched are already illegal. In fact, most of the substances banned in the Heflin and Oxford ordinances and others similar to those are already listed as controlled substances.
In an email citing an article written by Glenn Duncan, executive director of the Hunterdon Drug Awareness Program, Cornwell wrote “potency is increased dramatically when one single compound is changed.” Despite this claim, nothing in Duncan’s article provides basis for this.
“The evidence is more anecdotal,” Duncan said in a phone interview, noting he has heard the products described as anywhere between 4 and 800 times more potent than regular marijuana, depending on the compounds found in the drug.
“It’s like a burst,” he said, referring to the quick high he said patients experience from synthetic marijuana compounds. “It’s like a sprint as compared to a long run.”
Outside of observations from users, though, there’s little evidence of the supposed concentration they have in comparison with regular marijuana. Even more problematic, according to Michael Frost, a physician and addiction expert who runs a clinic in Conshohocken, Penn., is the meaning behind the word “potent.”
“Potency is hard to measure,” he said, citing the lack of studies on the drug stem from how recent the phenomenon of these products has taken off. “These were research compounds, and so much of the information we have comes from when they were developed and tested, and they have a much higher affinity in the brain than regular marijuana.”
Frost said potency has the implication of a higher concentration, but studies on the affinity of the drug to reactors in the brain don’t imply the drug’s concentration is higher than its organic counterpart.
“It doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to have stronger effects,” he said.
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