Synthetic substances that mimic marijuana, cocaine and other illegal drugs are making users across the nation seriously ill, causing seizures and hallucinations and even killing some people. At least 2,700 people have fallen ill since January, compared with fewer than 3,200 cases in all of 2010. At that pace, medical emergencies related to synthetic drugs could go up nearly fivefold by the end of the year.
The recent surge in activity has not gone unnoticed by authorities. The Drug Enforcement Administration recently used emergency powers to outlaw five chemicals found in synthetic pot, placing them in the same category as heroin and cocaine. But manufacturers are quick to adapt, often cranking out new formulas that are only a single molecule apart from the illegal ones.
Recreational drugs created in the laboratory have been around at least since the middle of the 20th century, when LSD was first studied. But these latest examples emerged only a few years ago, starting in Europe.
The products were typically made in China, India and other Asian nations and soon arrived in Britain and Germany, according to DEA spokesman Rusty Payne.
Reports of misuse are widespread.
In Kentucky, authorities say a young woman driving on a highway after using bath salts became convinced her 2-year-old was a demon. She allegedly stopped the car and dropped the child on his head. He survived and was taken from his mother's custody.
A Hawaii man pleaded guilty to attacking his girlfriend and trying to throw her off an 11th-floor balcony while high on "Spice."
In January, a Fulton, Miss., man who hallucinated after taking bath salts used a hunting knife to slit his face and stomach.
March, a 19-year-old man named Trevor Robinson-Davis died in suburban Minneapolis after overdosing at a party on a synthetic drug called 2C-E, a "cousin" to a banned rave-party drug. Ten others at the party became ill.
| The term 'drugs' was originally used for dried plants, or parts thereof, that were used as pharmaceuticals directly or following the extraction of active ingredients. Today the term is also used to refer to substances of herbal or synthetic origin which, by acting on the central nervous system, may cause a state of mind different from what is considered normal. Consequently, the modern definition of the term 'drugs' includes pharmaceuticals, tobacco and alcohol, as well as controlled substances and designer drugs. Natural drugs are active ingredients, secondary metabolic products, of plants and other living systems, that may be isolated by extraction (morphine). Semi-synthetic drugs are products from natural sources, they have to undergo a chemical process (heroin, LSD). Synthetic drugs are artificially produced substances for the illicit market which are almost wholly manufactured from chemical compounds in illicit laboratories (amphetamine, benzodiazepines). Designer drugs are substances whose molecular structure has been modified in order to optimize their effect on the one hand, and in order to by-pass laws and regulations governing the control of substances on the other hand. Once designer drugs have been outlawed by the competent authorities they are called controlled substances (2 C-1). Bills making synthetic marijuana and synthetic cocaine illegal in Pennsylvania were passed unanimously Tuesday Feb. 15, 2011. In Louisiana municipalities did the same. Minnesota Schools discussed the matter in January 2011 due to the alarming increase of misuse. .
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