K2 is potentially dangerous: As a new drug, both its short term and long term effects are mostly unknown. Dr. John Huffman, the organic chemist who discovered the method for creating this synthetic compound, put it this way when asked about people who are smoking his discovery: "People who use it are idiots." Below is a report on Spice from MDP Detective John Paprcka on the Cleveland Park Listserv.
And people are using it. A lot. One DC head shop owner says that on some Fridays his two stores net $10,000 in sales of Spice, reports The Washington Post.
Should Spice be made illegal in the District of Columbia, as it has in other jurisdictions and much of Europe? Will a ban be effective as long as Spice can be purchased on the Internet? Would a better solution be to make marijuana legal, thereby reducing the demand for K2? Perhaps this new drug, Spice, will invigorate the conversation over new ways to deal with illegal drugs, especially marijuana. The door's partially opened already with the advent of medical marijuana, and may be swinging fully open, at least in California, if the proposition to legalize marijuana passes on November 2. It's long been the mantra that it's political suicide for politicians to vote to legalize marijuana.
