The Dangers of Synthetic Marijuana

Synthetic marijuana, often called “spice,” can contain dangerous substances such as rat poison. The street drug can cause serious health problems, including death.

Connor Eckhardt, a happy and healthy 19-year-old in California, was hanging out with friends when they decided to smoke marijuana.

What they smoked was not the plant variously called pot, weed, dope or grass. It was a mixture of herbs that had been sprayed with a chemical to mimic the effect of marijuana. Sometimes called synthetic marijuana, these concoctions might contain any number of substances, including rat poison. Connor inhaled once and fell asleep. His brain began to swell. Five days later, he was dead.

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Health problems associated with synthetic marijuana

Synthetic marijuana can cause strokes, heart attacks, seizures, abnormal heart rhythms, psychosis, memory problems, and hallucinations. Common symptoms include back and side pain and excessive or unexplained bleeding (such as blood in the urine, bleeding from previous wounds, and bleeding from the gums).

Regular users can experience withdrawal and addiction symptoms, too.

According to the American Association of Poison Control Centers (AAPCC), the centers have received thousands of calls related to synthetic marijuana. In December 2021, an outbreak of severe bleeding cases near Tampa Bay in Florida was linked to rat poison in local products. In January 2022, the centers managed 53 calls.

In just one month in the fall of 2013, 263 people showed up in emergency rooms in the metro Denver areas with similar symptoms — irregular heartbeats, seizures, and altered mental status. All of them had smoked synthetic marijuana before becoming sick. About 10 percent of the patients were so critically ill they were admitted to intensive care units and placed on ventilators, researchers reported.

Why synthetic marijuana is especially dangerous

"You don't know what you're getting when you smoke synthetic marijuana," said William Scott Burgin, a Tampa neurologist who treated two young patients who had strokes after using the drug. “It’s like the Wild West of pharmaceuticals, and you may be playing dangerously with your brain and your health."

As the National Institute on Drug Abuse explains, synthetic marijuana (or synthetic cannabinoids) are human-made mind-altering chemicals sprayed on dried, shredded plant material that might look like lawn clippings. The product might be labeled incense and packaged in colorful foil packages to look like potpourri, or sold as K2, Yucatan Fire, Skunk, Moon Rocks, Spice, or something else. It can be smoked, vaped in a liquid form, or brewed as a tea. It tends to be far more potent than conventional marijuana because the psychoactive chemicals in the synthetic version bind more completely to the receptors in the brain for cannabinoids — making their impact on the body unpredictable and potentially dangerous. You might use it safely for years— and run into a bad batch or a product with a new chemical your body can’t handle.

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has designated some active chemicals most frequently found in synthetic marijuana as illegal to sell, buy, or possess. Manufacturers frequently change their formulas, however, to evade these restrictions. The DEA is monitoring the situation and the need to update the list of banned cannabinoids.

The primary users are young people who may believe it is harmless because they’re told it is “natural,” according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Statistics show spice is the most popular illicit drug among U.S. high school seniors, second only to marijuana.

Another reason for the drug’s popularity: Standard drug tests don’t easily detect the chemicals used in spice. That could explain why active-duty Army personnel may be twice as likely to use synthetic marijuana as regular marijuana, according to a 2014 report. 

When polled, most soldiers concerned about their drug use said they felt using synthetic marijuana had bad consequences — for example, being late for work.

The poll also found evidence that synthetic marijuana is addictive. The soldiers admitted they increasingly needed more and more spice to get the same effect, a hallmark of drug dependency. What’s more, over 75 percent reported they used synthetic marijuana far longer than they meant to — for example, instead of taking a few puffs after work, they found themselves smoking it for hours.

Synthetic marijuana first appeared in the United States in 2009 and is still circulating more than a decade later. We probably should expect to see more synthetic drugs as well.

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