Synthetic Pot: Not Your Grandfather's Marijuana

Overview

Journal Trends Pharmacol Sci

Specialty Pharmacology

Date 2017 Feb 7

PMID 28162792

Citations 40

Authors

Benjamin M Ford

Sherrica Tai

William E Fantegrossi

Paul L Prather

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

In the early 2000s in Europe and shortly thereafter in the USA, it was reported that 'legal' forms of marijuana were being sold under the name K2 and/or Spice. Active ingredients in K2/Spice products were determined to be synthetic cannabinoids (SCBs), producing psychotropic actions via CB cannabinoid receptors, similar to those of Δ-tetrahydrocannabinol (Δ-THC), the primary active constituent in marijuana. Often abused by adolescents and military personnel to elude detection in drug tests due to their lack of structural similarity to Δ-THC, SCBs are falsely marketed as safe marijuana substitutes. Instead, SCBs are a highly structural diverse group of compounds, easily synthesized, which produce very dangerous adverse effects occurring by, as of yet, unknown mechanisms. Therefore, available evidence indicates that K2/Spice products are clearly not safe marijuana alternatives.

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