'Legal Pot' New Threat To Staten Island Teens?
Just days after the dangers of Four Loko were thrust into the public eye, a new threat to the Staten Island teenager has emerged. Apparently, its perfectly legal to buy "synthetic marijuana" in Staten Island. The "drug", sold as incense under such names as K2, Red Dragon or Wicked, is easily available in gas station and convenience stores throughout Staten Island, along with rolling papers. If smoked, instead of burned as incense, the effect on the user is "overpowering", similar to that of marijuana.
As it is a synthetic product, the drug leaves no trace in the bloodstream and therefore, a teenager can smoke the synthetic marijuana without fear of being caught by their parents or even arrested. As it is not regulated by any City, State or Federal agency, anyone can buy it. Convenience store owners are under no legal obligation to check identification to make sure that the person is at least 18 years old, the minimum protection required for the sale of cigarettes. Although proven to be cancer causing, cigarettes have not been to known to induce hallucinations, racing heartbeats, anxiety, paranoia or elevated blood pressure. Although just as powerful as marijuana, the high from the synthetic version lasts only about 10-30 minutes.
Apart from the ease of purchase, the synthetic marijuana is marketed as "all natural" and "100% organic." The truth is that it is anything but natural and contains synthetic cannabinoids, produced in a laboratory, sprayed onto natural herbs. There is no way to tell how much of the synthetic cannabinoids each package contains, or what other contaminants may have been introduced during the manufacturing process, exposing the user to unknown dangers.
The drug puts us, the non-user, at a severe risk as we can't tell who is using since there is no way to test for its use. People that have sensitive jobs, where drug testing is random, could be smoking synthetic marijuana and we would never know about. The train operator, the hospital worker or even the school bus driver is able to smoke and no one would ever know about it. We could be sharing the road with someone that has just smoked the synthetic pot, which makes them just as dangerous as a drunk driver.
The sad news is that a bill to the sale or distribution of the synthetic marijuana has been pending in the New York State Senate since March, but no action has been taken on it. Drunk driving has become "zero tolerance" amongst law enforcement agency because of the damage it has caused - hundreds of lives destroyed, children without mothers, fathers without sons. We sat back and watched when drunk driving was cool and acceptable. Are we going to wait until we read about tragedies caused by synthetic pot use or are we going step up and ban it while we still can? We can't let this danger continue to roam our streets - I urge you to write your local representatives to take action now - before its too late.
