Why “Synthetic Marijuana” Shouldn’t Be Called Marijuana At All

Why “Synthetic Marijuana” Shouldn’t Be Called Marijuana At All

Why Plastic "Synthetic Weed" Should Not Even Be Called Marijuana at All from CannabisNet on Vimeo.

There have been several times that I wrote about this so called “Synthetic Marijuana” in the past, however today I’m going to be addressing the drug in a different light. I subscribe to several Google Alerts to have my thumb on the pulse of what’s going on in the world of cannabis. Over the past week or so, I have seen several headlines read, “Severe Bleeding and Death because of Synthetic Marijuana”.

Apparently, a batch of the stuff was mixed with rat poison, and in turn claimed the lives of three people and left others “severely bleeding”. I don’t know from where they were bleeding, whether internally or externally…but the fact of the matter is that many people were negatively affected by this harsh drug.

Many times I have reiterated that we should continue to call the drug by its proper name, “Spice” or “K2” or something along those lines and refrain from calling it “Synthetic Marijuana”.

Why K2 shouldn’t be called Marijuana

First of all, the drug has absolutely nothing to do with cannabis. While there are pseudo cannabinoids in the mixture, the rest of the chemical concoction has absolutely nothing to do with the cannabis plant.

THC, is produced naturally by a plant and takes months to mature. It took millions of years for cannabis to be able to do that and create such a robust chemical profile. K2 is mixed in a lab using untested chemicals, then shipped in containers where they eventually will be sprayed on some “dried herbs” and improperly labeled as “synthetic marijuana”.

The first time I tried K2 or Spice, I expected the same effects as cannabis. And while the chemicals do play on certain cannabinoid receptors, your body doesn’t know what to do with the chemicals. Granted, I only ever smoked it twice and understood that “This IS NOT Cannabis!”

Nonetheless, the marketing behind K2 and Spice is that it is “synthetic marijuana” and thus “legal”. People associate the term “marijuana” and think of it as benign when in reality, it’s far from it.

Why Calling it “Synthetic Marijuana” is a bad thing

As mentioned, people associate the idea of “synthetic marijuana” with real cannabis. Knowing that cannabis has the lowest risk profile when it comes to recreational substances, people believe the same is true for synthetic marijuana.

I know I did the first time I tried it. Like a moron, I accepted it and ingested a strange-untested chemical into my body, blindly trusting some random chemist probably working out of some shit-hole factory in the middle of Asia.

Why? Because the word “Marijuana” was in the equation. I was fooled by the linguistics like millions of other people on this planet.

I now know better, but the first time I tried it was essentially because of the word “marijuana” in it.

If they would have called it “Baby Heroin” or “Faux-Crack” I wouldn’t have ever tried the substance at all, however by the mere association of cannabis I thought it was okay to try it.

Now…I’m an experienced psychonaut. When I feel the ill-effects of drugs taking over my psyche, I manage to find a sense of equilibrium in the midst of the chaos. I control my breathing and try not to panic. [Easier Said than Done].

When I felt the ill effects of K2, I followed suit throughout my nearly two decades of experimenting with psychedelics and I didn’t throw myself into a frenzy. For those who have no experience with drugs and think “Maybe I’ll try this legal version of cannabis” and smoke K2 instead, might not know how to react to the adverse effects of the drugs.

That’s when people do stupid shit.

Furthermore, the negative association of K2 and Spice in relation to cannabis, makes those who already are opposed to cannabis legalization even more skeptic about the medical benefits. They now hear on a subconscious level the word “marijuana” associated with “Severe bleeding and death”.

Their cerebral neural networks will pair the associated concepts within the same cluster of ideas and despite the fact that “synthetic marijuana” isn’t cannabis at all; they will have some sort of association with the ill effects of one drug contaminating their idea of the real deal.

This is why we need to refer to K2 and Spice as separate drugs…because they are. There should be no confusion between real cannabis and an imposter substance trying to piggy back off the good name of a healing plant.

Why not call it something that will strike fear into the hearts of potential users. I personally think, we should make legislation to officially rebrand “Synthetic Marijuana” to “Ass Rape”.

That way, whenever someone will offer you the drug you’d immediately be inclined to reject their offer. I can imagine how that conversation will go.

“Hey Man…you want to try some Ass Rape?”

“WTF?!?”