On a recent afternoon, 17-year-old Santa Maria resident John* sat on his mom’s porch, sipping from a gigantic soda every now and then, never really focusing. He was explaining what it’s like to smoke “spice.”
“It’s not natural,” he said. “When you’re using it, you can just tell.”
Spice—the generic term for any of several kinds of intoxicating herbal incense—is just one of the newer pseudo-legal substances readily available at cigarette shops and on the Internet despite a temporary ban, enacted in March 2011, on five synthetic chemicals once used to make such products. As the possible end of the ban draws nearer, some people are voicing their concern about the continual availability of the stuff, even though sellers claim it no longer contains the chemicals in question.
One website that sells various forms of spice claims it’s an alternative to marijuana. What the site doesn’t say is that the product will get you high. It does, however, advertise that it’s “extremely potent” and it “hits you like a ton of bricks.”
Other websites claim their product is a novelty item, not for human consumption. They sell mushrooms as decorations, three-gram packages of bath salts, and potpourri called “Spongebud” in a packet showing a Spongebob Squarepants logo: The popular kids’ cartoon character has a lit joint in his hand, a stupid grin on his face, and eyes red enough to make a bull charge.
Most of the products in question bear a disclaimer, such as this one, taken verbatim from a packet of Happy Tiger No Stress Pineapple Express: “To the best of our knowledge this products [sic] is legal everywhere does not contain any illegal chemicals. Not for human consumption.”
Sellers have to remind consumers their products are legal because they used to contain chemicals since designated as controlled substances by the Drug Enforcement Agency.
These chemicals, such as cannabicyclohexanol, were developed in the ’80s and ’90s to further scientists’ understanding of drug-receptor interactions. Early versions of spice contained one or more of the chemicals and were never intended for human consumption, so there was no research into how they would affect anything other than cannabinoid receptors.
Chemicals are often added to products to improve their quality, though DEA officials say the additives put into something marketed as incense have no known olfactory properties.
While spice products are often touted as herbal and natural, there’s nothing natural about how synthetic cannabinoids get into them. While plant material makes up the incense, the chemicals in question have to be dissolved in a solvent, such as acetone, and then sprayed on the plant.
The DEA placed these cannabinoids in the top tier of controlled substances early this year. This ranking, for the most highly controlled substances, means greater regulation for these particular chemicals than for cocaine, methamphetamine, morphine, and opium, according to a data from the DEA.
To earn this status, the chemicals showed they have a high potential for abuse, have no currently accepted medical use in the United States, and don’t come under medical regulation or supervision. The chemicals were banned for up to a year and a half while the DEA decided whether to permanently ban them.
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Concerned about her son’s health, John’s mother Mary* asked around about spice and was told by several local cigarette shop owners that they card every sale, and they don’t sell the incense to minors. That raised a question: Since when does any store require ID for the sale of incense or care whether the person buying incense is a minor?
Many people in the smoke shop industry know what’s really going on, but as long as the producers and sellers adhere to the letter of the law, they can obscure the spirit of the law with smoke.
“Everyone says spice is a different high. It’s more intense. It’s basically like smoking weed for the first time,” John said. “It tastes way different. It’s just trying to mimic weed, [but] it doesn’t look like weed, doesn’t smell like weed, like even when you burn it, it smells bad. Like it’s not supposed to be an incense. It smells like fish sometimes when you burn it. It’s definitely not meant to be burned and smell good.”
John is comfortable talking to the Sun about smoking “incense” because he’s had to talk to so many other people about it, including his probation officer. He said he smokes spice because he’s on probation for smoking marijuana and drinking. The chemicals in spice, he said, either aren’t detected by current drug tests or flush out of the body so fast that random testing doesn’t pose a threat.
Who, exactly, is making these products? Research into one site, herbalcity.com, turned up a P.O. Box in Vancouver.
Often the only way to contact a company selling spice is to fill out an e-form and wait for the webmaster to respond. Phone numbers are reserved for orders only, which go to a computerized voicemail.
A local smoke shop owner who asked to remain anonymous—and who says she no longer sells spice, though it was one of her best sellers—said she used to get her spice from “the whole L.A. area.”
“You know, the alleys where they have warehouses,” she explained. “It’s all legal. They have papers and their tests.”
Incense products purchased locally, like Happy Tiger No Stress Pineapple Express, have no information about the manufacturer on their packaging. A Google search of “Happy Tiger No Stress Pineapple Express” brings up a bunch of defunct web pages, but one person on a marijuana forum raved about G13 Labs, a German-based company with the following tagline on its homepage: “Welcome to the official home of G13 Labs, an underground and diverse cannabis seeds company.”
Spice is considered legal. A Sun reporter recently walked into a local shop and bought 4 grams of the stuff for $20. He wasn’t charged any sales tax—the cashier simply rang it up to subtotal and held out his hand for the cash.
* This is a pseudonym.
Contact Intern Michael McCone at intern@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Nov 3-9, 2011.