'Synthetic' marijuana is problem for US military

‘Syn­thetic’ mar­i­juana is prob­lem for US military

JULIE WATSON,Associated Press

SAN DIEGO (AP) — U.S. troops are increas­ingly using an easy-to-get herbal mix called “Spice,” which mim­ics a mar­i­juana high, is hard to detect and can bring on hal­lu­ci­na­tions that last for days.

The abuse of the drug has so alarmed mil­i­tary offi­cials that they’ve launched an aggres­sive test­ing pro­gram that this year has led to the inves­ti­ga­tion of more than 1,100 sus­pected users, accord­ing to mil­i­tary figures.

So-called “syn­thetic” pot is read­ily avail­able on the Inter­net and has become pop­u­lar nation­wide in recent years, but its use among troops and sailors has raised con­cerns among the Pen­ta­gon brass.

“You can just imag­ine the work that we do in a mil­i­tary envi­ron­ment,” said Mark Rid­ley, deputy direc­tor of the Naval Crim­i­nal Inves­tiga­tive Ser­vice, adding, “you need to be in your right mind when you do a job. That’s why the Navy has always taken a zero tol­er­ance pol­icy toward drugs.”

Two years ago, only 29 Marines and sailors were inves­ti­gated for Spice. This year, the num­ber topped 700, the inves­tiga­tive ser­vice said. Those found guilty of using Spice are kicked out, although the Navy does not track the over­all num­ber of dismissals.

The Air Force has pun­ished 497 air­men so far this year, com­pared to last year’s 380, accord­ing to fig­ures pro­vided by the Pen­ta­gon. The Army does not track Spice inves­ti­ga­tions but says it has med­ically treated 119 sol­diers for the syn­thetic drug in total.

Mil­i­tary offi­cials empha­size those caught rep­re­sent a tiny frac­tion of all ser­vice mem­bers and note none was in a lead­er­ship posi­tion or believed high while on duty.

Spice is made up of exotic plants from Asia like Blue Lotus and Bay Bean. Their leaves are coated with chem­i­cals that mimic the effects of THC, the active ingre­di­ent in mar­i­juana, but are five to 200 times more potent.

More than 40 states have banned some of its chem­i­cals, prompt­ing sell­ers to turn to the Inter­net, where it is mar­keted as incense or pot­pourri. In some states, Spice is sold at bars, smoke shops and con­ve­nience stores. The pack­ets usu­ally say the ingre­di­ents are not for human con­sump­tion but also tout them as “mood enhancing.”

Ser­vice mem­bers pre­ferred it because up until this year there was no way to detect it with urine tests. A test was devel­oped after the Drug Enforce­ment Admin­is­tra­tion put a one-year emer­gency ban on five chem­i­cals found in the drug.

Man­u­fac­tur­ers are adapt­ing to avoid detec­tion, even on the new tests, and skirt new laws ban­ning the main chemicals.

“It’s a mov­ing tar­get,” said Capt. J.A. “Cappy” Surette, spokesman for the Navy Bureau of Med­i­cine and Surgery.

The mil­i­tary can cal­i­brate its equip­ment to test for those five banned chem­i­cals “but under­ground chemists can keep alter­ing the prop­er­ties and make up to more than 100 per­mu­ta­tions,” Surette said.

Com­pli­cat­ing their efforts fur­ther, there are more than 200 other chem­i­cals used in the drug. They remain legal and their effects on the mind and body remain largely unknown, Navy doc­tors say.

A Clem­son Uni­ver­sity sci­en­tist cre­ated many of the chem­i­cals for research pur­poses in 1990s. They were never tested on humans.

Civil­ian deaths have been reported and emer­gency crews have responded to calls of “hyper-excited” peo­ple doing things like tear­ing off their clothes and run­ning down the street naked.

Navy inves­ti­ga­tors com­pare the drug to angel dust because no two batches are the same. Some may just feel a euphoric buzz, but oth­ers have suf­fered delu­sions last­ing up to a week.

While the prob­lem has sur­faced in all branches of the mil­i­tary, the Navy has been the most aggres­sive in draw­ing atten­tion to the problem.

It pro­duced a video based on cases to warn sailors of the drug’s dan­gers and pub­li­cized busts of crew mem­bers on some of its most-storied ships, includ­ing the USS Carl Vin­son, from which Osama bin Laden’s was dropped into the sea.

Two of the largest busts this year involved sailors in the San Diego-based U.S. Third Fleet, which announced last month that it planned to dis­miss 28 sailors assigned to the air­craft car­rier USS Ronald Reagan.

A month ear­lier, 64 sailors, includ­ing 49 from the Vin­son, were accused of being involved in a Spice ring.

Many of the cases were dis­cov­ered after one per­son was caught with the drug, prompt­ing broader investigations.

Posted by AP News on Dec 30 2011. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.