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Thursday, February 18, 2010
News Authorities concerned about fake pot real smokers don't want
Posted By Rhiannon Fionn-Bowman on Thu, Feb 18, 2010 at 2:03 PM
Today's Charlotte Observer ran an Associated Press piece, from Jefferson, Mo., about fake pot and how authorities are in a tizzy trying to figure out how to regulate it. In Missouri, they're talking seven year prison sentences (same as for marijuana possession) for stuff that's little more than a mishmash of dried herbs and flowers doused with a THC-mimicking chemical — thus the word "fake," as in not real marijuana.
What's next? Are cops going to start busting kids chowing down on candy cigarettes and guzzling root beer?
Regulation by jail term isn't the way to go. Wouldn't it be more prudent to first determine who's smoking this stuff (let me help: stupid kids) and put the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in charge of deciding if regulation is even warranted?
Sending dumb asses who like to smoke expensive non-drug herbs to jail for seven years seems a little harsh, don't ya think? (Note: Seven years in Missouri; one year plus a $2,500 fine in Kansas — the other state looking to regulate fake pot.)
According to a column by David Webber in today's Missourian on a completely different topic, "The cost per inmate is now $16,456 per year or about $45.00 per day."
Really, Missouri? You want your tax payers to pay over $115,000 — not counting the cost of apprehending these "criminals" and ignoring court costs — to house an idiot who's not actually doing anything wrong. Really? Your state must be super wealthy. No homeless folks? No education needs? Low taxes? Tell me, you really can't think of any other way to spend all of that money? Really?
Let's face it: The only legislation we need to be working on where marijuana is concerned is legalization. Please: Tax it. Go ahead. The government will get their cut and the smokers can get stoned without worry. It's a win-win.
Allen St. Pierre, executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, said K2 isn't much discussed within marijuana culture. "If government is genuinely concerned about controlling cannabis-related products, there is really only one thing that seems to have an effect: a tax stamp," he said.
Way back in 2000, Cannabis Culture Marijuana Magazine did a taste — and trip — test with their staff. They determined the fake pot being peddled back then was made up of cheap herbs relabeled with made-up names. "We discovered that both companies rely upon deceit and ignorance to sell their products," Dana Larsen, the article's author wrote.
She concluded:
... these companies almost certainly sell the majority of their wares to people too young to get real pot and too ignorant to know the difference.If a youngster is going to smoke, isn't it better that they use real pot, known to be safe and non-toxic, rather than a blend of mislabelled herbs with unknown properties and effects?
Sun Coast Organics, which sells "marijuana smoking alternatives," describes them like this:
The only thing marijuana alternatives have in common with marijuana is they are smoked.
Here's how the Garden Cure forum weighs in:
Are they worth buying?Obviously the answer to this is No if you are planning on getting high from them like you would normal Marijuana. If you just want something to smoke, then you might consider buying them, but you wont get any intoxicating effects. Although you may suffer a throbbing headache along with a case of Buyers remorse.
Why do people mistake them for actual Marijuana?
When you look at a typical example picture of one of these alternatives that might be found in magazines like High Times, the pictures may look impressive, but if you read a little deeper into the sites, you will notice that it doesn't say anything about actually getting you high at all. They say things like: "Looks, smells and tastes just like the real thing!" but very rarely mentions anything about getting high.
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