THE SYNTHETIC CANNABINOIDS KNOWN AS K2, SPICE, AND MANY OTHER NAMES (TABLE 1), WERE INTRODUCED INTO THE UNITED STATES IN APPROXIMATELY 2009 AS A LEGAL ALTERNATIVE TO MARIJUANA.


Background Te synthetic cannabinoids are made in chemistry labs and for-


TABLE 1. Partial List of Synthetic Cannabinoid Products


K2 .......................Armageddon K2 Blond .............Astral Blast K2 Blue ...............Black Mamba K2 Blueberry .......Blue Fire K2 Cherry ...........Cloud 10 K2 Citron ............Coma K2 Cloud 9 ..........Demon Ritual Botanical K2 Melon ............Fake Weed K2 Pink ...............Funky Green Stuff K2 Rasta .............Genie K2 Sex ................Head Trip K2 Summit ..........Herbal Incense K2 Ultra ..............Legal High K2 Watermelon ...Space K3 .......................Super Kush K3 Ultimate .........Texas Kush K4 .......................Venom K2O ....................Voodoo Spice ...........................Zombie Twilight


mulated as a liquid to be sprayed onto incense or other herbal mix- tures for smoking. Te products are packaged in foil packets or zip lock bags for sale to the public in convenience stores, truck stops, and gas stations for $30–$50 per packet. Tese products are labeled as “Not for Human Consumption” as a way to avoid the interfer- ence by the DEA and FDA under the Controlled Substances Act. A series of these compounds, numbering in the hundreds, have


been chemically synthesized for distribution and the detection of these compounds has been challenging since their formulations are constantly changing. Te synthetic cannabinoids that are most popu- lar were made by Dr. John W. Huffman in a university research effort in the 1990s to develop chemicals to imitate marijuana effects on


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