Don't Call K2 'Synthetic Marijuana'

While the NYPD is considering a softer approach to the way it enforces public marijuana smoking, it’s cracking down on another drug — what some people call “synthetic marijuana,” or “K2.”

K2 has been around for about six years, occasionally grabbing the headlines, as it did last weekend when a number of users passed out at a Brooklyn intersection, apparently poisoned by a bad batch. Since Saturday, police say 87 people in Brooklyn were sickened because of the drug; a dozen people have been arrested for possession or dealing.

Though they may look alike, scientists and drug advocates say that conflating the synthetic drug with marijuana is wrong. “We usually call these drugs 'synthetic cannabinoids' to maintain the clear distinction between substances,” said Melissa Moore from the Drug Policy Alliance. "Cannabinoids" refer to the receptors in the brain with which these drugs interact. In both K2 and marijuana, THC binds to cannabinoids, but in different ways, and the synthetic drug produces a much more unpredictable high.

One other thing to know about K2: it's cheap. A user can get high for as little as $1. That makes it particularly attractive to the constituents of Councilmember Robert Cornegy, who represents the areas of Bedford-Stuyvesant and Bushwick where many of the overdoses occurred. Cornegy's approach is two-pronged: he's in favor of legalizing marijuana, but also wants greater pressure on K2 and its dealers — so long as it doesn't result in overpolicing .

"There's no medicinal value to K2," he said. "None at all."