Yo, I’m guessing by now that you know we love having a smoke at Sick Chirpse. Light us one up, pass us a chilled one, chuck some Nic Cage classics on and we’ll make you famous. Or at least give you a follow on Twitter.
We don’t think there’s much that beats a good 20 bag while just chilling the fuck out and there are probably a shitload of you reading this who agree. We’re pretty chilled now so if you’re not because you’ve been working your shitty-but-it-pays-the-bills job or you’ve had your missus yapping your ears off all day, we pretty much reckon you should roll one right now, or if you’ve run out go and get some green now before the best stuff runs out. Go on, do it. We ain’t going nowhere.
So, yeah, we like weed. Which is why I’m writing this. I recently found out that there’s such a thing as synthetic weed called K2 (also known as Spice, Blaze and Red X Dawn and undoubtedly loads of other dumb names). Like, I know there’s such a thing as legal highs and shit like that that hipsters do at shit festivals like Reading but seriously?! Synthetic weed?! What. The. Flying. Fuck.
What’s the point of smoking that when it’s probably cheaper to just buy some proper hash and get a proper flow on than just spending a lot more on something that’s some filthy marketing technique? I do understand why some people would want to smoke it, the stuff contains chemicals which act like THC in marijuana in that they trigger the cannabinoid receptors in your puny brain so some saps would smoke it to try to wean them off the green, but there’s not many smokers who want to quit the puff and those who do definitely wouldn’t want to smoke stuff that looks like it’s kept in a 1980′s groove disco condom wrapper.
What makes this shit even more repulsive is that it’s about 36750 times worse than smoking a joint. Unlike weed, it speeds up your heart-rate (seriously – what?!) and has led to heart attacks in three Texan teenagers. Here’s the facts:
- All three teenagers were seen at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas within three months of one another, after complaining of chest pain for several days. Myocardial infarctions were confirmed with EEG readings and the presence of troponin, a chemical released when heart muscles are damaged. Each was treated and released.
- Though all three admitted to smoking marijuana in the previous few weeks, their use of K2 occurred just before symptoms of chest pain began. Two tested positive for THC; all tested negative for other drugs of abuse. Only one patient was tested for two synthetic cannabinoids, which weren’t detected. This is likely due to the widely varying blend of cannabinoids used in these products.
- Very rarely, marijuana use has been linked to heart attacks, thought to arise from THC’s ability to increase heart rate and cardiac output.
- K2 may cause an increased risk for a heart attack due to a stronger activation of this same pathway, or via another unknown route. Colin Kane, a pediatric cardiologist at UT Southwestern & Children’s MedicalCenterin Dallas told Reuters he was “certainly suspicious that there was something in the K2 that would have caused these heart attacks.”
- No chemical analysis was done on the products the teenagers smoked and is only described in the paper as, “K2, Spice (Dallas,Texas, manufacturer unknown).”
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