From The Patriot-News:

When horror stories about bath salts and synthetic marijuana began circulating, lawmakers in Pennsylvania acted swiftly to ban the so-called fake drugs.

But manufacturers are even quicker.

Today is the first day that brands of bath salts, synthetic pot and salvia are illegal in this state.

By Wednesday, a yet-to-be-named product will be on the shelves of at least one local head shop, promising to have the same effects of synthetic marijuana.

“It’s incredible,” said George Geisler of the Pennsylvania DUI Association. “But they say that as fast as these products are outlawed they will come up with new ones, so it will never end.”

That has some wondering whether this will continue as a cycle: more new drugs and more new laws.

Since Gov. Tom Corbett signed the ban into law last month, customers at Hemp’s Above in Mechanicsburg have been asking: “Are they coming out with anything else?”

Owner Brian Edmonson said about three-quarters of his sales came from synthetic pot while it was legal. Now he’ll sell a new mixture, but he said the stuff doesn’t have a name, and he’s not sure if he should call it incense, or potpourri — or something else.

Edmonson says he asks for identification from every customer, but most of his clients are over 30, and about half use synthetic marijuana for therapeutic reasons.

The forensic society might not be prepared for these drugs.

“They can’t test it like they test coke and marijuana,” said midstate attorney Justin McShane, who says he specializes in forensic science.

When you’re caught with an illegal drug — in your possession or in your blood — police have to confirm that the substance is actually the outlawed chemical compound.

For drugs that are familiar, there is an answer key. McShane says that isn’t down to a science for these newly banned synthetic drugs. He thinks it will cause problems in the courts.

Edmonson says his suppliers tell him Pennsylvania’s law is one of strictest of the 30 states that had banned the fake drugs by midsummer. But some fear the laws can’t keep up.

From the StarTribune:

Designer drugs can be purchased easily online, leading users to believe they are safer than street drugs. But the chemicals can be unpredictable - and disastrous.

Past midnight, Kat Green arrived home from her police shift exhausted. Then her smartphone started ringing with urgent messages. Mass drug overdose. Party at a ranch house outside of town. On the way, more information trickled in: At least a half-dozen young adults sick, some near death.

Packaged and sold as innocuous products such as "herbal incense" and "bath salts," the drugs are touted by users as legal alternatives to marijuana, cocaine and other controlled substances that can bring stiff penalties and jail time in even small amounts.

Altogether, poison control centers have received more than 6,600 calls about designer synthetics this year, 10 times more than the first half of 2010. Synthetic drugs have been linked or suspected in more than 20 deaths nationally in the past year, while emergency rooms are treating more patients who have overdosed on sometimes tiny amounts of designer synthetics.

Merchants are introducing new products online, too. When the DEA temporarily banned five chemicals used to make synthetic marijuana early this year, retailers started promoting new mixtures they claimed were not covered by any bans.

The market is too lucrative to disappear. Herbal incense, sometimes called synthetic marijuana, accounted for nearly $5 billion in sales last year, according to an estimate from the Retail Compliance Association, a national retailers group that formed to challenge herbal incense bans.

The new drugs lack regulatory oversight and quality control. Users often rely on each others' Internet postings to find out how much they should take and what they could experience.

Many of the substances are so new to the market that they have little track record. What may give one user a euphoric high could permanently injure someone else. Erratic labeling means buyers sometimes wind up with vastly different chemicals than the ones they ordered.

More than a week before the deadly party, college student Cody Weddle visited a little-known chemical website and placed an order, court documents allege. He and others had researched 2C-E, an investigator said. Internet posts describe it as a sensory-enhancing psychedelic similar to LSD. A user nicknamed "Easy Rider" told Web readers about her "joyful night" on 2C-E, which made her feel "very warm and happy" and "more in control of myself than the drunk people around me."

Around midnight, less than an hour after swallowing the drugged water, some at the party started wondering what was wrong with their batch. Instead of feeling great, many felt nauseated.

Stacy Jewell lay sick in a bedroom. Others threw up on the lawn and in the living room. Everyone dripped with sweat.

At age 22, Stacy Jewell -- who in recent years had tried to talk others out of doing drugs -- died after a drug overdose.

After a week of waiting, Oklahoma law dictated Andrew Akerman's life support be turned off.

Preliminary tests later revealed that the powder delivered to rural Oklahoma wasn't 2C-E at all, but a drug called Bromo-DragonFLY -- a chemical that some websites warn is even more dangerous.

The man accused of placing the Internet order sits in jail charged with murder -- a charge that has drawn mixed feelings in town. Some residents think it is too harsh, that Weddle didn't intend to hurt anyone and those at the party freely chose to take the drug. Authorities continue to investigate others who were at the party.

From Vadvert UK:

Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A) today announced availability of the industry’s first GC/MS compendium to test for synthetic cannabinoids, recently declared controlled substances by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency. They are most commonly found in “herbal incense” blends.

The compendium  available from Agilent at no cost to qualified forensics labs, contains detailed procedures for sample preparation and GC/MS method, plus a searchable mass-spectral library to test for 35 synthetic cannabinoids and their derivatives. The method and library were developed in collaboration with the Criminalistics Division of NMS Labs, an independent forensic laboratory certified by the American Board of Forensic Toxicology and the American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors.

From The Washington Post:

A synthetic form of marijuana is widely used at the U.S. Naval Academy because it cannot be detected in routine drug tests, according to several former midshipmen who have been removed from campus for using or possessing the substance.

Since its introduction at the academy last year, synthetic marijuana has become popular among rank-and-file midshipmen and on the football and wrestling teams, the former midshipmen said. Some isolated corners of the historic Annapolis campus, they said, have become well-known gathering spots for smoking it.

The use of synthetic marijuana, which often is called "spice" after a popular brand name, is rising at an alarming rate across the military, commanders say. It cannot be detected in the random urine tests that are a routine part of military life.

From the U.S. Air Force:

A recent spate of incidents involving service members abusing the herbal mixture "spice" has prompted uniformed service leaders to stress the ramifications of using the drug and other prohibited substances.

From the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency:

The United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is using its emergency scheduling authority to temporarily control five chemicals (JWH-018, JWH-073, JWH-200, CP-47,497, and cannabicyclohexanol) used to make “fake pot” products. Except as authorized by law, this action will make possessing and selling these chemicals or the products that contain them illegal in the U.S. for at least one year while the DEA and the United States Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) further study whether these chemicals and products should be permanently controlled.

From ABC News:

Young people across the country are getting a new high from a powerful substance that isn't sold by drug dealers and is perfectly legal -- synthetic marijuana.

Also known as K2 or Spice, synthetic marijuana is available in states across the country, and it has the Drug Enforcement Administration deeply troubled.

When ABC News sent the type of Spice sold in Minnesota to a Pennsylvania laboratory (NMS Labs), reports showed the drug contained chemicals that the Drug Enforcement Administration believes could be five times more powerful than marijuana.

(Watch the video from "World News with Diane Sawyer" for more on this story.)

From digtriad.com:

Daniel Carr, 23, remembers the night when he and his friends were rushed to the hospital after trying the imitation pot. He described the experience as the most terrifying he's ever had.

His friend Austin Walker started hallucinating and collapsed to the ground, experiencing similar symptoms as Carr. "It was the worst thing I've ever experienced," said Walker, who said he nearly died.

K2 is a man-made marijuana and as of now, the drug is legal in the state of North Carolina. Urged by those who have had terrible experiences, some lawmakers are looking into whether the drug should be deemed illegal.

NMS Labs has responded to the recent explosive growth in popularity of synthetic cannabinoid agonists in so-called “herbal blends” by developing new tests for the active chemicals in botanical material, and most recently for the parent drugs and their metabolites in blood and urine. On September 16, Dr. Barry Logan, NMS Labs National Director of Forensic Services, hosted a webinar - K2 and the Synthetic Cannabinoids: Pharmacology, Effects and Chemical Analysis.  This presentation describes the history and origin of the chemicals of concern, the composition of the various commercial products containing them, their known pharmacology, and the documented effects on drivers, and human test subjects. We also review the adverse effects that have resulted in hospitalization, and even allegedly in deaths. This presentation describes the challenges around providing a chemical test for these new drugs, information on their stability in biological fluids, and the validation of quantitative methods for their determination.

From Montgomery News:

A new product out on the market has made it much easier for young people to get a legal high and its easy access is concerning parents and legislators.

K2, a mixture of herbs laced with synthetic cannabinoids, has been increasing in popularity with young people across the state this summer and has researchers playing catch up.

NMS Labs in Willow Grove is currently working on a test that will indicate whether a person has ingested the herbs that are being sold at stores and on the Internet as incense.

“Our kid are being used as guinea pigs,” Barry Logan of NMS said at a press conference at Radnor High School Sept. 17. “Interest in a test has really taken off in the last few weeks with school back in session.”