On July 1st, K2 Spice, the synthetic incense will become illegal.

State Representative, James O. Gordon sponsored a bill which has now passed the legislature and will become effective the first of next month. “Spice”, which most people had not even heard of a few months ago, is becoming newsworthy in the U.S. and abroad. This is a blend of herbs coated with a synthetic chemical which is very similar to the natural substance in marijuana which gives users their ‘high’. The chemicals reportedly stimulate the same brain areas affected by marijuana.


The product is used and sold as incense and has been legal for years, until this K2 (spice) was found to produce a feeling of euphoria.

The products have been illegal in many European and Asian countries but are not so in the United States. They have, however, become a cause for concern by lawmakers and health officials in a number of states. Three states have already banned the sale or possession of them…Kansas made it illegal in March of this year, Kentucky in April, and now Alabama becomes number three beginning in one week from today.

Other states legislatures have passed laws banning these substances which are awaiting their governors signatures…Georgia, Missouri and Tennessee. And, at present, there are five other states which have bills under consideration. Illinois, Louisiana, Michigan, New Jersey and New York.

One teenager from Fairhope Alabama, who had a seizure and remained in a coma for a couple of months, after using some ‘spice’. The Iowa State Poison Control Center reports that these chemicals can cause anxiety, panic attacks, agitation, hallucinations and seizures.

Gary Kendell, Iowa’s drug policy coordinator and director of the Governor’s Office of Drug Control Policy said, “Our concern about this substance and others like it has become an unfortunate reality with the recent tragic death of a central Iowa teen after using K2.” (Officials warn about marijuana-like substance: Burlington, Iowa-the hawkeye.com)

Chief Shawn Giddy, of the Jacksonville State University campus police received notification from the university’s student health care services office that some students had reported severe nausea after smoking spice.

One official stated that the seeming biggest concern of these drugs is that they are in no way regulated. The variation in formulation and amounts of each which are put into the final products vary widely and no one knows when they could receive an overdose.